Good Stuff to Start With.....

It sounds like you're off to a great start. I'm a newbie myself and can't really offer any suggestions on where to go next except maybe to check out the easy songs forum and see if you can't find a few songs that you know.

The GOOD news:

Guitar is, or should be in my opinion, a lifelong pleasure and assuming you are not 102... You have plenty of time to let the wine (your playing style) age.

The GOOD news:
You sound very motivated. Try not to ever let that go, but relax enough to know you dont have to learn it all today.

The Good news:
You have learn QUITE a lot for your level. Very impressive!!

The Best news:
You've found GN and hopefully you will find the same type of friends and support that many of us have.

There is NO bad news. But now to answer your question. There are a ton of songs that have just three or four chords. Mostly chords you have already listed as knowing. I think my first song with my instructor was Wild World. I felt like it was a bit too much. But then again, I felt like everything was a bit too much until about 9 months into my playing. Then things started to click a little.

Its hard to tell YOU what song you should play cause the most important thing as far as picking songs is to pick something that thrills you. That is the type of song you will sit for hours and try to learn. Depending on the song, it may take a while. But if you REALLY love the song.. you will most of the time get it. You could learn other scales. You could learn variations of the chords you already know. You could learn to read notation or tab (if you dont know how already).

There is so much.. That is why sometimes it is a great idea to get an instructor cause if they are decent then they can keep you focused.

I wish you the best. I know I didnt specifically answer your question but I hope what I said does help in the long term.

Geoo

The GOOD news:
The Best news:
You've found GN and hopefully you will find the same type of friends and support that many of us have.
Geoo

Well said Geoo. This place will help tremendously.

Back to Will's post. Your doing great, better then I was at that time. I'd say learn some more simple songs for another few weeks. Then get working on techniques to use with scales.

Try some simple blues.

Paul

You're progressing WAY faster than anyone I know. I think I had about maybe 1/6th of what you have down in that time.

There is one thing I can offer you that I wish I had known 4 years ago in my first weeks of playing. Practice slowly: it's not a race. When you learn the basics you will develop bad habits based on a normal tendency to want to hurry learn something, move on, learn quick, move on, etc. Learn it slow and right. That finger memory will remember your mistakes and your correct fingering. Print this out and put it in a drawer. Pull it out and I want you to read this again. Then ask yourself if the advice we gave you in your second week was correct or worked.

Then come back here and post the results. I'm interested...

My first guitar (which I bought before I could even play!) was a Tanglewood 28. I still miss that guitar - it was one of the finest sounding instruments. I've worked my way up the ladder and owned every Tanglewood since, and guess what, I still don't think any of them sounded as good as the T28. Treat it to some D'addario EJ16's strings and it is a diamond!

On advice, I've been playing four years and for the first three I avoided barre chords like the plague (there's always a way round them). Big mistake. I've finally learned to barre the last year and it opens up a whole new world. Wish I'd made the effort years ago.

Keep going man - you're doing well.

play the songs slowly and try to sing along with your playing. if you do it now your singing and playing will develop at the same time. i didn't do it and now my singing has to catch up!

Man, there are so many classic songs you can play with those chords:

Heaps of good songs use only C G D, you'll find alot of them, instead of C you can use Cadd9 because its much easier to change into from D and G. Cadd9 is just like a G but with the index and middle fingers moved down 1 string each [leave the top string open and dont play it]) It sounds like cheating I know but alot of songs specifically use this chord and you'll hear that it sounds 'right' in some songs.

with these 3, plus the occassional Am and Em you can play recognisable versions of:

Knocking on Heavens Door - Dylan (very simple 3 chord progression)
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Good Riddance - Green Day
Sweet Child of Mine - Guns n' Roses
Let her Cry - Hootie and the Blowfish
Revolution - Tracy Chapman
Everybody hurts - REM (good for fingerpicking practice)
Wish you were Here - Pink Floyd (this is especially good for practicing your open chord changes)

and thats just what I can think of off the top of my head. (and in case your wondering, no, i dont know any songs that were written after 1995) These are all songs i first learned to play with and I still like playing them.

In fact, speaking of Bob Dylan you can probably also play The times, they are a-changin' and Tamborine Man, so if your not a Dylan fan, maybe nows a good time to start.

And if you really want to impress the ladies, learn F and play Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits. But id concentrate on your open chords before you move to an F just yet.

Anyway, good luck!

Nice guitar by the way! Are the tuning keys in a staircase kind of shape? Like do they get bigger as they go out?

Honestly, my recomendation is to just keep screwing around with tabs online for awhile. For me, the first month was just trying to get comfortable with the guitar. Just keep playing whatever sparks your interest, and you'll get better with guitar facetime. Then after that first month, or however long, you can try to find areas to refine, and probably be a lot more ready for the GN beginner songs.

When it comes to trying to get the mp3's to work, try taking down your firewall if you have one up, those will usually disallow mp3's and stuff. If that doesn't work, pm me and I can work with you on getting those to work.

Everybody hurts - REM (good for fingerpicking practice)

Go easy with this one, there's some F#7's and Bm's in the bridge. The good news is that Sausage Fingered Mick (regular readers will know about this student of mine) can play it p-i-m-a-m-i. Oh, yes! Result!

Best,

A :-)

yea, fair call, forgot about ye' old bridge.
still, its the first song i ever learned to fingerpick on.

Still Will, you can get about a minute and a half into it just playing G, D A, and Em but because you only play the Top and the bottom 3 strings, you dont have to even hold the Em at all or 1 string of the A (A can be difficult for beginners because its quite cramped). The rhythm is easy and everyone knows how it goes. Theres even a simple little walk down from G to Em which amazed me when i first played it.

I think the rest of the forum has a point, you'll only enjoy playing songs that you know and like. So its best to search around for tabs from your own favourite artists. If you open a tab, dont be scared by a technical intro or whatever, scroll through the tab and sure enough there will almost always be a simple chord progression that will allow you to play a recognisable version of the song.