I tried to teach myself guitar using the Mel Bay book about folk guitar, but it didn't go well. I couldn't move three fingers at a time to land on the chord position.

I had had piano lessons and knew basic music theory, so I went back to the music store and bought a classical book by Aaron Shearer. It was fussy and old-fashioned, but it taught me where the individual notes were. I'd put a chord together one note at a time, putting fingers down as needed for a picking pattern. In a few months I could put fingers down all together.

This might help somebody else someday.