Here's another one for you all !....an easy song to learn..

Hi,

There's a whole forum section here full of "Easy Songs" and it includes an index. So have a look through and see if you can find anything that would suit you.

Just be aware though that if you're a complete beginner that there isn't really such a thing as a totally "Easy Song", unless it's a simple nursery rhyme or something like that.

There are of course some songs that are easier than others, and you can learn a simpler version of some songs too. Reasons why songs aren't actually as 'easy' as more experienced players sometimes say include:

I'm not trying to put you off here. :) Quite the reverse. One of the first request beginners make is always for an "Easy Song" to play, and many get very discouraged when they find that they can't even seem to make a good job of what somebody said was easy. Don't be disappointed when your attempts don't seem to rock as much as you'd hoped. Hang in there! We all tend to forget how tough it was at first.

There's a lot to learn at the start, and just as you start to get the hang of one thing (like moving your fingers) - up crops another issue (like theory, timing, tone, expression, etc). There's no real magic method or order to learning all the skills, and some often seem slower to master than others. However, slowly but surely they do all start to come together. Just don't feel like you're not progressing if you find that even the so-called easy songs take a while to get right.

Good luck and enjoy the ride, 8)

Cheers,

Chris

Hi,

There's a whole forum section here full of "Easy Songs" and it includes an index. So have a look through and see if you can find anything that would suit you.

Just be aware though that if you're a complete beginner that there isn't really such a thing as a totally "Easy Song", unless it's a simple nursery rhyme or something like that.

There are of course some songs that are easier than others, and you can learn a simpler version of some songs too. Reasons why songs aren't actually as 'easy' as more experienced players sometimes say include:

I'm not trying to put you off here. :) Quite the reverse. One of the first request beginners make is always for an "Easy Song" to play, and many get very discouraged when they find that they can't even seem to make a good job of what somebody said was easy. Don't be disappointed when your attempts don't seem to rock as much as you'd hoped. Hang in there! We all tend to forget how tough it was at first.

There's a lot to learn at the start, and just as you start to get the hang of one thing (like moving your fingers) - up crops another issue (like theory, timing, tone, expression, etc). There's no real magic method or order to learning all the skills, and some often seem slower to master than others. However, slowly but surely they do all start to come together. Just don't feel like you're not progressing if you find that even the so-called easy songs take a while to get right.

Good luck and enjoy the ride, 8)

Cheers,

Chris
Thanks alot Chris, i forgot about looking there !

Since you mention the Grateful Dead and that you want to learn the song by ear.... You might give Black Peter (on Workingman's Dead) a listen. It's pretty simple. If you need to cheat I've got a chord list you could have, just email me. Anyway, it's a bit challenging, but not really hard.

Not on your list, but Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead is also a fairly easy song. Simple strumming and only four or five chords.

Both of these are songs you need to sing since the guitar part is just accompanyment, but they're easy enough that I've been able to use them to get the singing part of my brain to be able to work (a little) with the guitar playing part....

Yep, not all beginner songs are easy. Slow songs are easier to learn cuz you can play them real s-l-o-w-l-y and still keep your place in the song. Far harder to strum madly thru 4 bars of the same chord and then switch smoothly! Easy songs for me (very new) are songs with few chords, stuff that I can hum in my sleep (or play with full band in my head) and am willing to listen to a few hundred times.. Also stuff with no set recorded arrangement that I feel compelled to follow note for note.
BTW that arrangement of Twinkle Twinkle is in the intermediates section for a reason! :evil: But gives you a nice classical type piece to play when so motivated... and Willie Nelson does a version that I can barely reproduce on the piano with the written music in front of me ... some food for thought :wink: ...
One of the first songs I learned (on guitar) was Dark Star. I confess I do have the sheet music for this but it meets all other criteria. The GD have done this song about 300x, there is an internet radio station that plays nothing but Dark Star (!) and really, it is 2 chords. Like this:
.... A (boom chuck with open A string) and G (bottom G followed by arpeggio riff on top 3 strings, up and back down). Repeat multiple times until you feel the bridge coming on. OK ready for bridge ... A (strum vigorously 3 x) ... then A7 arpeggio ... to G arpeggio and resolve with Em ... pauses during chord changes are OK -- NOW insert whatever Pink Floyd or gypsy riff here along basic blues chromatic scale lines that you might have been practicing and wondering what to do with - and repeat bridge. Then back to A / G riff. Then back to bridge. Etc. Until fatigue sets in or vision appears. :lol: That was fun!

I bet that you could learn to play some of greendays songs by ear. Songs like Extraordinary girl(dont worry aboout the intro riff, its meant to be played in a sitar), holiday, and whatsername. Most of these songs you should be able to play most of by ear.

sage like words from Chris C... as ever...i've been playing for 7 months now sloddog and its starting to click....it really is the strumming hand that makes a song something more than a series of chords....what you want to try to achieve....as chris pointed out..it is often the singing part that creates the melody...so try to achieve that in your strumming....by that i mean pick out the phrasing...sing it and try to tap it out....not as easy as it sounds but you will get the idea...it is a good starting point and i find it easier than following given strumming patterns...

above all...dont be too disapointed if it doesn't sound like it should...it takes TIME

good luck 8)

of course it depends on your current ability, there is not any real easy song around. The minimum required ability to play the so-called easy strumming songs are:

a) being able to change smoothly at regular speed all of the most common open chords (at least G, C, D, E, A both major and minor);
b) being able to play at least the most-common eight notes strumming patterns at least at 120-130 bpm speed

if you can do both things U2 and Rem are a good place to start

if you can play power-chords and eight-note downstrums strumming pattern at at least 140-160 bpm speed you could also try some Green day's numbers

cheers

Matteo