Thinking about learning to play guitar...

Hi Edward. Welcome.

The guitar looks good, never can tell though, without a good description.

I believe there are an abundance of Cort Earth guitar learner's kits in the UK. I can vouch for them personally, they are great. Your choice of material is good too, of course. I like angel by Hendrix. I would think that you should play other simpler songs first to satisfy yourself and give you some gratification and "satisfaction", like the 'Stones in '65 eh? :D

I'm about 3 weeks into Justin's course ( http://www.justinguitar.com ), and I'm finding it amazing. I previously tried to teach myself via guitar.about.com, and various random "how to play x song" youtube videos, and Justin's course is so much better. He obviously knows how to teach guitar, because not only does he tell you "this is what you should do", he also tells you "this is where people normally run into problems, and this is how to get around those problems."

after 3 weeks, I would recommend only one single change. He doesn't introduce basic finger gym workouts until the middle of stage 3, in lesson "BC-135". I would start with that before even lesson BC-111, because having two weeks of that under your belt will help a lot with C and G chords.

I am told that some of the "easy songs for beginners" here at guitarnoise are better than Justin's versions though.

I have a student who plays a Martin Smith guitar. It's good for the price.

I would suggest that most Hendrix and Pink Floyd songs are a bit ambitious for a true beginner. Unless you can find some stripped down arrangements to work from.

I don't know about that. "Wish You Were Here" is pretty simple, and tunes like "Hey Joe" are reasonably easy to get the rhythm parts down.

That book has a lot of songs in different styles and the arrangements are good for a beginner.

And just an idea. I wrote down a list with all my favorite songs when I started to play. Then, I searched the chords for them and I sorted the list according the chords. When I learnt a new chord, I practiced it by playing the songs where it was used.

By the way, "Wish you were here" is in that list.

And welcome to GN!

As far as guitars go, go down to your local shop and sit with them and see how they feel. Does the body sit nice on your lap? does the neck feel comfortable. If you know any chords or can fret a few notes, how does that feel? When you are just starting out, its really hard to tell and basically all you go on is looks. Have the clerk play it and see what he thinks. How does it sound to you?

there is a lot of stuff on the internet that is good and a lot that is crap. I'm currently working on putting together a comprehensive list of the great, good and avoid instructional material that is out there. I'm that guy like a lot of others I'm assuming that has amassed a collection of learning material that will never get worked through. Keep an eye on my blog for that list and that may help you.

Hendrix I would wait on. Some Floyd stuff, at least the rhythm parts can be fairly decent and a good way to practice your chords. Again I have easy riffs on my site that may give you some idea what to try. I teach privately and I have my students learn G, D, Am and C so they have Knockin on Heavens Door. Simple Man, Bad Moon Rising and Use to Love Her are other ones we learn. There are some great power chord riffs as well that are good for beginners.

Most of all though, be patient. Its a journey and not a race.

Best instrument ever. do it.