OK, this is going to be a long post, but only because I want to explain it all as much as possible and share things that I didn't figure out until after a year of practising and wrist pain from incorrect techinque and too much tension in my fretting hand.
http://www.jimbowley.com/2011/12/the-definitive-lesson-thumb-placement/ This should help. Basically avoid excessive bending in your wrist as much as possible.
Try not to get frustrated and keep positive. Don't tell yourself that you can't do it and just put the guitar in the cupboard (I wasted 10 years of potential proper guitar practising by doing that). Figure out why you can't do it, and overcome it. You get good at problem solving 
For learning chords and anything on guitar, unfortunately yes, repetition is how we learn all this stuff. Pretty boring sometimes, but you're training the muscle memory in your fingers. So make sure you do all the new stuff slowly (30bpm or even no tempo, which just means don't worry about tempo at all). Keep an even beat, even if it's slow as hell, and when you change to a new chord, keep that tempo. If you're having trouble switching, just practice without strumming.
For example, C to F chord - you'd just make the C chord shape on the strings, press your fingers lightly on required frets, then in a smooth and relaxed motion without tensing (since you don't have to worry about the tempo or strum) switch to the F chord finger positions, then repeat for a few minutes.
There are other tricks that make changing chords easier, like keeping your finger in position (called a pivot finger) when the 2 chords share a similar note. Instead of lifting all your fingers, keep that one finger down and move the others around it. Other chords require a slight shift on a fret (up or down a fret) so you just slide that 1 finger rather than lifting. An example here would be E chord to A chord.
Seems pretty boring now, but once you have the main major chords down, you can play a lot of easy popular songs and maybe screw around with your own chord progressions.
Chord progressions and scales tend to go hand in hand, so once you understand, you can apply them to each other.
http://www.guitarfriendly.net/guitar-scales-lesson-for-beginners-major-guitar-scales/
That site there is a bit more beginner friendly. I looked at the site you pasted, and it started to give me a headache!
When you practice the scales, do them REAL slowly. Again, you're training your muscle memory. A great way to learn how to keep relaxed and use as little force is to let your arms drop down while you are sitting with your guitar. Raise your fretting hand slowly, place it on the string but don't press it down yet. That's the default position after you have played a note. Slowly press your finger down onto the fret board, then pluck it with your strumming hand. Find the right amount of pressure between too hard and too soft. You'll be surprised how little pressure you actually need. The final stage is to relax your finger and return to default position. Don't lift your finger off the string, let the gravity do the work for you.
Sorry for such an extensive explanation, but basically all it is - place finger on string, press down gently, pluck, relax finger and let your finger rest on string. This helps you when you start to play faster and allows you to mute the string after you've finished playing it.
You can apply the same practice to chords. Instead of smacking your fingers down straight away when you change, place them above the fret on the string, then press down once they're relaxed and in position. Seems silly and a waste of time, but it helps avoid things like over gripping with the fretting hand (which can hurt after a while).
Don't go overboard with the theory - just learn little bits. It gets too overwhelming if you try to learn 20 scales at once and understand everything else. Start with the C major scale - this is also the same as an A minor scale, so you'll have 2 scales learnt at the same time.
I'll explain a bit about scales and chord progressions.
C major scale has no sharps (#) or flats (b). So it's just C, D, E, F, G, A, B, then back to C.
Right, now the way people usually label each part of the scale is with a number:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C D E F G A B
1 is the root note. That's where the name of the scale comes from, because C major scale starts on the C note. You'll notice the scale patterns on that website don't always start on that note, but it doesn't matter. At the moment, you're just learning where all the notes within that scale are.
There is a pattern for the major scale, which goes like this - W, W, H, W, W, W, H.
W means Whole tone, H means half tone. A whole tone is 2 FRETS. So playing 1st fret, then jumping up to 3rd fret is a whole tone. Half tone is 1 FRET. So 1st, to 2nd fret is half.
You don't need to understand that 100%, but you'll come across the terms whole tone and half tone (or whole step, whole step) in a lot of online lessons. By the way, there is no note between E and F, or B and C. In this scale, that's where the half steps on that formula happen to fall.
This is just background stuff relating to the major scale, so don't panic. Just learn the positions on that website and eventually all the background will make sense.
An easy way to get to grips with this is to write out every single note from A - G
(Should be mentioned that flats and sharps share the same note. One is more correct than the other, but I don't understand this stuff yet. So an A# is also the same fret/note as a Bb. That's all you really need to understand for now).
(no flat/sharp between B, C or E, F)
A , A#/Bb , B , C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab
Get a pencil, and circle the note C. Remember, each note there on that list is a half tone/step. Use the scale formula (W, W, H, W, W, W, H) from above for major scale and then jump up the required amount of times and circle each note you land on. So for C major scale you count up 2 notes from the C and land on the D. From D, count up 2 more, you have E. From E, only 1 note up (it's a half step here), and you get F. And so on. If you do this correctly, you'll end up the C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
You can try it for each different major scale and then check the end results online (do search for whichever scale you just did). Remember to start on the root note.
If you get a different result or don't understand, don't tear your hair out. Just check where you went wrong, and try again. Maybe just try for like 10 minutes a day. If it's bothering you, just leave it completely and grab the guitar and have fun.
As for chord progressions, the numbering is similar to the scale numbering, except people tend to use roman numerals.
So the chords in the Key of C are
I ii iii IV V vi vii (diminished chord usually)
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim
Notice how the notes are the same as the C major scale. The C, F and G is your typical I, IV, V (1,4,5) chord progression. Meaning, the song can go C, F, then G, then back to C. You don't HAVE to, but it's one of the basic structures for a lot of popular songs. I'm not sure the reasons why but the ii, iii, vi chords are all minor chords and the vii chord is usually a diminished chord. For now, just focus on the I, IV, V chords and changing between those. You can substitute those with a 7th chord (C7, F7, G7) to spice things up if you want later on.
By the way, that is the standard formula for all major chord progressions in each key. All you need to remember are the roman numerals. Again, I is the root note. So Key of G would start with G chord (obviously).
There's also a 12 bar blues progression which is like this
I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, IV, I, I (or play V again and repeat the whole pattern). Each chords get 4 beats (or 4 basic down stroke strums). It's handy to remember the roman numerals because then you can play it in different keys.
And I really went overboard here! Shit man...
A lot of material, but just reread it a few times. If it makes you scream, just leave it and come back to it later. Or just reply with questions about something you didn't understand. You don't need to spend hours and hours doing this theory stuff. 10-20 mins before you move on is more than enough. Do it in small chunks and focus on one scale/key at a time. Get it under your fingers, make sure you understand it 100% (you'll have one of those A-ha! moments eventually) and then you can move onto the next scale/key.
I'll explain how to make the C major scale and A minor scale sound different another time even though they share the same notes. I only just figured this one out lately, but it was surprisingly simple once you understand everything above.
Edited by Sheepish (10/03/12 01:34 AM)
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