Wow! Missed this since I've been away for a while.
Been playing for... err... 20 + years now. Dammit, hate admitting I'm old enough to actually SAY that! Anyway, there are a few generalized pointers I can probably give.
1. Carefully choose a guitar teacher. I lucked out on my first choice. I'd say, in MBTI terms, I learn best by going with an Intuitive style of teacher/learning. When I first started, the teacher was focused more on style, training my ear, finger dexterity and different techniques - the technical portions like scales, and notation were secondary or non-existent.
I went back a few years later in college to learn the more formal, classical style and hated... really hated the teacher and the style of the lessons. All text-book. All theory. All notation. Hated every single second I was there, which was sad, since I was already dedicated to playing.
2. This is a huge one. I mean, a really huge one. Aim high and be the best (in terms of learning new songs and gaining mentors/idols). It's good practice and good for your own ego to learn a few easy, popular songs to start with, but don't stop there. When I was learning, Nirvana was huge (before his death) and every want-to-be-musician and his brother wanted to be just as good as "those guys". Problem is, musically, those guys sucked big time.
If your goal is to sound like "those guys who suck" your skill is going to level off at that same level of suckage. Try to find musicians and groups that are talented and complex in their music and then aspire to play at
that level; don't aim for the bottom.
There are many underrated guitarists in various genres out there who don't showboat or make headlines. Expand your horizons a bit from where they may have started and see what strikes your fancy.
Case in point - When I started playing guitar, I was an Eagles fan. I learned a few of their songs but then realized many of them were fairly easy to pick up, so I listened around for something a bit more challenging... that's when I saw this video:
[video=youtube_share;eK1hmDpa8bo]http://youtu.be/eK1hmDpa8bo[/video]
Won me over in a heartbeat once I watched the performance.
Some guitarists I'd suggest giving a listen to that people don't always think about would be:
B.B King
Les Paul (yes, he was a superb guitarist as well)
Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)
Alex Lifeson (Rush... the video posted above)
Brian Setzer (Stray Cats)
Steve Howe (Yes)
, put on a new string (which was tricky because of the wire kept going loose. Now I am learning chords. Finger placement is tricky though. It's interesting. Definitely feel like it's going to take some long periods of practice. It's not a top brand guitar, just one of two First Act acoustic guitars I saw at Target. I thought I'd start off with songs I know but I'm realizing that I need more practice with chords and chord changes first. Didn't realize how difficult moving between chords could be.