What songs are good for Beginner Guitarists

Learning to play the guitar has been enticing people universally. However the biggest hurdle they face in the process; is to play the chords of a song successfully. Although there are many ways by which you can learn how to play the guitar, mastering your first song is very rewarding and fun. Despite the fact that there are numerous songs, for strumming the guitar, song selection can be a tricky proposition. So, here are a few basic but fantastic tracks to play along to.

Many of R.E.M. songs, such as

1) Losing My Religion

2) Driver Eight

3) Love Is All Around

4) Man On The Moon are great for learning about song structure - intro, verse, chorus. These songs by R.E.M. can easily be learned by beginners and turned into nice solo arrangements.

5) ‘Hey There Delilah’ is a great song to learn for improving partial chords, playing with finger-style or pick, and making interesting chord changes on the fly.

6)‘Man on the Moon’ is a beautiful song that beginners can play easily and at the same time adding some nice touches for a solo arrangement.

7) ‘Help!’ is a classic Beatles song which can be used to get started on barre chords and learn a cool little guitar riff.

8) ‘Brain Damage/Eclipse’ by Pink Floyd; this song is geared to the nearly absolute beginner. A very simple strumming/picking pattern can be added to the basic chords already learnt.

9) ‘As Tears Go By’ by The Rolling Stones is a classic, and once the basics are in place, you can make the rest of the arrangement as simple or as complicated as you like.

10) ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ by Johnny Cash and ’Your Cheating Heart’ by Hank Williams, are two great country classics. They can be used by beginners to work on chord changes and strumming.

11) ‘Friend Of The Devil’, a song originally by the Grateful Dead is a very good song for beginners, because technically, it only uses four chords: G, C, D and Am.

12) ‘Eleanor Rigby’ by The Beatles is a simple, two-chord song and focuses on changing chords and strumming. You’ll also get a practical introduction to slash chords and, if you still need more to learn, there are a couple of fun and easy riffs for you to add. To play ‘Eleanor Rigby’, you’ll need to know two chords, Em and C.

13) ‘Nowhere Man’ by The Beatles is in the key of E. And is one of the easiest songs for beginner guitarists.

14) ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash is a basic verse, chorus, verse, chorus song with a short extension of the chorus tacked on to the end. The verses consist of two measures, which are repeated almost like a loop.

When all of these tracks can be played with confidence, the beginner guitarist can look forward to taking on ever more complex and difficult songs. Every beginner guitarist experiences frustration and problems with their play, at some time or the other. The most important thing to remember is that practice makes perfect.