Easy song

"Easy songs for beginners'" is a term I believe to be misinterpreted.

There are no easy songs for beginners in my mind.

Beginners who can play songs are not 'beginners', beginners' meaning people who just picked up a guitar for the first time.

We cannot play songs if we cannot strum and keep time strumming, which we need to do with a metronome. And we cannot play songs either if we cannot switch chords quickly and accurately.

Even the slowest sounding of songs requires us to switch chords quickly.

When we can switch chords and keep time....then we are beginners' who can then learn easy songs.

Best to use our practice time for building the necessary skills to be able to play songs in the first place.

Many times I have heard people say, "If you know 3 chords you can play music." I disagree with that. After more than a year, only now can I switch chords effectively and keep time and play strumming patterns to the point where I can now start learning some easy songs.

I have wasted much time over the past year and a half memorizing tabs and trying to chase chords trying to keep up with a song. This has done nothing to make me a better player. Only my 'real' practice and reading and advice here on the board from those who have played for many years has helped me to move in a forward direction.

My advice for songs is to not waste time on them until the building blocks are in place for it. It will save you much time, time I wish I used in a better way. :D

I don't mean to butt in here but the term "Easy songs for beginners'"are songs that beginners can learn to play . Basic chords G/C/D/E/ and maybe EM . it's not true that "Beginners who can play songs are not 'beginners"
I have played for more 20 years and still concider myself a beginner as I just bought my first electric guitar .

So playing chords and strumming is not all there is " notes etc "

please don't bag the beginners

nothing better than learning your first song on the guitar after months of practising and really sore fingers to actually get music coming out this thing you swore at and frustrated you . So I disagree with what you were saying , sure learn the basic chords get the strumming right for one song then play it .

then move on to another one will learn more that way I feel , it's the way I teach my students .

cheers

I agree with you Lotto King.
You can learn easy songs early on and that above all else is important as it keeps you interested so you wont get discouraged and give up.
Back to the original question.
Chords are important and should be practiced but I do prefer songs where notes are picked like "The Entertainer" for example.
Simpler songs are good for starters.
These types of songs will give you much better knowledge of where all the notes are on the fretboard.
They will also teach finger independence and better pic control.

Hi lotto king, conversation is good here but...bag beginners? I am not doing that, whatever that means. I am a beginner who only recently is able to play fluently the exact chords you mentioned in your post.

I defined beginner as someone picking up a guitar for the first time and trying to play those 3 chord songs, as I did, taken from the context of the term "Easy songs for beginners". Looking back, I felt it was a waste of time without the physical ability to play chords. I am looking back (which was not long ago) at my own experience and guitar is like anything else physical, even karate as an analogy....I can show you a green belt routine (not really) and you will know how to do it but you won't be able to do it, not for a long time. That is all I was saying about beginners (just picking up a guitar for the first time) trying to play songs for beginners as it is described/interpreted....that is where all the frustration comes from for us. Working on the necessary skills and exercises instead of trying those songs and only learning those 3 chords for all the time invested....looking back I would have gone farther much sooner if I was not doing that and now I find my learning curve is much faster from the constant and varied drilling over the past couple of months. But as you mention, it gives some needed motivation.

It is good that we can disagree and see things differently here. Everyone has their own way of looking at things.

Be well. - Joe. :D

True Discussion is a healthy state of mind

the point I was trying to put across is that those 3 chord songs you mentioned , gives beginners great deal of satisfation and teaches strum patterns For the absolute beginner . Timming / Rhythm / finger placement ( chords )

The 3 chord song gives much needed boosts of confidence to the beginner when they actually play something that someone has made money from and then their mind is much more comfortable in learning tougher things such as the dreaded B and F majors .

I read another post from a beginner just one minute ago which proves to me that when this man gets everything happening for him for one song he will be a very happy man , but really he will only be able to play that one song . But if he does not learn to play it how long will he persist ?

So many people try and give up because it's too hard , is it too hard learning all the components of the guitar or is it too hard to play a 3 chord song ?

3 chord songs give confidence to move on to something harder

But the end of the day different people are looking for different things from the guitar ( classical guitarist / camp fire guitarist / rock and roll star )

they all struggle as beginners and all love the first song they play WHEN they play it .

JoeLefty and Lotto king,

Actually I think your both right. I'm going on my third year playing guitar and I agree with what Joe said. It took me a long time, (at least a year) before I was fluent enough with switching chords and strumming properly even to play beginner songs well. I do beleive like Joe mentioned that it's better to work on fundamentals then alot of songs will fall into place.

It does come down to the individual though and what they prefer. To me it didn't make sense to pick a three chord song that I couldn't play and keep workinmg that one song until I could. That might take months, so instead I would work on chord changes/ strumming as drills not necessarily in a song per se. Once I had the basics down then I could try a bunch of songs and they would fall into place much faster.

Some of the easier ones you can basically pick up after just playing them a couple times.

It all just comes down to a matter of choice.

I am finding after a month and a half that some songs have all the chords beginners need to learn. Take house of rising sun for instance; AM, C, D, F, E, pretty much round and round. The strumming I like to just play with till it sounds right. Its also a good way to practice chord changes. I also think you have to learn chords first thats a given. When playing an "easy" song if there are chords I need work on, or need to change faster I will stop the song and go back and forth between those chords. I have to try a song sometimes, as I don't have the discipline for tedious practice

I agree with both points of view also. There is nothing better than being able to play something recognizable soon after beginning the guitar. I found this was easier to do with fingerpicking or playing the melody of a song. When it came to chord strumming my experience was similar to JoeLefty and cnev. I would try and play a song using 4 downstrokes on the chords I knew but between the changes being slow and the rhythm just not sounding like what the song should sound like and the humming/singing being off it never really worked out. I felt that in order to speed up my progress I would just strum different chord progressions using different patterns. I concentrated on this for a several months (no songs) and it really helped. Now I can pick up on songs fairly quickly. But of course the fun part is being able to play songs so you want to try as soon as possible.

smoke on the water is easy too!!..... Oh sorry, didnt mean to interupt your discusion... :oops: :roll: