Hey & welcome to GT!

Originally Posted by: djgillham

My questions are: (1) when will my fingers be more flexible and cooperative.[/quote][p]Those type of questions are difficult to answer definitively without more information & evidence. It varies greatly by student.

How much basic manual dexterity for fine motion skills do you bring to the task? How long have you been practicing? How much time do you practice every day?

In general, I see older beginners take anywhere from 1 month to 6 months to gain some basic skills to form open chords & strum them slowly in time. I've seen it take as long as a year. But that was an older learner & he was enjoying the process anyway!

Originally Posted by: djgillham(2) without the tab I'd be blind. When do the notes start making sense?[/quote]

I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean learning the musical alphabet notes on the fretboard? Or this is a memory issue with just knowing which frets to play without referring back to the tab? It's not necessarily a bad thing to keep looking back at the tab or to look at your fingers. As a beginner it's a necessity & it will gradual improve with reptetitious practice.

Originally Posted by: djgillham(3) thus far I have been going over each lesson and can recognize major chords and make the adjustments to embellishments, etc. based on them, but often when moving on to the song portion I become like a deer in the headlights. Very discouraging. When will this pass?[/quote]

Again, hard to say or know definitively. But I know the only way to get there is lots of repetitious practice. :)

Originally Posted by: djgillham(4). Should I have things memorized and 100% before advancing lessons or is this all a journey and part of the process?

Not necessarily. You can move forward in order to stay motivated & have fun. Just make sure to keep practicing the material in those previous lessons until you do have them under your command.

[quote=djgillham](5) how long will I have to slouch to see the frets, make angle adjustments with my wrist to reach notes in chords, and will my fat index finger ever work to successfully Barr?

Again, hard to say. But it sounds like you could improve your posture a bit by tilting the neck up a bit in order to see the frets without straining your neck. Also, you might try to move your hand around more to the strings to minimize your wrist angle.

I cover porper posture in this lesson.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=13958

[quote=djgillham]will my fingers one day loosen, stretch and dance across the fretboard?

Only if you put in the practice time. :)

[quote=djgillham] (6) when I try and stand to play it feels like a sobriety test but I notice the guitar positioning is quite different than sitting. Is this an area I need to incorporate in practicing so I can get acquainted?

Yes. It's best to use a strap & find a setting that allows you to keep the guitar in the same position sitting & standing. Spend time practicing while sitting & standing.

Be patient with yourself. Try to enjoy the process. Hope that helps!