There are many good reasons to want to learn how to play guitar. Perhaps you simply love the instrument; that's certainly reason enough! Or maybe you know that learning how to play the guitar can help you out in social situations - after all, there's always a guitar that you can pick up and play at parties to get a little bit of attention. Your reason for wanting to learn guitar might greatly influence how you go about learning. If you want to become a professional classical guitar player, for example, you'll probably want to splurge on the expense of private guitar lessons. If you just want to be able to hold your own at parties, you might learn to play guitar from books and software programs.

Many people use a combination of these methods throughout their musical life to begin learning guitar and then grow their talents. Here is a closer look at some of the basic options that you have for learning how to play guitar:

• Private guitar lessons. This is the priciest of your options. It probably requires purchasing your own guitar and your own lesson books as well as paying for the hourly fee of private instruction. However, it is also one of the quickest ways to learn how to play guitar and you can be fairly sure that you're learning everything correctly. Students who are interested in learning how to play guitar for the purpose of eventually entering a musical career often consider this the best choice.
• Classroom guitar lessons. There are also classroom setting where you can learn to play guitar. Depending on your age, these might be offered at local recreation centers, music schools, college campuses and other locations throughout your area. Classroom guitar lessons give you the chance to learn the basics of how to play guitar, including how to hold the instrument, tune it and play chords. You don't get the one-on-one feedback that you'd get from private guitar lessons but you do get personal feedback from a live instructor. These are cheaper than private guitar lessons.
• DIY with books. The method of self-taught guitar which has been used most commonly until recent times has been through books and practice. You can learn to play guitar by getting books about playing guitar as well as music books for guitar. Then you get your guitar and play through the books until you get better. People sometimes audio or video record themselves during the process to get a better sense of how they sound.
• DIY with computer software programs and video games. Today, it is less common to learn just by books and more common to self-teach guitar using computer software programs designed for this purpose. These programs take you through step-by-step instruction and give you some feedback on how you're sounding. Many people find that they can learn guitar easily this way, at their own pace and without the cost of an instructor.

• Create your own guitar-learning group. Some people want human feedback and don't want to learn to play guitar alone but can't afford lessons. One great option in this case is to create your own group committed to learning guitar together. Designate a leader and someone to solve problems in the group and then set about creating an atmosphere that's conducive to learning. Give each other positive feedback and work together to find resources that will help the group. Who knows; you might create a band out of this!

No matter how you learn to play guitar, the key to improving is practice. You can mix and match various methods of learning to play guitar but if you don't get out the instrument and play, you're never going to really learn what it's all about.