Brayshakes

So, my plan is that I want to make a database of my phone book and I want to be able to access it through HTTP using a php script that will call the data forth and display it on a simple generated web page. Now, I'm new to both php and MySQL, but I feel this project shouldn't be that bad. However, I do have a few questions that need some answering. Does the database root for mysql have to be on the root folder of my ftp server, or can it just be anywhere on the server? Also, what php commands and styles of coding should I become familiar with to execute a project such as this one? There isn't a whole lot of MySQL resources on this PHPFreaks website, so are there any other resources that are trusted that someone knows of?