Easy Songs for Beginners
These easy songs for beginners lessons show you how to play songs that you already know and love. Each song is a complete guitar lesson featuring guitar tab, standard notation and audio examples.
Cat’s In The Cradle – Harry Chapin
There’s a little bit of everything in this lesson, from easy arpeggios and strumming to some basic Travis style finger picking patterns. As always, David picks the song apart into small pieces that even many beginners can get with some concerted practice. Have fun learning this Harry Chapin classic!
Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffett
Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet doesn’t take long to learn. We only need three chords and even a relative beginner will be able to impress their friends.
Adding the Bass – “Moondance”
Dan Lasley shares a fun lesson with us. It’s a bass lesson to accompany our easy guitar song lesson on Van Morrison’s Moondance.
Share Easy Songs for Beginners
Moondance – Van Morrison
Van Morrison’s Moondance is an intriguing piece because it is very easy to play (chord-wise); but it takes a little extra thought to make it sound good.
Three Marlenas – The Wallflowers
Learn to play The Wallflowers’ “Three Marlenas” – picking up some easy and interesting chord changes and strumming tips along the way!
A Horse With No Name – Adding Some Personal Touches
Our lesson of A Horse With No Name continues with advice on how to spice up your strumming as well as a look at the solo from the original recording.
A Horse With No Name – The Simplest Song
A Horse With No Name by America is one of the easiest songs for you to learn. We’re going to teach you how to play it while throwing in some music theory.
Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s
Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s is a great pop song that will help you pick up some solid technique whether you use a pick or play finger style.
Man on the Moon – R.E.M.
Man on the Moon by R.E.M. is a beautiful song that beginners can easily learn to play. We’ll also add some nice touches for a solo arrangement.
Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
In our beginner arrangement of R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion you can play the guitar, mandolin and bass parts all on a solo acoustic guitar. Sounds great.
Driver Eight – R.E.M.
This is a fun and easy to way to play the REM song Driver 8. We’re also going to learn a few new tricks like incorporating riffs into strumming.
Scarborough Fair
Learn how to play the sparse and spooky (but very easy to learn) version of Scarborough Fair that Nick and David came up with while working on The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar.
House of the Rising Sun
We’re going to learn different fingerpicking patterns for House of the Rising Sun, a folk song covered by the Animals, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and others.
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Many people were introduced to this traditional song through Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged session. It’s also been recorded by Leadbelly and many others.
