Learning the guitar

I've been trying to learn how to play the guitar for a few months now. Let me tell you, the guitar is a pretty frustrating instrument to learn. For Christmas a couple years back, I had bought a student guitar for my younger sister. She never really picked it up. I took it back a few months ago, determined to learn it. But issues ranging from fingernails that go past my nail bed to pain from fretting deterred me.

I eventually bought a cheap full-size guitar from Target. It was a Lyon guitar with bag, picks, tuner, strap, extra strings, and a DVD. It was decent for my purposes as I don't like spending money on something I might not like. The DVD sucked. I fared better with detailed lessons from about.com. I eventually started looking up tabs for songs I like. But man, it was still very frustrating. Waiting for callouses and finger strength to develop was a long process. What really jump started my development was when my cousins both bought guitars as well. I was determined to pick it back up. I eventually was able to switch chords easier, and finger strength was definitely developing. No help with the fingernails; my only option is to cut them really short more often.

I'm on lesson four of the about.com lessons. I just learned about power chords, and I looked up the mechanics of how to capo as well. Looking to get a capo later on and play with it. But the rewards of knowing how to play a guitar are well worth the frustration, pain, and cramps of learning. As for songs I actually know how to play, I can play U2's "One", The Perishers' "Pills", part of Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am". Not a lot, but I like to be good at songs before I go on to other ones. It actually took me a while to learn to sing while playing.

As for the pick or no pick debate. I play with no pick. I like the softer sound better. Oh, and I'm on an acoustic.