By 
Woodworking as a hobby or business is a great outlet for your creativity. Woodworking provides immense satisfaction through the creation of tangible objects. Learning woodworking can be daunting at first unless the learning process is broken down into steps.
When starting out, woodworking can be learned by taking classes at a local high school or community college. You will have to find the time to attend these classes. Classes often include a hands-on component so you can work on a project as skills are learned. These classes introduce you to a variety of tools typically used in woodworking.
That said, many carpenters are self-taught. The secret to learning woodworking is learning and understanding the basics and starting to create small projects. These projects may initially include basic carpentry joints using dimension lumber purchased from a lumber supplier or box store. Once you develop your skills, woodworking can become more advanced. Examples of simple joinery are dowel joints and rabbet joints. Advanced joinery would be mortise and tenon joints and dovetail joints. Mistakes will be made initially, but it is through these mistakes that woodworking is sometimes best learned.
There are many books and magazines available today that cover all aspects of woodworking. Books can be general in nature or they can discuss specific carpentry skills. Magazines usually cover one technique and provide projects you can work on. Projects often include detailed plans.
There are generally two types of joinery in use today. The first type involves the exclusive use of machinery and power tools, while in the second type manual tools dominate. Exclusive use of machinery is typically seen in higher volume furniture production settings. The use of hand tools in woodworking is a growing trend as it has many benefits including minimal noise and hardly any dust generation. With smaller living spaces today and the need for quiet; working wood with hand tools often makes sense.
However, the use of machinery and power tools is often necessary in the initial stages of a project. This stage would be the preparation of the boards and components of the project. Although the wood in a project can be prepared by hand, it can be tedious and time consuming.
For this reason, there is a new type of woodworking called hybrid woodworking that involves a combination of power tools and hand tools. Power tools are used in the early stages of a project to prepare and coat boards. Hand tools are then used to create the necessary joinery and continue to shape the boards into components of the furniture being created. Finer, more detailed work is best done with hand tools like chisels and small back saws.
Woodworking is a broad subject and the skills are usually acquired over many years of practice creating furniture. However, learning the basics can speed up this process considerably. Fewer mistakes are likely to be made if certain woodworking concepts are understood early on. A common problem faced by novice woodworkers is a lack of understanding of the movement of wood. Wood moves as it dries and expands when subjected to a moist environment. If no allowance is made for the movement of the wood during furniture construction, the furniture can slowly begin to self-destruct, as wood is not inherently dimensionally stable. This is just a concept that is important to understand early on.
To learn all about woodworking through an online woodworking course, visit: http://www.woodskills.com/Courseware/WoodworkingCourse.html