Radiohead has a song entitled "Anybody Can Play Guitar," and in fact this is true. You or anybody else can most likely pick up a few chords and scales, and with a little discipline you'll be playing songs and jamming with friends. To really understand guitar, however, takes commitment. This is an intro for beginner guitarists.

Understand that learning to play guitar means a little bit of pain early on. I remember being 14 years old and first getting into playing. My fingers were chapped so bad they bled. I hear this is typical. You'll also notice soreness in your fingers and hands as you build the muscles needed to play.

Practicing as often as possible will get calluses on your fingers and a pump on your hand muscles. When you get over this hump, you'll already be decent at navigating the fretboard; you may already know or have written some songs. I'm not particularly gifted, but I could play within six weeks. Many learn even faster.

During these weeks, master tuning your guitar and the strings. Learn the most useful scales shapes. Start with the pentatonic, then the major and scales. You'll be getting those muscles and calluses while learning how the notes on the fretboard relate. You'll see the guitar in a new way, and you'll get the most useful music theory.

This is also a good time to learn the open chords, and the basic major, minor and dominant seventh chord shapes up and down the fretboard. Practice changing between these smoothly. I remember being frustrated early on; it can be difficult when you start. But within a few weeks, you'll be smoothly making basic chord changes.

When you get to this point, learn a few songs. You will be able to easily play a twelve-bar blues pattern; there are a million songs in this vein. Learn the chord changes to your favorite songs, and use either your ear or transcriptions to learn all the notes your favorite guitarists are playing on them.

By doing this you'll be teaching yourself about song structure and how to write a song that speaks to you. A guitar isn't just a toy; it is a tool for expressing those feelings only music can speak to. Jump from learning the songs you love by others to experimenting with writing songs others might love by you.

Learning guitar is like learning magic. By pushing through pain, you change your body by force of will. By learning scales and chords you can play songs. By learning these you learn to translate your feelings into the universal language of music. This is a mystical journey, but you'll be there before you know it.