Any advice for a newcomer?

I just started playing StepMania the other day and I am having a wonderful time.

I'm wondering if there are any generally recommended settings to use (I see many dozens of options and variables that can be fiddled with; are there any settings that are particularly important to modify that a new player might not be aware of?) Right now everything is set to default. I'm on a 15" Retina Macbook Pro.

I was reading a thread on the Stepmania FlashFlashRevolution forum and someone recommended to use a noteskin other than the default. Are there any noteskins in particular that you guys would recommend? I tried the Metal noteskin but it caused my computer to lag like crazy for some reason. As for themes, I'm using the UltraLight theme and I love it.

Outside of the settings and noteskin(s), is there any general advice that you would give to someone just starting out in the game?

Thank you very much!

is there any general advice that you would give to someone just starting out in the game?
Aim from songs that you can't do yet. Don't be discouraged by failure. If you don't fail a song it is already too easy for you! Try a harder, manlier one.

Thank you for the tip! I was shooting for all AAs on Novice followed by Easy then harder difficulties in the FFR Novice Compilation pack, though I can get at least a B on all of them save one on the first try, so I guess I will move onto the Easy difficulty.

I just googled how to ddr, apparently this is how you do it: http://www.wikihow.com/Master-Dance-Dance-Revolution