Hey,
I'm just after starting playing guitar and i was wondering if anyone could recommend some easy songs using open chords for me to learn as a i want to practice my strumming and chord changing.
Thanks guys!
Welcome to GN. Now that you're logged in, you get to see a special little section they put together a few years back. The Easy Songs database. Some of them are not quite so easy, but many are. https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=7
There are also some very good beginner's song lessons on the main GN website. Here's the first one, but there's quite a few that followed. This one just touches all the basics and many have found it quite useful. https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/horse-with-no-name/ There are others that follow. I think he's up to 40 of them.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
As a recent beginner myself I can recommend a few:
I'm Yours by Jason Mraz - this is easy as long as you have a capo. Pop it on the 4th fret, then it's just G, D, Em, and C, lather rinse and repeat! Em to C is an easy chord change as you keep one finger in place. You treat the capo like the nut (end) of the neck and play the chords in the same way as normal.
Dance Tonight by Paul McCartney - simply G, D, G, D, C, D, G! Good for practising strumming too.
Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams - this does have one barre chord (Bm) but it's a simple one, the rest are simple chords - D, A, G.
Ramblin' Man by the Allman Brothers Band - G, F, G, C, D, C, G, Em, C, G, D, G. If you've played Guitar Hero World Tour, you've played this one!
UltimateGuitar.com lets you sort tabs/chord layouts by skill level, it's worth browsing through to see if there are any of your favourites. And of course Guitar Noise has a whole selection of Beginner's Lessons with some great songs. I recommend Hurt and Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.
One thing to bear in mind is that you might try and play a song now and think you can't do it, but if you keep at it you will get it. If you think a song is too complicated, try a simpler one and come back to the other in a few weeks. You'll be surprised how much better you'll be. I was!
I'm a beginner too and I have only been playing about 2 months, second time around, and already picked it up alot better this time around. The songs I have learnt cause they were relatively easy are, wish you were here plenty of time for the chord changes and you can learn that one here, which is where I did. and my latest song and second is knockin on heavens door by Bob Dylan. Which I,ve learnt from you tube learning chords is the easiest part, and chord changing not that differcult either but without a strumming pattern you won't know how to play any song, so as long as you can find a strumming pattern to follow you can play nearly any "easy" song :note2:
Good luck and keep practising everyday
Daza.
Welcome to GN Norman! Good answers here. The "Songs for Beginners" in the main site is a good starting point. As Roy said, there are around 40 songs and each one has a text that explains the strumming patterns and the chords. There also is a "Songs for Intermediates" section that you can follow when finished with the Beginners section or when you want to experiment new techniques.
And also there is a podcast that it is very interesting!
There are literally thousands and thousands of songs which use simple open chords - or, if they don't, can be transposed, possibly using a capo.
If you know G, Em, C and D chords, I reckon you can play probably about 1000 songs or so. A D and E, that'll increase exponentially. You might have to transpose some of those songs from the original key, but the capo will help there.
Hopefully, in the near future, the Easy Song Database will be getting a major overhaul that'll make it easier to look for songs using those easy open chords.....stay tuned for further announcements!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
There are literally thousands and thousands of songs which use simple open chords - or, if they don't, can be transposed, possibly using a capo.
If you know G, Em, C and D chords, I reckon you can play probably about 1000 songs or so. A D and E, that'll increase exponentially. You might have to transpose some of those songs from the original key, but the capo will help there.
Hopefully, in the near future, the Easy Song Database will be getting a major overhaul that'll make it easier to look for songs using those easy open chords.....stay tuned for further announcements!
:D :D :D
Vic
What I found when I first started was chord sheets in flat keys, close to as recorded as possible for what was mainly piano sheet music, which made open chords hard to do. Easy versions of the songs were found in "easy guitar' books, but of coarse you played in a different key then the most famous recording of a song.
Most popular songs don't necessarily have to have a "hard" comping part. It only becomes hard when you try to replicate the exact key, exact finger picking and/or strumming pattern, the virtuoso's solos or a full band arrangement with you single instrument. The "easy" song in many cases is the song you already know, you instinctively feel when chord changes come and you already hear the intervals in your mind. Reading just confirms where you already want to go.
