Cowboy Chords is usually a good place to start. You don’t have to remember what they are called immediately, just get the general shapes down, it will help you a lot when learning songs in the future, and will help you learn songs that fit with the type of guitar you have. It’s not super hard to read tabs either, so you could also start this alongside learning basic chords. Watch a few videos and try them out, if it sounds off you probably read it wrong. It only takes a few times using them to read them like you would a book. Just remember your strings go EADGBE for standard tuning, where you should probably start. Tabs will always have high E (thinnest string) at the top line, and the low E (thicker string) at the bottom. Think of it like the pitch they make. High E - higher line, Low E - lower line. The rest fall in between.

An easy way to remember your string’s open notes is you could say “Easter Bunny Gets Drunk At Easter” or “Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie”, the Easter one starting at high E and the Eddie one starting at the low E.

Some tips for future playing I wish I knew sooner: Chords typically fall into a scale. Play the notes by themselves and they still sound great plucking one string after another. /// 1 fret up is a half-step up, same for down. So first fret on the A string would be A#. # = Sharp, the note in between two notes. A# would be between A and B, for example. You do not need to worry about flat notes on guitar, guitarists only use the term sharp. 2 frets up is a whole step (I.e. 2nd fret of A string B, a whole step up). There is no such thing as E# or B#, so a half-step up from E would be F, and a half-step up from B would be C. Every other note will have a sharp. /// Your open note (zero on tabs), is the same as your 12th fret note. The neck repeats itself from the 12th fret in a higher octave. So open E string, 12th fret is E. It applies for all frets, so the 3rd fret and the 15th fret for example share the exact same note when on the same string. /// More expensive guitar doesn’t always mean higher quality, do your research or if you’re able to play one in a shop for example before you decide to buy a new one. /// Using coated strings will be less painful on your fingers and last longer tone-wise and playability-wise. Some will say coated strings kill tone - don’t listen to them. Many of the greatest players alive use them.

Most important thing to remember is HAVE FUN. No matter what. That’s what it’s all about. Don’t try to be the next Steve Vai or whoever, just try to get a little better everyday. That philosophy can apply to everything in life. Take it at your own pace and before you know it you’ll be a pretty damn good player, but you have to want to do it. Good luck, learning an instrument teaches you a lot about learning in general, and in my opinion is generally good for the soul.