Originally Posted by: Itsmesilly
I am specifically wanting to be able to loop some chords and rhythm so I can work on leads over it. Thats my goal.

OK; this helps! You can very much do this without an interface, and believe me I know the financial burden that encompasses that. Although, these days you can get a nice interface for around $150 that works great, especially for guitar. Here is a link to where you can check one out;

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrack.html

If that is not in your means, that certainly doesn't stop you from working with Garage Band and recording loops. What you first need is a 1/4 inch -
1/8 inch cable. There are ones made for guitar specifically, although you can use any standard cable from Radio Shack, etc. That is really all you need to record your guitar.

Once you open Garageband, you will want to start a new project, and give it some clever title. From there, a MIDI track should already be set up. You want a REAL INSTRUMENT TRACK, and to do this; you need to go to TRACK, and simply select NEW TRACK. If you have the newest version of Garage Band, than you choose ELECTRIC GUITAR as a track option. With this setting, everything is all set up for you as far as sounds, pedals, etc. To ensure that your guitar is working with your computer and you have the cable hooked up, go to GARARGE BAND - PREFERENCES - and than click the AUDIO/MIDI tab. This will choose your default input and output of your project. In your case, you want to choose for OUTPUT - BUILT IN OUTPUT, and for INPUt - BUILT IN INPUT. This will make it so you can hear your guitar, and listen through your headphones.

From there, you can have the MAC GENIUS help you get everything moving. I would suggest setting up a drum loop to play along with and than recording some guitar rhythm over the top of it. You can set this up to loop very easily and than you simply set up another guitar channel with a lead sound you like to solo for days.

I would say before you go, make sure you understand this; that way you can really maximize your time and get something new besides these basic operations. Does this make sense?