Go to the video tutorials here on Simply Maya. They have some great videos for beginners mixed in there. Watch them to get a feel for the program. I recommend Simple Man Shape, Simple Dog Shape and Marking Menus (these are free to download too). Then dive in to F1 key and work through. The documentation bores me to sleep. The videos here are fun and quickly informative. The guys explain what keys they use and everything on the beginner video.