Learning Songs

I would suggest picking a song you really like and getting the tab to start out with. Listen to the recording as you play the tab- The Listening is the important part. As you hear which notes go with what frets you build up a kind of librabry of sound/finger position that you will use as you improvise over songs. There are several good websites for tab
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
http://www.guitartabs.cc/

These are 2 I use, hope it helps

Pick a song you love.
Listen to it a thousand times or so.

Start picking the notes out and writing them down.

Using tabs/books will get you to play the song faster, but will reduce what you learn from the process.

However, the hard work of training your ear will make you a far better musician than just learning to play from the page.

"When people say don't learn just the riff, learn the whole song"

They are right, because you gain other skills by playing the intro, verse, and so on. Also you can sing along if you learn the whole song. Riffs may impress people who don't play guitar, but when that person that plays guitar 4 hours a day hear you repeating a riff over, over, over, and over again they won't be to trilled. Tabs aren't always correct so you may have to buy offical sheet music, they don't cost too much and I can't stop buying them, some of them come with a cd were you slow down the songs. You can also download Guitar Pro and download tabs you can hear on mysongbook.com. That is what I've been using lately.
Finding songs to play shouldn't be a hurdle. Because learning the guitar is. 8)

Music is really about hearing!

Playing by ear is the single most important skill for musicians, but most musicians have poor aural skills because they do not practice ear training. Try to make ear training part of your routine when playing guitar. The next time you have a song on, try and identify when the chord changes, rhythm, dynamics, etc. It won't be long and you'll be able to recognize notes, intervals, chords, major / minor tonality, scales, seventh chords, dominants, and so forth.

Ear training is critical to any musician's development as musician. Your ear needs constant practicing just like your hands do, so don't neglect this most crucial tool that you have your ears. Everyone is different when it comes to playing by ear. Progress may vary well be like your physical guitar playing, slow but steadily moving forward each day.

Develop your ear by Ear training

Joe

I know exactly where you are coming from! I "use" to be the person who knew a whole mess of riffs (and I am not afraid to admit it!) because the rest of a song got really boring or sometimes too difficult. Eventually, I got tired of knowing pieces to songs and now I try to learn whole songs. Especially since I find I have a weakness in just plain old strumming chords, sigh, and I am sure its because I never wanted to learn the boring plain strumming part of a song. I'd say for learning whole songs start off with something easy. My first whole song was "The Needle and the Damage Done." I learned it from an online tab. It is short, simple, and really just repeating the same chords - alternating picking and strumming them - it took me maybe a half hour to get the whole thing down and it felt great to be able to start and finish a song! Some songs can be frustrating, there are a few I have been working on for months but I will get there one day. Start off simple, even if you can play much more difficult things.

I also agree to build up your ear. I try so hard and mine is so bad. I find myself more and more listening to music and trying to analyze it - hear the chord changes, what kind of chords, the key changes, the rhythm, how the different parts interact and so on. I am definitely going to check out the ear training article that Forrok_star recommended - maybe it'll help me because I really want a good ear and mine is so bad! I know someone who can think about a song (not overly complicated of course), strum a couple chords, and then fake it with in minutes. That is my goal.