Guitar Noise

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to turn a song into a single guitar arrangement and the first part of the answer is that you have to learn the song! In this lesson we break down this White Stripes’ song into its component parts – bass, rhythm and lead (learning them on the electric guitar) – so that we can later create a single acoustic guitar arrangement of this song.

Some of you may agree with the “Easy” label, but our arrangement of this Bob Dylan favorite (from the album, “Nashville Skyline”) can be played very easily with the use of a capo, plus a very simple picking pattern. More important, though, is that is can be used as a great lesson to help you get used to switching between open position chords and basic barre chords. With some practice and patience, you should find yourself playing it well in no time.

If you’re going to play an emotionally charged song, you can’t hide behind a single strumming pattern. In this lesson we take one of the highlight songs from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and arrange it for a single guitar, using many strumming and crosspicking techniques we’ve gone over in our Guitar Noise Podcast series. You’re going to have a lot of fun with this one!

Here’s an easy, yet slightly challenging take on a familiar strumming / picking pattern, featuring a fun Rolling Stones’ song that you’ll be playing well in no time at all.

Here’s a great example of how a simple pop song can help you to build up some solid technique in using partial chords, playing with finger-style or pick, and making some interesting chord changes on the fly. And to top it off, it’s even got some very easy (and short!) walking bass lines. Not to mention it’s a great work out for your basic rhythm…

Man on the Moon is a beautiful song that beginners can play easily, and it doesn’t take all that much to add some very nice touches to it for a solo arrangement. It also offers a good look at how to “cheat” on quick chord changes.

Just when you thought we were done with walking bass lines, along comes another song where they play an important musical role! Plus, we’ll take a look at getting started on barre chords (and also look at making substitutions for them to cut us some slack!) and learn a cool little guitar riff.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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 at all and still spend ages on practicing in order to get the kinds of sounds you want. Songs like this never get old.

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.

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 get the basics of this classic Pink Floyd song down so that we can tackle the second guitar part in the upcoming Intermediate lesson.

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.

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!