I am new, so I need some advice on getting started. I'm going to take lessons, but is there anything I need or something to practice before?

Welcome to chordbook shellgrl, i think you'll like it here. As for advice to get you started, you don't really need to go any further to learn guitar than right here, but if you're set on lessons, first thing to do would be to find the best instructor you can and not necessarily the most expensive and sometimes not the cheapest. If you want to learn guitar via chordbook, everyone will help you, that's certain. Notice the chat room and though spotty this time of year, it will liven up again soon. You can ask questions and learn a lot there. Also you can learn an incredible amount by reading the posts in the forums, in the beginners section and even in the advanced section. Don't overlook the 'cool stuff' heading also...and of course the chord section and the scales section.

To start you off though, i would suggest some research into playing positions so that you're holding the guitar comfortably and so that your chording hand and especially the wrist, are positioned such that you won't hurt yourself and so that you won't become fatiqued with playing guitar. Beyond that, instrument care is important and a practice routine. You might learn what are called 'open chords' and you can find those in the 'Guitar Chords' section here in chordbook. Popular open chords to learn would be C, D, E, Em, A, Am and G and not necessarily in that order. Starting with Em and then learning Am will give you two fairly easy chords that you can practice moving back and forth between. Hope some of this helps you shell and if you have any questions about any of it or really anything else guitar, please ask and someone will help !

GuitarZen

Learn all of the open Chords A-G and Em Am Dm learn the major scale and Blues scale and then I think your set for awhile that is how I started....

I'm a beginner too, so I can't give you technical advice, but just make sure to have fun and don't worry too much about doing things the "right" way. Being hung up on the idea I might be doing things wrong is part of what discouraged me for awhile from just learning to play.