This question has been asked several times on these forums, and I always feel it necessary to add my insight, because I am a professional music instructor, and as such am one of only a few people on these forums who truly understands the process involved in learning to play well.
Is it possible to learn the concepts of music on your own? Yep - if you're bright, you can teach yourself to read music, and you can understand the theory behind music. Is it possible to teach yourself to play without guidance? Yep - it will be a difficult struggle, but with some musical aptitude, you can teach yourself how to fumble around on an instrument. Will you become proficient? This is where the phrase 'not likely' comes into play. I always get a good chuckle when people suggest that you have a good chance of becoming proficient because 'so and so' rock star was self-taught. First of all, 'so and so' rock star often isn't very proficient by comparison to well-trained musicians playing the same instrument, and second of all, even if 'so and so' rock star has somehow managed to become as proficient as a well-trained musician, YOUR chances of achieving the same goal are slim to none. Saying that you can learn to play proficiently on a self-taught basis because a few other people managed it is like saying you should enter the lottery because a few other people have won in the past. But if you look at the larger picture - all the mediocre self-taught guitarists who think they're awesome but are actually horrible - you start to realize that self-taught is not the way to go if you're interested in learning an instrument well. If you just want to fool around, go ahead and teach yourself. It's great, enjoyable entertainment. But if you want to become a decent musician, suck it up and pay someone who is qualified to teach you.
It's really important you don't get suckered into the notion that having ANY music instructor will be good for you, though. There are lots of incompetent hacks who teach, because there are no regulations for music instructors. Basically, anyone who can get people to pay him or her can be a music instructor. So of course, that means that plenty of these amateurs who think they're awesome will be out there passing on their 'awesome skillz' to people who don't know any better. And they'll do it nice and cheap, too. When you see one music instructor charging $50/h and another charging $20, you'll think "wow, that first one's a rip-off." But when it comes to music lessons, you tend to get what you pay for. So what do you do? Look into the credentials of the person who will be teaching you. You want to be studying with someone who has post-secondary training, because post-secondary training teaches people how to teach music, which is a very different skill from simply playing music. You DO NOT want to be studying with a self-proclaimed professional who has played a few gigs here and there and thinks he or she knows how to teach. So demand to see their degrees. Ask them how much experience they have as a teacher. Ask if they are an active performer. Don't just sign up with the first person you meet - look around and scope out your options. If your community hosts student music festivals, go to the festivals, and ask students who impress you who they study with. If the same name keeps coming up, you may have found an excellent instructor.
So why is a personal music instructor necessary? The most important reason is that your progress will be different from other people who study guitar. I have been teaching professionally for a few years now, and although there are certain issues that every student must conquer when studying a particular musical instrument or subject, EVERY student requires a somewhat different approach to tackling these issues, because every student has different strengths and weaknesses. The notion that you can create a catch-all internet course that will adequately teach everyone how to play an instrument well is frankly ridiculous for that reason. It's also vital that you be playing the right way from the very beginning. Playing any instrument is a physical process, and effective techniques for playing these instruments have been developing for decades, if not centuries. As you develop your physical technique, it is enormously advantageous to be taught the proper techniques, and more importantly, to have someone watching you to ensure you are using them.
It's really easy to develop bad playing habits as you practice, because music is complicated and you can't concentrate on everything at once. From experience, I can tell you that the first thing a person starts to ignore when he or she is focused on hitting the right notes is HOW the notes are played (in other words, the physical approach). So what happens? A bunch of bad habits start to feel natural to you as you practice them more and more. People who don't understand this concept love to quote the old adage "if it feels natural, it isn't wrong." But this is dead wrong. If it were right, there wouldn't be so many repetitive stress injuries that resulted from practicing the wrong way. It is shocking, really, how many students will encounter a repetitive stress-related injury as a result of serious music study. If you've got no one to ensure you're doing things the right way, then your chances of developing such an injury increase dramatically - assuming, of course, that you practice on a regular basis. Most people don't practice enough to be at risk for this sort of injury, but naturally, they won't become very proficient either, and that leads to yet another advantage of taking music lessons - motivation. If you have a teacher who drives you to excel (as opposed to one who seems to be happy with you no matter how poorly you play), you will have a good reason to practice.
Simply put, there are serious advantages to having an instructor if you want to learn to play well. So what this really boils down to is what you want to achieve as a musician. If your goal is to fool around for fun and such, go the self-taught route. It's unlikely that your motivation to practice will be sustained long enough to hurt yourself, and it's unlikely that you'll care about your technical proficiency, since you'll only be interested in playing a few tunes you like. But if you're serious about learning music, find a good instructor. It's money very well spent. Have fun, and good luck, whichever way you go.
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