Instruction can include everything from classroom lectures to advice from friends. It is the imparting of knowledge directly from one person to another. It can be factual or experienced based. It has the benefit of being interactive; the person being instructed can ask questions and received personalized answers. A good instructor will know her audience and be able to produce examples and details which are interesting and help make concepts clear. People who are auditory or listening learners benefit especially from oral instruction, while visual learners will remember a demonstration best.
The general category of reading can include studying pictures and diagrams as well as reading words. Reading is the easiest way for a person to expand his individual learning and to learn about subjects of special interest. The use of visual aids in combination with oral instruction can be very effective, as they appeal to more than one sense. Visual learners will often remember things they have seen far better than things they have heard.
The old saying "experience is the best teacher" has a great deal of sense behind it. Especially when it comes to practical skills, there is no better way to gain and retain information than through hands-on experience. This involves things like practice and trial-and-error. Be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them. You'll know when you're doing the right thing when it works and that you're not when it doesn't. Rather than being frustrated, recognize each failure as a chance to learn something new about the skill you're trying to acquire.
While instruction, reading and experience are the three pillars of learning, understanding is the foundation on which these three pillars are based. Whatever way information is acquired, the thing that translates it into learning is the ability to understand the information --- to reason about it, to explain it, to connect it to other information. A student who does not understand is never going to be able to do more than rote memorization. However you learn, the important thing is that the information makes sense to you. If you find it interesting, relevant and useful you will remember it for a long time to come.