Are there any free web sites that will teach me how to play guitar?

A Yahoo! Search on "learn to play guitar" resulted in several promising candidates, as well as the related search terms "learn to play guitar online" and "learn to play guitar free." We were also directed to the voluminous Guitar Education category in the Yahoo! Directory.

Ask Yahoo! dutifully investigated the most popular guitar tutorial sites listed in the category. Here is what we found:

• ChordFind - this is pretty basic, but handy. A simple collection of chord configurations on a Java-enabled fretboard.

• Guitar Noise - Very chatty, personable tutorial along with plenty of interviews.

• Guitar Tricks - packed with short video clips and sound files! If you have a fast connection, this is a great site.

• VisionMusic - this is essentially a commercial site masquerading as a free tutorial. Very little introductory material here.

• Guitar Lesson World - This site has gotten the thumbs up from Rolling Stone, Acoustic Guitar, and the dearly departed Yahoo! Internet Life. It's packed with pictures, handy lists, and sound clips, and the verbiage is kept to a minimum.

Finally, if you're willing to spend a little money for a book and a CD, there are plenty of commercial sites offering an array of guitar instructional materials.