When most people decide to learn the guitar, they see the only natural option as approaching a professional tutor. Of course, if you are looking to pick up the guitar quickly, one on one lessons with a qualified guitar tutor are probably the fastest way to perfect your skills and to progress with your tuition. It's also probably one of the most expensive, as compared to the various self-teaching methods available for the determined student. With some determination and drive, teaching yourself in your own time at home can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience, and can save you money in the long run, as well as enable you to spend enough time where you need it most in learning the guitar.

To learn to play guitar at home, you need only a guitar book or a connection to the Internet to pickup guitar online lessons. Other than that, you can begin learning the guitar in a couple of hours a week, or a couple of hours a day depending on your schedule. But in order to succeed at learning guitar, practice is vital, and regular access to a guitar is essential. For this reason, most students borrow a guitar from a friend or family, or purchase one of their own. For less than $100, you can find a great beginners guitar, which will allow you to practice whenever possible for quicker results.

Starting to play the guitar at home firstly requires you to learn how to tune the instrument. Initially, buying an electronic tuner with an LCD display will suffice, although for the longer term it will be desirable to learn open tuning. In most guitar books, you will find a guide to basic tuning, although in summary playing each string in the fifth fret should equate to the sound of the open string directly below. If this is not the case, the string directly below must be adjusted at the machine heads until it sounds 'in tune'. The exception to this rule is the third string, which must sound similarly to the string below when played in the fourth fret. Again, if there is a discrepancy, it is the second string (i.e. the string directly below) that must get adjusted accordingly to ensure it sounds the same note.

After learning how to tune the guitar, learning at home requires you to grasp the basic chords before you can progress to playing songs, and more complicated chord patterns. Initially, working towards playing a song is the best way to motivate improvement, and to work towards learning to play guitar at home. After learning the basic 'open' chords, it is perfectly possible to play most songs, thus learning to play the guitar is not necessarily a terribly complex process. However, it is the ability to play by ear, and to change fluently between complex chords that makes a good guitarist. To increase proficiency, it is essential to practice regularly, and to continue to set targets and to progress.