Easy Songs for Beginners

If you already have a grasp of guitar basics (holding your guitar, tuning it) then the next step is to start building a repetoire of songs. This series of lessons will teach you a bit of music theory and technique while you learn to play some pretty easy and well known songs. For best results you really should begin with the first lesson and work your way up.

Horse With No Name - Easy Songs for Beginners # 1 - (The Simplest Song) By David Hodge This week we take a break from chord theory and get into some song analysis, cleverly disguised as Songs For Beginners. We'll take the easiest song I know and learn to play it. Not only is it a song most of you know - it's also probably a song most of you would rather forget that you know.

Horse With No Name - Adding Some Personal Touches - Easy Songs for Beginners # 2 By David Hodge I know that a lot of you think that I probably never play the guitar 'cause I seem to spend so much time thinking about things. The reality is that there are a lot of things to think about before (and while) playing. Most of it takes less time to deal with then you will spend in reading this sentence.

For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield - Easy Songs for Beginners # 3 By David Hodge This week we learn the old Buffalo Springfield classic. Since it's only two chords, we also get to learn a new strumming technique - how to get that cool acoustic percussive sound into our rhythmic patterns.

Feelin Alright - Easy Songs for Beginners # 4 (I Got Rhythm) By David Hodge Who says a two chord song has to be boring? Like anything, it all comes down to what kind of effort you decide to put into it. Creativity is whatever you bring to the table. It is what you do with something and not just something you do. This time out, we've got yet another two chord song to work on. It's called "Feelin' Alright" and it was written by Dave Mason back when he was with the group Traffic.

Three Marlenas - The Walflowers - Easy Songs for Beginners # 5 By David Hodge Usually the biggest challenge for any beginner is to be able to play at speed. This does not mean to play something fast; it means to play something in a steady prescribed tempo. Fingering and playing a chord may come quite easily to some, but the chances are that sense of ease disappears pretty quickly when faced with more and more chord changes within a song.

Before You Accuse Me - The Blues - Part 1: Structure and Shuffle By David Hodge Today we'll be branching out into three chord songs in a big way. We'll do this by learning a standard blues song, Before You Accuse Me, written by E. McDaniel, known to the world as Bo Diddley. But we're also going to be examining the theory behind what is known as Twelve Bar Blues so, in essence, you will be able to play almost any blues song (in any key) when we're finished with these next few lessons.

Roll Over Beethoven - The Blues - Part 2: Shuffle and Fretboard Positions By David Hodge Today we will look at the 12 bar blues pattern and typical blues shuffle rhythm. When we are done you will be able to play an amazing number of straight ahead rock and roll songs. All sorts, from Chuck Berry to the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Bruce Springsteen and more performers than I could possibly list in a simple introductory paragraph.

Going to Kansas City - The Blues - Part 3 By David Hodge Okay, if you're still with me, then let's wrap up our (all too) brief introduction into the (very basic) blues. Today we're going to look at three things: the turn around, the (again, very basic) blues lead scale and what I call the grand finale. I have chosen to use the old blues standard (Going To) Kansas City for this lesson because I want to demonstrate these techniques on a song that you probably have heard but are not overly familiar with.

Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffett - Easy Songs for Beginners # 9 By David Hodge Today we're going to learn Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. In and of itself, this will not take very long. We will only need three chords (okay, four, but one (A7) is just a simple variation of another).

House of the Rising Sun - The Animals - Easy Songs for Beginners # 10 By David Hodge In this lesson we're going to learn two different fingerpicking patterns for House of the Rising Sun, a song performed by the Animals way back in the sixties. The first will be very straightforward, simply arpeggiating the chords in a very easy finger style. Then we will go on and doctor that version up a bit, throwing in slightly more complex picking which will include a bit of a moving bassline as well as using a standard alternating bassline in a few spots.

