Proud owner of a new guitar! What now? How do you learn how to play? It used to be a friend taught you or you bought a book. Sometimes, if you were able to you could pay for a guitar tutor.

All perfectly great ideas but in this multi-media age we have a few more choices available to us.

Let's start.

The friend: This can be a good idea, usually very economical (friends don't usually charge!) We have to assume for this purpose your friend is indeed an expert and perhaps doesn't teach you habits in your playing style that are not the best but difficult to break away from in the future.

The Teacher: An excellent choice. It could become an expensive one over time, but that is for you to decide. I certainly went along this route for a while but for me the actual time constraints became a problem. Trying to fit in with family life and your guitar teacher is not always a smooth ride!

The book: A good safe choice. A book is always available at your side, usually full of theory. The down side that I found is sometimes especially as a beginner you need to see and hear how it's done rather than read and misinterpreted!

The DVD: I personally found this a better choice than the book. Watching and hearing an expert playing, linked to the DVD's ability to play that part over and over until you fully understand is a great way to learn. The only flaw in this system is the amount of information that can be stored on a DVD. When get to the end you have to buy another one.

The internet: This was a revelation to me. You can learn to play the guitar on the internet. It has the same positive aspects of the teacher, book and DVD plus more. You can learn as much theory as you want to, you can have someone onscreen teaching you at whenever it suits you, for as long as you want. You can ask questions if you need to and download any song you want to learn to play.

My advice has got to be, search the internet for an online course. We all know the internet is a fantastic source of information of all kinds, and learning to play the guitar is no exception. It can be expensive but it also can be economical or even free in places. Don't be sucked into buying the dearest course thinking that this must be the best especially if money is tight for you. There is a lot of low cost or even free on the internet that will improve you playing; if you keep looking you will find something new every day.

Home learning with the internet can be both fun and rewarding. No time constraints, no pressure. If you make mistakes nobody will ever know so you can relax and enjoy yourself and if you are relaxed you will absorb more and take your guitar playing forward.