Dunno if you read music, olddude, but if you don't, this is a painless way to learn, at least for the guitar (and this is transferable to other instruments). There are a few good basic technique books for classic guitar that will give you a pretty good handle on hand positions, technique, and such, and set you up so you can pursue it further if you wish.

Aaron Shearer.   Good, solid basic technique book that moves you easily from very simple exercises up to playing some of the easier studies by such folks as Carulli, Aguado, and Fernando Sor. The Sor studies are especially nice in that they're easy to play, good technical practice, and they sound like real music. In fact, they are real music. Shearer goes on to more complicated stuff in subsequent manuals.

Frederick Noad.   Similar to Shearer, but when you get into the later pages, he has included a few pieces for the lute that have been transcribed for the guitar.   Segovia and others have recorded some of these, even if they are pretty easy to play.

Christopher Parkening. I don't think the exercises are quite as well organized as in the first two, but it has some good pieces in the back, and it's packed with excellent photos showing how to hold the guitar securely, close-ups of hand positions, and such.

I like the sound of the classic guitar enough so that I find practicing a sheer pleasure, even if it is frustrating sometimes (braiding one's fingers!). My main interest, as I said, is folk music and using the guitar for song accompaniment, but it's nice to be able to toss in a couple of Fernando Sor's studies or a lute transcription into a set of folk songs, then hear somebody mutter, "Hey! That sucker can really play that thing!"

Bon appetit!

Don Firth