Bookends - Simon and Garfunkel - Easy Songs for Beginners # 11 By David Hodge Last time out we learned some basic fingerpicking with House of the Rising Sun. Today we're going to do something that is both a little easier and also a little harder with an old Paul Simon song called Bookends. It's a very simple song to learn and it will help us to develop some more coordination in our fingerstyle play. Specifically, it will serve to teach us to use two fingers on two different strings at the same time. And just to keep things even more interesting we'll get to look at time signature changes within songs as well as what I call planning ahead in regards to finger placement.

I Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley - Easy Songs for Beginners # 12 By David Hodge Today's song is Bob Marley's I Shot The Sheriff, which will not only serve as a delightful introduction to reggae rhythms, but I've also managed to get very sneaky and throw in some transposing as well.

If Not For You - Bob Dylan - Easy Songs for Beginners # 13 By David Hodge In and of itself, Bob Dylan's If Not For You is a very easy song. You won't find any tricky chords and if you already know the song you'll be able to breeze through this on the first take and then wonder why I'd make a lesson of it at all.

Riders On The Storm - The Doors - Easy Songs for Beginners # 14 By David Hodge Believe it or not, this is a blues song. At least in terms of song structure. It consists of four verses and each one is twelve measures in length.

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon - Easy Songs for Beginners # 15 By David Hodge As well as being a topical song for the holiday season, John Lennon's Happy Christmas can teach us several interesting things about using guitar chords. In this song we will use chordal riffs in place of a single chord. This will give us several ideas on how to strum this song. We will also throw in some simple basslines to fill out the solo performance. Best of all this lesson comes with MP3 examples to let you know if you are on the right track.

Love The One You're With - Stephen Stills - Easy Songs for Beginners # 16 By David Hodge In today's lesson, yet another (very) old chestnut from the early seventies, we'll be seeing practical applications of the chord shapes learned there. For good measure, we'll toss in a few (very) easy fills and then also look at how we'd play it in Drop D tuning.

Hey Hey, My My (or is it My My, Hey Hey?) - Neil Young - Easy Songs for Beginners # 17 By David Hodge You may not know it, but Neil Young is a true hero to the fledgling guitarist. His songs are relatively easy enough to learn quickly and still complicated enough to give you things to work on in order to hone your guitar skills. And, as bonuses, they appeal to both the electric and acoustic guitarist.

Happy - The Rolling Stones - Easy Songs for Beginners # 18 By David Hodge We'll look at an arrangement of this classic for the single acoustic guitar, made possible by the use of open G tuning and a cool driving rhythm. After this lesson you'll have no trouble at all playing rhythm like Keith Richards. Of course we've included MIDI files to help you.

Fire - Bruce Springsteen - Easy Songs for Beginners # 19 By David Hodge Sometimes the simplest of songs present the biggest of challenges - how do we take a basic song of four or five chords and make it memorable? Well, one way is to use all the dynamic power built into your guitar, working in bass lines along with the chords and playing with the dynamics of a song.

Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan - Easy Songs for Beginners # 20 By David Hodge Let's take advantage of the MP3 files and do a lesson focusing on strumming. Here's the opening song from Dylan's classic album, Blood on the Tracks. Have fun!

Sittin on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding - Easy Songs for Beginners # 21 By David Hodge Let's combine some strumming techniques with our on-going lessons on developing bass lines. There's a lot of fun to be had with this one as we work through straight strumming, a little bass-and-chord work and even toss in some arpeggio playing.

Heart of Gold - Neil Young - Easy Songs for Beginners # 22 By David Hodge Neil Young's back! Take a four chord song and add a few simple touches and amaze yourself at how cool you sound!

Silent Night - An Easy Christmas Song for Beginners By David Hodge Silent Night is a classic three-chord song. Here is a simple yet elegant, single guitar arrangement of this beautiful Christmas song. This lesson examines three essential things to playing in solo fingerstyle - melody, bass and accompaniment. You want the melody of the song to ring out, if for no other reason than letting people know what the song is! The bass and accompaniment, usually chord arpeggios, should enhance your presentation - adding color and texture. Included with this lesson is a complete MP3 file.

Wild World - Cat Stevens - Easy Songs for Beginners # 23 By David Hodge While the focus of this lesson is on switching chords smoothly, you'll also learn some cool flourishes and riffs and strumming patterns and even find a good practical use for that pesky C major scale!

