Tabs are your best friend. Learn how to use them effectively. By far the most extensive source of tabs anywhere is ultimate-guitar.com. get familiar with this site; its gold for beggining players. YouTube is also a great source, but try to avoid guitar tutorials (where someone 'teaches' you a song; these tend to be really unreliable, and can promote bad habits while you are learning), and stick to live performances and good highly rated covers that you can play along with. Being able to watch someone play a song while you learn it can make things much easier, and lets you 'check your work' as you play, and also forces you to keep tempo, which is often challenging for beginners *your fingers will hurt. If not, your not doing enough. It takes time to build up the strength in your fingers and for the callouses on your fingertips to develop. Ive even had my fingers bleed before, you get used to it. Just push through it *mind your hand position when you practice. Your thumb should never be visible above the neck of the guitar, especially if your playing any kind of metal, or shred riffs. This is one of the most common bad habits among new guitarists, and is a good one to avoid at all costs Good luck and have fun! -Edited for spelling/grammar