Reddit mentions of Alfred's Basic Guitar Method, Bk 1: The Most Popular Method for Learning How to Play, Book & Enhanced CD (Alfred's Basic Guitar Library)

I can not agree with this enough.

Although I started drumming about 6 years ago, (and just finished recording my album with my band) I just recently picked up guitar and am loving it. I found a cheap $80 guitar and found a Music Book for about $10. Worth every second of it!

Goon on you for actually learning to read! It's really not difficult. Being able to read allows you to learn more songs quickly, and makes you able to accept more kinds of gigs.

To answer your question, music for the guitar is transposed one octave below standard. This can be indicated by "8va" at the beginning of the piece. On a sheet of music "middle C" is the C in between the Treble and Bass clefs. When we play guitar, the C we actually play for middle C is one octave lower (such as the C on String 5, 3rd fret.) The true pitch for middle C is that of the C found on string 2, 1st fret. Playing the notes as notated instead of transposed is called playing "at pitch."

I strongly encourage you to take the $9 plunge for a method book with clear, consistent information instead of messing around with a half-dozen apps and polling reddit for simple questions. Seriously, $9.

http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Guitar-Method--Book/dp/0739047949/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1369498643&sr=8-4&keywords=alfreds+basic+guitar+method