Previously I’ve written about the 11 Best Beginner Guitar Songs To Learn and it’s now time to expand that list further with 10 more Songs To Play On The Guitar For Beginners. These songs are listed in order from easiest to hardest with all of them using open string guitar chords making them easy for beginner guitarists. No fiddly bar chords to fudge here!
1. Warning – Green Day
So let’s get started with this tune from the Californian punk rockers Green Day. The song featuring lyrics from warning labels and signs has a catchy bassline and it only uses 3 chords A D and G with a simple down – up strumming pattern. The only challenge here is the speed of the chord changes but you can always play the tune a little slower and it still sounds great.
2. Riptide – Vance Joy
Here’s another 3 chord hit song from Australian Vance Joy. While the original is played on ukulele the chords A minor G and C are easy to play on guitar for beginners. In this song beginners need to learn to land the chord change from G to C cleanly. Practice changing to the C chord by moving the finger 3 first to land on fret 3 on the A string. This way fingers 1 and 2 should fall into place without leaving finger 3 behind as shown in my guitar lesson video below.
The song does feature a bridge with extra chords F and Gsus4 but you can always work on that part later.
3. Wagon Wheel – Old Crow Medicine Show
Wagon Wheel has become a country music standard and was also a hit for Darius Rucker. This 4 chord song uses a capo on fret 2 with the chords G Dsus4 Em7 and Cadd9. These complicated chord names simply mean that you keep fingers 3 and 4 held down on fret 3 of the bottom 2 strings for every chord. This gives the chords their chimey sound while making the chord changes easier to play as you only have to move 1 or 2 fingers. This technique is also used in Wonderwall by Oasis.
4. Love Rescue Me – U2
This ballad and is from U2’s 1988 album Rattle and Hum was co-written with Bob Dylan. Another 3 chord song Love Rescue Me uses A D and E chords. The difference here to the other songs so far is that the chords are played using arpeggios where the strings are picked individually. The time signature here is 6/8 which means 6 8th notes per bar. To pick this arpeggio pattern efficiently pick the first 3 notes down and the last 3 notes upwards.
5. To Her Door – Paul Kelly
This up-tempo rocker is a song well known Australian classic telling a story of redemption. The 4 chords here are G C D and the occasional use of an E minor. If you’re a more advanced guitarist you can even try a tackle the well crafted guitar solo in the middle of the song.
6. Heart Of Gold – Neil Young
Neil Young’s biggest his is also uses just 4 chords Em C D and G. However the challenge here is nailing the different rhythms of the 3 separate sections. Plus watch out for the use of the extra finger to play the Em7 chord in the 2 chord riff used in the intro of the song. Further details are in the YouTube guitar lesson video below.
7. Hey Jude – The Beatles
To play along with this popular sing along song put a capo on fret 1. Doing this enables you to play Hey Jude using the chords E A B7 plus D which is added to the coda Na Na Na Na section. For beginners the fingers need to learn to move between E and B7 smoothly. To do this keep finger 2 in place while the others dance around underneath. Like Heart Of Gold this song also features 3 sections to learn and piece together. Again use YouTube guitar lesson video below to help you get learn the parts of the song.
8. One – U2
This song takes things up “one” chord level higher with 5 chords – Am Dsus2 Fmaj7 G and C. The Dsus2 chord is a D chord with an open E string while the Fmaj7 chord is a 3 finger chord with a shape similar to C but with no open string between the fingers. The strumming here is a little unusual but the simplified version I use isn’t too hard to pick up.
9. Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
This is the second Green Day song in the list of Songs To Play On The Guitar For Beginners. This one combines 6 chords in 2 sections. The verse uses Em G D and A while the chorus uses C G D and Em with an additional B7 chord at the end to move back to the verse. Check out my easy YouTube guitar lesson video below.
10. House of The Rising Sun – The Animals
The final song in the list of 10 Songs To Play On The Guitar For Beginners also uses arpeggio picking just like Love Rescue Me. This song is in the same 6/8 time signature using the same 3 down and 3 up picking pattern. The challenge in playing this classic rock staple is smoothly transitioning between the Am C D F and E chord changes. The well known Animals version of this song is quite quick but my slightly simplified version still sounds authentic at a slower tempo. Once you feel you can play the picking pattern and chords changes well try it at 50 or 60BPM.
See how you go getting you way through these 10 Songs To Play On The Guitar For Beginners. Do them all or just pick your favourite tunes to help develop your chord changes, strumming and arpeggio picking patterns.
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