Guitar players - need help!

[CloudStrife]

Missed this thread.
I just picked up the guitar again. Never was good. I know basic tunes for some songs. I'll look into the ones mentioned here. My thing is that I can't sing and play... anything. I can't even sing and play the fish (Mexican guiro http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Güiro). That's the most frustrating part for me about trying to learn a song.

Songs that I partially know that should be easy to pick up:
Dust in the Wind - Kansas (I use all fingers except my pinky when picking. You can find guitar tabs for the violin solo too)
The World I Know - Collective Soul
Crash into Me - Dave Matthews (simple song, but your hand has to cover frets 2-5 the entire time, so it might be a stretch)
Wonder Wall - Oasis
Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd (not the solo, just the rhythm part)
Closing Time - Semisonic (4 power chords for most of the song)

 

[Gus McCrae]

My son taught himself to play by down loading tabs from the computer and following the
order on the screen.

FYI, lots of online tabs are incomplete and/or inaccurate. It can be a good tool, but it can also complicate things.

 

[Zip7]

A lot of songs you might like to play will turn out to be more difficult than you would think because they were originally done by 3 guitarists (some Lynyrd Skynrd). OR, you need to learn slide, and/or alternate tunings (Layla, Black Crowes, etc..)

Once you learn some chords where you can play them well, get a CD of The Allman Brothers song One Way Out. You can learn the intro by ear - it's simple, but it is not that easy to pick at full speed. This one song intro will force you to learn alternate picking correctly or you won't be able to keep up with it.

 

[posse comatosis]

Don't know much about music theory and don't play anymore, but seems like one thing you need to understand about the guitar is open cord tuning, mos 'specially to play the blues. You can remove the top string on a traditionally tuned guitar and what's left is an open cord that can be strummed without fretting, I forget which one. Then take the backside of a Case pocket knife (Mance Lipscomb used one) for a slide and get to work. There are lots of u-tube demos online about blues licks from some very good pickers. Good luck.

 

[flatsman007]

Some Van Halen - Jamies Crying, Running with the Devil even the leads are relatively easy.
Several Zepplin songs - Stairway to Heaven (My first song), Black Dog, and several others.
Alot of old Scorpions songs are easy to learn. Get there album Animal Magnatism. Most in in E or B.
Alot of rock will use the key of E. Learning song in the key of E will be the easiest. Especially when you learn a few scales. Focus on clean ringing cords and notes. I have played rock, jazz, and blues for about 22 years and nothing is easy. Practice, practice and more practice. Learn some theory and it will tie everything together much faster than tab will. Cord progressions will make much more sence. Also solo's will come together mentally alot quicker with theory. It's almost more important than anything else you could learn.