20 years ago there were only a few ways to learn. You either picked up a guitar and locked yourself in a room to figure out how to get a sound out of it, or you took lessons at a music store or guitar teachers home.

Today, the choices are much more varied. To learn how to play guitar you can buy a book, or take lessons from a local music teacher, or you can go online and get a course, or you can just watch pros on YouTube and copy what they are doing.

The one thing the internet hasn’t done is make the most important step redundant. You can’t plug a USB stick into the back of your neck and instantly learn to play guitar. It still takes a ton of practice to learn how to play guitar.

You have a lot more access to guitar teaching material, but you’ll still have to put in hundreds of hours of private practice time if you are serious, and want to learn to play guitar.