[Rick Lee]

Veteran axe slinger here. The most important thing is to start learning with music you already love. I got an old Stella acoustic when I was 7 yrs. old and Van Halen's first album had just come out. All I wanted to do was play Kiss and VH. My guitar teacher had me learning "Love Me Tender" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and that kind of nonsense. As you can imagine, practicing became a chore. I dropped it. A friend in junior high got me back into it when I was 13, my folks got me a cheapo Hondo Strat and this time a real guitar teacher. He was fantastic. Remember, this was before CD's or Internet or even decent tablature books. He showed me how to listen to a song and figure out how to play by ear. I didn't even own a CD player until my senior year in college. I took lessons for about two yrs. until I was 15. By then I could figure out just about anything I wanted from listening to my LP's and cassettes. Some tablature books helped out with the stuff that stumped me.

Nowadays, it's never been easier to learn, but that also makes people lazy. I got on a huge Beatles kick a few yrs. ago and rather than sit down with a CD to learn it by ear, I'd just Google the tablature. Voila! Free and instant music. It's really made me lazy. I've probably bought every VH album the day it was released and rushed right home to start learning how to play the songs. Now I just Google them.

Back to my point - start learning tunes you love to listen to. I mean, don't pick up The Yes Album and think you're gonna be able to bang out Steve Howe's "The Clap" next week. But start simple and work your way up.