Self teaching yourself the guitar is actually not as hard as you would think
First off, in this day and age there are so many people who want to use the internet as a way to help other people... either by uploading their own tutorials, building entire websites that are devoted to helping newbies learn how to play, or by spending hours of their own time transcribing songs and tabbing them to post on the internet for another guitar player to enjoy.
I started taking guitar lessons way back in middle school, and the first thing I learned as basic chord shapes, both major and minor. There are also lots of songs that you can learn to fully play just by strumming the chords, and so I was given a few of those to practice once I had memorised the chords. Putting them into action with a song will help you actually learn how to
switch between one chord to another, without missing a beat.
Once you have got that down, I would move on to trying to learn some of the basic scales that you will use in guitar playing, such as the Major scale, Minor scale, Major/Minor Penatonic scales, and the Blues scale. Learning to play these forwards, backwards, and with different variations of picking (double picking, triple picking etc.) can be kind of boring sometimes, but a great way to learn is to try and encorporate something boring such as scale practice into another one of your daily activities. For example, when you are watching your favourite show from 4-5PM, sit and watch with your guitar while you quietly play the scales forwards, backwards, different speeds etc. and when a commercial comes on, practice really hard for a few minutes. I used to do that for hours and it doesn't take long before the patterns are engraved in your mind.
Lastly, I would try and make a list of songs that you like and want to learn, or songs that you have heard are reccomended for beginners because they are easy to play. Find a good guitar tab site and print out the tabs for those songs, OR hit up your local music store and try to buy the tabs in a beginners music book if they have one (guaranteed that they do). Start practicing these songs, learning the tabs, and then playing along to the real song either on your computer or on a stereo that you can easily stop/start. This will help you actually take the notes that you read on the tab, and transcribe them into the musical patterns you hear and the strumming patterns and melodies you are seeking to play.
I can't think of any other good advice for now, but hopefully this is a good start for you. I will try to rack my brain or dig up some of my old tabs for good beginner songs that I would reccomend you to learn. Your taste of music may greatly vary from mine though, or the next person, and so its up to YOU to find what you like to play, and strive to learn those songs.
Just remember - The more time you spend practicing, noodling around, and actually PLAYING the guitar, the faster you will progress and become better. Try to play whenever you get a free moment, whenever you watch TV or movies, find a buddy to jam with after school so that you are even more motivated to play/learn songs. Try to listen to music differently from now on too, pay more attention to the guitar parts on the songs and pick out songs that may be something you could learn/would want to learn in the near future. Just have fun with it man! Guitar is great fun
I really need to get back into playing, just talking about it makes me miss it like crazy.
