No, its not hard… although there is a steep learning curve from the beginning. You just need to spend some effort on it and then you’ll get the hang of it.

To answer your question, no, you don’t NEED to know how to read music.

Since guitar music mainly consists of different chords played in varying rhythms, all you really need to know is what the chords are called and how to play them. Of course, it’s always a good idea to know how to read music, especially if you can’t figure out the part by ear.

If you’re mainly interested in playing popular music, then you shouldn’t have a terribly difficult time learning. You can look up almost any song out there on websites such as and it will show the words, which chords correspond to them, and sometimes how to play those chords.

Good luck, guitar is lots of fun.

I play guitar, and have played in bands and such for the past 20+ years… and, although I can read music, I cannot read it and place the notes on the guitar… it is a skill I never learned.
If you look at most of the “famous” musicians, not too many of them can actually read music.
If you want to learn how to play guitar, practice every day, get someone to help you, and you will learn.