You sound like you're very technically proficient, Bildi. Classical guitar makes me jealous. Being self taught, I have zero theory, can't read music etc. But I'm very fortunate in that I have a weird sort of musical photographic memory. If I come up with a riff, chord progression etc. that I like, I never forget it, sometimes even for years, until I get around to recording it. Sometimes I can write entire songs, lyrics and all, in my head while doing things like washing the dishes.
As for fast leads, speed picking and the like, it was something I was never terribly interested in, and i only recently have really started to put any effort into doing. I would always leave that to my friend who was a huge Satriani, Eddie Van Halen style fan, when I needed tha sort of thing.
Holy crap, such a memory as that would be awesome. So many times I've come up with something and was certain I'd remember it the next day - it never happens. So I have to write things down which is very tiresome. Such a pain.
Classical guitar is fantastic - if you ever get the chance to give it a shot I definitely recommend it. Thanks for the kind words
MyNameIsMethodis - are you starting from dead scratch? If so, I agree with muckhole. I'd start with strumming chords. Find some songs that just consist of three or four basic chords. First is getting your left hand in order, so a couple of simple tips would be:
1) Keep the palm of your hand away from contacting the neck; and
2) Keep your thumb roughly in the middle of the back of the neck rather than hanging over the top of the neck
This page has some good pictures:
http://guitarprinciples.com/Guitar_Technique/left%20hand%20shots.htmYou'll see tons of players playing with their thumb over the top of the neck and their palm wrapped tight to the neck. There's nothing wrong with that - it's required for playing pretty much anything other than classical guitar.
But you'll find the 'correct' position will allow you far better access to the neck, and is used in a lot of playing (in the page I linked, the first two pics are the 'correct' way). Thumb over the top is a 'lazy' way to play - if you learn that first you'll find it hard to incorporate the 'correct' way into your playing. If you get used to the 'correct' way first, the 'lazy' way comes naturally. And when you're starting, everything is awkward, so it's not going to take you any longer to learn the 'correct' way.
Here's two vids on left hand which are excellent - they're about classical but it applies equally to any style of guitar:
Notice in the second video at 0:17 he stretches over five frets. That's a good example of something that you simply physically can't do if you have your hand in the 'lazy' position. While that's a big stretch there's a lot more simple fingering positions that you'll find impossible with the 'lazy' position.
As I said before, 'lazy' position is important too. For example, bending on an electric is
far more difficult in 'correct' position. So you should not hesitate to employ 'lazy' position in this case.
Then you have to get your right hand in order. For strumming, your arm should be continuously moving up and down in time with the beat, and you bring your pick into contact with the strings on the beat where you want a sound. If you don't want any sound on a particular beat, don't stop moving your arm.
Rather than typing, I found a youtube vid that explains it reasonably well:
Just a couple of notes on the video:
1) Their left hand technique is awful, please try not to play like that this when you're starting out; and
2) The strumming pattern they're using may be a little tricky, and also can't be applied to many other songs. You may like to use this pattern instead as your first one:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
V V ^ ^ V ^
Sorry if this stuff is too basic. But if you're just starting and have never played before, it will get you off to a good start. Good luck
