When I got my little portable Europro machine I did just start using it. It is a very basic machine, and much like using my Singer 15-91. But when I got my Janome 6600P there was so much more to it, I did need the manual and some instructions to make it fully functional. From taking the first 2 classes it made the manual make more sense. Then I bought my Husqvarna embroidery/sewing machine it was demonstrated - appeared to be easy to use, but I wanted the additional class to help me understand all the machine could do. I bought the embroidery computer software from a place 110 miles up the road, wish I had bought it locally so I could have had more training on it.
Once I know the basics then I am able to play around more with the machine to get the results I want.