Welcom to the site, they've worked hard to make this a good place for beginners to meet with other players and improve -- be sure to check out some of the tools this site offers, the chess mentor seems good because it also explains why the wrong moves are wrong http://www.chess.com/learn.html
I've heard that Silman book is great but I don't have it myself so can't give you advice on how to use it. I assume try to avoid the same flawed thinking in your own games.
Playing against your computer set isn't a bad way to practice -- but if you really want to improve it's good to play against a person. I believe this site has training games where you can talk through stuff with a stronger opponent, maybe you'd find that useful.
IMO it's natural to feel overwhelmed if all you're trying to do is study. The most important thing for a beginner to do is play lots of games and then review a few of them.
I'm not sure if music is similar -- but in chess it's not enough to know things about the game, improvement and chess strength comes from the ability to apply them in-game. I might try to compare this to music theory vs performance, but I don't know anything about music so I better not. 
I am 21 years old and have been playing chess since i was 10, at least a couple of games of month. I am naturally logical and understand the beginners game (i can beat my friends pretty quickly)and have decided that i wanted to study chess like the way i study music (been playing drums for a decade). However, I honestly have just started dipping my feet into openings, tactics, imbalaces, etc and i feel very overwhelmed.
I want to understand this game, but i dont want to lose my mind in the process. When i play chess, I can feel my mind becoming tired and cranky and actually start feeling stressed. I went to the barnes and noble and picked up the amateurs mind by jeremy silman, my first book on chess. I understand notation and what he is saying, but how do i study this to make use of it? i read it and nothing really sticks and i cant figure out a way to practice so i get something out of it if anyone can understand that. also, i have an excalibur king arthur electronic set that i have been playing on for about 5 years, is this still a good method of practice or is it outdated? i would like some advice on ways to go about learning and understanding chess,again, without losing my mind in the process. im sorry if i sound long winded, I have been playing my table for hours and feel mentally exhausted hahaha.