If you are starting out learning guitar, trying to find the best way to learn can be quite a problem. If you can afford it, a personal tutor is the best way to go, but for many this route is too expensive. As a result self tuition has become the popular choice. Self tuition can be both economical and more convenient, allowing you to learn at your own pace and fit your lessons and practice around your lifestyle. The only drawback is that you need to be committed and disciplined to make self teaching work.

OK so you are looking for a self teach course. With so many options available, how do you choose?

Self teaching lessons come in many forms. They can be book based, book with CD-ROM, book with DVD, computer online courses, interactive software courses, e-books or any combination of these. A search on the internet will reveal hundreds of options. So how do you go about choosing?

First you should consider your level of commitment and your budget. If you are a hobby guitarist, you may not want to spend hundreds on a comprehensive high quality course that takes you to high levels of skill. If you are planning to play as a performer, amateur or professional, then you will be looking to get as much out of your course as possible so cost may not be such a factor.

Once you have decided what level of skill/cost you feel comfortable with, you can then aim your search at either the high end or more modest levels.

There are many very good courses available in all formats, so the next step is to decide how you like to learn.

Books are a good way to learn, especially the theory side as you can study your book anywhere, but they are not so good at demonstrating playing techniques as they have to rely on photographs or diagrams. To overcome this many book based courses include a CD-ROM, or DVD. This adds a visual element that makes the learning method more complete.

DVD based courses, often with a supporting booklet or notes, provide a strong visual learning method, which many people prefer.

Getting some interactivity into your learning is a great way to speed up your learning. Online and computer software based course can offer this, so be sure to check out some of these courses.

When considering your choice, think about where you will learn and practice. If you pick a DVD course will it be convenient to learn in front of your DVD player? Equally for computer based courses, is it practical to sit in front of the computer to learn?

Spend some time looking at the various courses available and make a short list of your favourites. You should then try to find out what others think of these courses. Try looking at some of the review sites that appear when you search for "learn guitar". Another good way to get some info is to visit guitar forums, and do a search within the forum for the courses you are interested in and see what comments have been posted.

Getting the wrong course, can snuff out your enthusiasm quickly. Spend some time on this, get the right course for you and put your learning on the fast track.