Hurt - Johnny Cash - Easy Songs for Beginners # 24 By David Hodge Johnny Cash had an incredible gift for arranging and performing other people's songs. And today's lesson, a powerful, yet sparse take of Hurt by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails will give you more than enough proof of this.

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd - Easy Songs for Beginners # 25 By David Hodge So, so you think you can tell? Learn about freeing up your strumming, making it a bit more natural and a little less mechanical. In this lesson we'll bet the basics of this classic Pink Floyd song down so that we can tackle the second guitar part in the upcoming Intermediate lesson.

It's Too Late - Carole King - Easy Songs for Beginners #26 By David Hodge Who says you need a piano to play a song? Many guitarists avoid certain pieces, labeling them as piano music. This doesn't have to be you! Let's look at taking a typical piano song and arranging it so that you can play it on a single guitar. Plus, we'll have a look at seventh chords and using rhythms to make hooks.

Old Man - Neil Young - Easy Songs for Beginners # 27 By David Hodge He's baaaaack! The vast song catalog of Neil Young once again graces the pages of Guitar Noise. Here's a fun and easy song from his Harvest album that you can learn in practically no time and at and still spend ages on practicing in order to get the kinds of sounds you want. Songs like this never get old.

Nowhere Man - The Beatles - Easy Songs for Beginners #28 By David Hodge You'll learn the basics of this song so quickly that I had to throw in a lot of fun and challenging stuff. Let's put your chord melody training to good use and create an instrumental to include in this easy arrangement. Plus, pick up some new chords and a bit of theory while you're at it!

Harvest Moon - Neil Young - Easy Songs for Beginners #29 By David Hodge Let's kick off this year's Easy Songs for Beginners Lessons with a classic Neil Young tune. Have fun learning something about chord voicing, strumming, Drop D tuning and even a little ear training on the side. Plus, we've a bonus MP3 especially for all you twelve-string guitar players!

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face - Coldplay - Easy Songs for Beginners # 30 By David Hodge Here's proof that David knows some songs written in the last few years! And while it's a very easy song to learn, he does have to go and throw some lesson material in such as drones and moveable chord voicings (and capos!) and such. Oh, and it's in open C# tuning!

Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles - Easy Songs for Beginners # 31 By David Hodge This is a back to basics lesson, taking a simple, two-chord song and focusing on changing chords and strumming. You'll also get a practical introduction to slash chords and, if you still need more to learn, there are a couple of fun and easy riffs for you to add.

Friend Of The Devil - Grateful Dead - Easy Songs for Beginners # 32 By David Hodge As you learn more and more techniques, you should start trying to incorporate them into the songs you already know. We'll take a very easy song and come up with some interesting things we can do for arranging it for the single guitar.

Folsom Prison Blues / Your Cheating Heart - Easy Songs for Beginners # 33 By David Hodge David returns to the pages of Guitar Noise with another Easy Song for Beginners lesson. Work on your chord changes and strumming with not one, but two great country classics.

You Are My Sunshine - (Connecting The Dots – Part 2) By David Hodge Here's an interesting twist - we're going to use a walking bass line as a way to help us get faster and cleaner chord changes, specifically between the G and C chords. Sound implausible? Well, come along and join in the fun.

O Come All Ye Faithful By David Hodge Here's a simple chord melody arrangement of this holiday classic. And, as a bonus, it's a great exercise for practicing your chord changes in a timely manner.

As Tears Go By - (Connecting the Dots, Part 4) By David Hodge Here's another Easy Song for Beginners' Lesson, using our continued study of walking bass lines to help us create an arrangement where the bass line also helps us move the song along by shadowing the melody. Once the basics are in place, you can make the rest of the arrangement as simple or as complicated as you'd like.

Brain Damage / Eclipse - Easy Songs for Beginners #34 By David Hodge This is another Easy Songs lesson that is geared to the close to absolute beginner. We'll take basic chords that we already can play, add a very simple strumming / picking pattern and before you can say lunatic you'll be playing a very cool song.

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