If you have that bug to learn guitar, and it won't go away, you are probably half way there to at least starting out. However there are many reasons why a lot of people put their guitars down and leave them to gather dust in the corner!

So, besides the actual desire to learn, you also will need either some good friends who play and are prepared to teach you, or some money to pay for lessons. This is where the internet comes in.

For the best part, private lessons are expensive. There is usually travelling involved (sometimes they come to you), but always you end up parting with a large chunk of cash for maybe an hour's one on one tuition. This is followed up by you having to practice what you just learned, until the next lesson.

Now for me, this is potentially where you can go a little bit wrong. Unless you have videos of the lessons or a photographic memory, you may make mistakes in how you practice. Whenever you learn something (badly) it is so much more difficult to unlearn and do it correcty, than to start off by doing it right.

Private lessons are great for interactive tuition, that is a fact, but predominantly you are on your own.

The internet however is the best thing ever for interactive learning. You get lessons that you can replay at your leisure, showing you how you actually do a specific chord, note or song. They show you strum patterns, tuning techniques, ways to set your amplifier and effects (for electric guitars) and have numerous tricks and techniques for improving your guitar playing.

When you learn guitar online, it usually involves a one off payment that is at worst equivalent to a single lesson! What's more, many of them offer refunds if you are not entirely happy.

For me, if I was starting out today, this is something I would seriously look into. Once you have the basics of guitar playing (taught and drilled correctly), there are numerous sites that show you how to play practically any song you want.

So the only question for me would be which sites offer the best value for money?

Here's a review site...

http://www.learn-guitar-review.com/