Easy guitar songs

JuJuYNWA

Hi Folks,

Just wondering of you could reccommend some songs that would be easy for me to pick up on the acoustic guitar to build up my confidence.

I'm a complete beginner and i'm after buying a Yamaha F310 (on advice from the instruments forum and mates).

My musical experience isnt that extensive, i thought myself how to play bass without any formal lessons over the last five years and am fairly competent, but i just want to pick up a few songs on the guitar now.

My mates i play with have been helpfull enough and are giving me basic lessons, but my fingers feel so big!! Might get some proper lessons in the new year but im not really interested in learning to an advanced level.

Basically what i want is to be able to play easy songs from any genres that i/others can sing along to.

Cheers in advance

kev_s88

anything by oasis

leninbenjamin

indeed. Wonderwall is actually a really good song to learn, mainly for the strum patterns.

Street Spirit is another perennial beginners song, along with Stairway of course.

kev_s88

everybody hurts by REM

qwertplaywert

Also a beginner[although on electric] trying to do it self taught[will also prop start lessions after christmas]. The Pearl Jam song 'Last Kiss' is a great one for starting off, not too hard, but some pratice required. Also 'Big Me' by the Foo Fighters is a good simple tune for starting off on baare chords.

Lockstep

You'd be surprised how many three-chord songs there are out there.

I heard an acoustic version for London Calling a while ago, I forget where but the chord sequence for the verse is :
EM/Em/Em/Em, C/c/c/c, Em/em/em/em, g/g/g/g

IT can easily be played along to the normal version


Alternatively, Boulevard of Brokend Dreams by Green Day has an easy acoustic part.

Finally, Time of Our Lives by Green Day is also simple

DonalN

a lot of people love the ol Christy tunes...

the 3-chord king himself!

leninbenjamin

kickoutthejams wrote: »

You'd be surprised how many three-chord songs there are out there.

practically every single song can be reduced to three chords. the chords I, IV and V contain all the notes in the major scale, so any song based on the major scale (which is most Western songs) can effectively be reduced to I, IV, V. or I, ii, V. so it's not at all surprising. now for ya

JuJuYNWA

So the songs ive been able to make a decent effort at so far have been oasis - wonderwall, foos - walking after you, kings of leon - fans, johnny cash - hurt, and a good few of the popular snowpatrol songs.

Will give Christy a go later in the week.

mathias

Time of Our Lives by Green Day is also simple

Actually its called "good riddance" , and its off the nimrod album.

http://www.amazon.com/Nimrod-Green-Day/dp/B000002NIH

Trip Hazard

Yeah I agree Godd Riddence by green day is a great beginner song, it was one of the first songs I learned and it great for getting used to Chord Progression.

It goes G, G, Cadd9, D,
then Em, D, Cadd9, G
Then the chorus is Em, G, Em, G, Em, D, G
EASY STUFF!! and great to play

Look up them chords and you'll find its easy to change between them. Just listen to the Song for the Strum pattern its DDU-UDU DDU-UDU

Gaspode

Horse with no name by America is extremely easy. 2 chords is all (022000 and 200200)and most people know the chorus......la la la lalalalala la la la lalalalala la la la lalalalala !!

Rustar

kickoutthejams wrote:

You'd be surprised how many three-chord songs there are out there.

How about one chord songs?

"More human man than hu-ma-mannnnn"

"We're gonna rock on to Electric Avenue...and then we'll take it higher"

"Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream......it is not dying....it is not dying...."

"We see them burnin' crosses...see the flames, higher and higher.....bullet the blue sky..."

hudie mcmenamin

You could learn Lola by the Kinks: C, D, E, A for the main bit and a few minor chords in the middle-8

Another party favourite is Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd: C, D, Am, G

You should also get the Dubliner's greatest hits with Dirty Old Town, Wild Rover etc.
Fisherman's Blues and A Bang on The Ear by the waterboys are also dead easy to play along with.

Other easy songs: Gloria by Them E, D, A
Heart of Gold by Neil Young, Em, D, C, G
Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival, C,A,G,F,D etc
Mrs Robinson etc by Simon and Garfunkel

Also remember that a lot of these songs might not be in concert pitch, but could be out by a semi-tone either way, so be prepared to retune your guitar often (or have a capo at the ready). There's a zeppelin song, Heartbreaker, where the solo is played on a guitar that's a quarter-tone off from the main part!

gafferino

I would highly recommend that you learn some beatles songs. There is alot of levels of playing on their songs generally getting more difficult the more albums they have. You could start my learning their early pop tunes such as Twist n Shout, cant buy me love, 8 days a week etc Then continue on to more difficult stuff such as Blackbird as you see fit. They use a lot of chords too so it will teach you more than just the songs.

gary the great

White Stripes - I just dont know what to do with myself - sounds good and is simple

adox

Polly - Nirvana.

Even for a complete novice like me, it was a piece of cake to learn.

nij

Paperback Writer - The Beatles. 2 chords: G7, C.

Although there is that lick at the start but that's just a simply pentatonic thing in G

windsurfer99ie

I'm in the same boat, and I found this web site that lists lots of simple songs:

http://www.justinguitar.com/html/beginners_html/BC04-EasySongs.html