Originally Posted by ThePhanastasio

Just weighing in with my personal experience:

Guitar is difficult. When you first start, it's going to be extremely frustrating and you're probably going to be convinced you can never switch between chords or even learn chords that aren't G, C, D, A, Am, Dm, G7, because your hands won't want to move that way, and your fingertips will feel like they're being murdered. That lasts for weeks.

After that, you'll suddenly realize that you can play all manner of other chords with a little bit of practice, and your fingers don't hurt anymore. Suddenly, it seems like it just happens one day, you're able to switch between chords and that F chord is cupcake city.

After that, you've got a nice foundation to continue, and you can pretty much look up tabs and kind of know what you're doing. And it's just up from there! You just have to understand that it's going to take a little while for it to feel natural, but from there, it's going to be fine. You're not going to be able to shred like Malmsteen off the bat - or maybe ever - but you will be able to strum an acoustic at a campfire LIKE A BOSS.