If I had a tip to give is to learn to hum notes. When you strike and A Note or Chord on your guitar, hum it. Do the same with an E and so on. Not sure it is an official technique but it help me match the note I could hum to a location on the guitar.

I mean, I did this decades ago but I still use it when I want to to noodle through a song. Actually, I almost never use tabs and kind of hated them from the get go.

Back in the shredder 80's, all the guitarists I hung out with thought tabs were cheating (aren't guitar player rules just awesome!). Also, I think tabs don't teach you to hear the song. You know the notes but it may not translate to the melody as well.

Back on with my '80's guitarist' friends, we would joke that you could tell someone who learned by tabs because they lacked the song's feel.

Ok, so now that I've bagged on tabs, I actually think they are one of the tools in the learning arsenal but they should not be the only or even the primary tool.

Kasperow > Relax...yep....that is the ticket. Some guys even barely touch the strings. I'm a little more heavy handed in some ways (I love a deep and digging bend) but being able to let physics do the work and not your hand is really important.

I've taught a coupla people in my day and I noticed that to a person, they all wanted to give the neck a death grip. I'd tell them to do an experiment: Hover your hand over the low E string (second fret) but don't touch it. Start picking the open string. Then slowly lower your finger on to the string (which will flat out at first) but continue to apply very light pressure only until the string rings true. Then stop. You will realize how little pressure it takes to make the string ring.