When I first started using Maya, I went through those several tutors that Maya came with (just to get the hang of it). Then i started modeling objects that are in front of me (on my desk), then texturing them, arranging them in a box that represented the room and finaly doing a render. All of this, naturaly, was done in low poligon with simple textures, but it helped me develop my own way of thinking about Maya and helped me gain experience which is, as Sil-Valeor mentioned above, very important. This was my way of getting to Maya, but you can find many good movies to download on this site, as well as other resources on the web. Whichever way you choose it is important to take it slow and don't be dissapointed if you cannot reproduce someone's tutorial identically. It is better to follow the tutorial along just by using the technique explained, but making something yours and different.