Easy Guitar Songs

By Author: Steve Laney
Total Articles: 3764
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Playing guitar is just about one of the most enjoyable things you can do. Ask any guitar player and they will tell you that. The trouble is, when you are first starting out, the learning curve can be pretty steep, which makes it pretty tough to reach the enjoyment stage. It's hard to enjoy something when your fingers are sore and you don't really know how to play anything! For this reason, you'll find a few easy guitar songs below. Enjoy!

Please bear in mind that there isn't the space or the scope to give you an in depth explanation of rhythms and strumming here, so the best thing to do is to play along with the record until you have at least a basic idea of how it should sound.

Song 1- House Of The Rising Sun, by the Animals
A great song, tremendously well known and very popular. You?ll find that simply knowing this song will cause some people to give you great acclaim as a guitar player, which can be pretty odd when you are just starting out!
Chords: Am, C, D, F, Am, E, Am

Song 2- Freebird by Lynrd Skynrd
This tune is an all time great, and guaranteed to cause legions of beer drinking ...
... men all over the world to lock arms and hoist their lighter?s in the air! Obviously the guitar solo at the end takes some time to master, but if you forget about that and just go with the chords you can build up a pretty convincing version of this classic song.
Main Verse Chords- G, D/F#, Em, F, C, D
Chorus- F, C, D
Fast Part at the end- G5, A#5, C5, (cycle all 3 over and over)

Song 3- Knockin On Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan/Guns n Roses
One of the easiest songs to learn and get sounding really good. Just one thing to note, if you want to play along with the Guns? version, note that they tune their guitars down a half step, so the chords you play will need to be one step flat to sound the same as their recording.
Chords: G, D, Am7

Song 4- For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield.
Ever wonder what Neil Young did before he was old and grizzled? He was in bands like this. This song is possible the easiest song to learn for a beginning guitar player, as it's just the same two chords cycled over and over. Songs like this prove that you don't have to be Steve Vai or someone like that to write and play good music.
Chords: E, A, E, A etc etc

Song 5- Sympathy For Devil, The Rolling Stones
An excellent song, and one that many people are surprised to find is so simple to play.
It sounds excellent whether played on a beat up acoustic or on an electric, so go to town!
Chords: E, D, A, E over and over
Chorus- B, E, B, E over and over

Learning simple guitar songs like this is a great way to build up your confidence and experience with the instrument. Once you get these songs down, you'll be ready to go on and tackle more and more difficult songs each time!