What’s the best way to learn to play acoustic guitar?

there are numerous internet sites that will help you. However the fastest way to progress is with a tutor. I would buy and chord and scale book.

First — no matter what your guitar player friends tell you — go find a teacher !! not just someone who plays the guitar well, but an actual guitar teacher who does it for a living. There’s a big difference between being able to do something well, and being able to PROPERLY teach the essentials to a beginner.

Take it from me — I taught myself, with some help from some professional guitar players (I was the keyboard player in a rock band). I struggled with it and eventually got along well enough to amuse myself and have fun with it, but eventually discovered I had picked up some really awful habits that no one had pointed out to me before, and they would be extremely difficult to get past … almost like starting over.

For one example, my thumb sticks way out, instead of being behind the neck for proper leverage. If I try to re-position it, nothing feels right and I can’t seem to do squat. That bad habit is just too much part of what I did for way too long.

It’s like people who teach themself the piano, and sometimes sound pretty good … but if they never had lessons and didn’t have the proper fingering drilled into them right up front, they’re always really limited in just how far they can get.

A really competent instructor can also give you some excellent guidance in picking your first guitar, which really needs to “fit” you for you to get the most out of your hard work. You don’t need to spend a fortune at first — in fact, it’s probably foolish until you have some experience under your belt — but it’s important to get something that will fit your fingers & hands, not something that looks really neat, or is a brand that all your friends like.

Because I did NOT do this, I’ll always be just a pianist who can play a little guitar — I’ll never be a real guitar player.

there really is not any thing to it just have to learn tabs like the top string from the top of the board there is the first string but i am not as good if you want tabs i have sites you can look at to learn more than i can tell you so here they are

Playing guitar, or maybe any musical instrument for that matter, has obviously touched you in a sensitive spot. Its great to feel the music flow out from your heart through your fingers, sometimes it becomes a lifetime goal/need to play, and then sometimes it’s just a passing whimsy. If you still have the desire to play/learn after two years its probably time to invest in a low cost decent guitar that has “good action”. (That means its strings are not standing high off the finger board and can subsequently be played easily without much finger effort) Is that friend still available to you? If so, maybe he/she would help you chose a beginner guitar. They come in all sizes from Parlor models ( 3/4 the size of “normal guitars) to Dreadnoughts. You should be able to get a small one for $80 to $120 new .Nylon stringed guitars are the easiest to play but have a kinda mellow sound. Steel stringed ones have a much brighter sound but are harder on your tender beginner finger tips. Me? I started with a $26 electric guitar and graduated up to a 1904 Gibson L-1 archtop Parlor guitar that cost me $50 buck in 1970 from my neighbor. I just saw one on Ebay that sold for $1475.00. Yes I still play. I have five “axes” now and still love to break out the little Gibson and howl at the moon every now and again.
Let your heart and ear lead you to the right guitar for you, but take a experienced guitar playing friend when you go to buy your first one.

The low end Fenders, Takamine’s, Applause (made by Ovation), Epiphones, and Yamaha’s are all decent starter instruments.

These days…you do not have to take lessons..there’s a wealth of material in books, CD’s, DVD’s, and the internet that can guide you.

The most important thing is to find someone who’s a bit better than you to help you along.

You will improve 10 times as fast playing with another as you will sitting alone in your room.

Best of luck and keep practicing till those fingers bleed.