Originally Posted by Lord Larehip

I don't recommend lessons right off. First of all, if you have any talent for the guitar whatsoever, you shouldn't need to be taught how to be a beginner. You should just be able to start playing. I watched my brother and a friend make chords and started to imitate it and I was off and running. Learn your major and minor barre chords and your open chords and you will be able to play 75% of the stuff you hear. What happens, though, to most people is that they plateau out. Once you hit that plateau (and you'll know it) is when you start taking lessons. Now you KNOW what your limits are and what you need to work on and the direction you want to go. Then, yes, you will need to learn to read and you will need to know ALL your chords and scales. But you also know what to do with them rather than just learning them and playing the exercises and not really understanding the value. You know you have to learn this stuff to get over than plateau. So learn to play by ear first and you should have enough talent to be able to do it completely on your own. If you can't, find another instrument.