Basic Chords For Guitar Songs

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Nothing keeps you motivated to play the guitar quite like learning new songs, particularly when you’re first starting out. So, in this lesson I’ve compiled a list of 52 easy guitar songs for beginner players.

Oh, and just because these are beginner guitar songs, don’t get the wrong idea and think that these songs are boring. This list represents a good mix of uptempo and slower tempo rock ‘n roll guitar songs. They range from simple three-chord progressions to more complex seven- and eight-chord progressions and are fun to play whether you’re a beginner or advanced player.

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There are 52 songs on this list, so you can mix these songs into your daily practice routine and learn a new song each week over the next year. If you find some too challenging, you can always come back to them when you’ve made progress on the easier songs.

As an additional learning opportunity, you can experiment with the different CAGED chord shapes and substitute triads in place of the full chords to expand your playing a bit.

“Nutshell” is a four chord song in the key of Em. The ring finger essentially acts as a pivot point between chord changes, making this a particularly easy chord progression to play.

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. The F – C – Am – G chord progression is played on repeat throughout the song with only minor variations, making it one of the easiest songs to learn on guitar.

A simple 3-chord progression, “Dead Flowers” by The Rolling Stones is about as easy as it gets. What I love about it is with three chords you get a verse, pre-chorus, and chorus that are all distinct from each other.

Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” is a great, hard rocking song played in the key of Em. It’s an easy guitar song to lear and one every beginner player should get under their belt.

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“The Celestials” by The Smashing Pumpkins is a great song to practice fundamental strumming patterns. This song is played with a capo on the 2nd fret, but the chords shown here are based on the open forms.

Another easy acoustic guitar song. “Used to Love Her” by Guns N’ Roses is almost identical to “Dead Flowers” by The Rolling Stones. It uses the same three beginner guitar chords, only the chord progression varies just a bit. If you know one, you essentially know the other as well.

Probably my favorite U2 song, “One” is also an easy song to learn on guitar and a perfect song for a beginner.

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“Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” provides a good first look at slash chords, which are chords in which a note other than the root is in the bass position, noted by the slash in the chord name. The left side of the slash indicates the chord, while the right side of the slash indicates the bass note.

When it comes to The Lumineers’ music, they get a lot of mileage out these 4 chords. “Ho Hey” is no exception. It’s a perfect song for a beginner guitar player. This song also provides opportunities to vary the fingering on the F and G chords, so feel free to play around with it.

Album. It’s a five-chord song in the key of G major. It consists of five open chords, making it a perfect guitar song for beginners.

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Don’t let the number of chords fool you, The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” is not a complicated song. It does, however, provide a pretty cool strumming pattern that is loads of fun to play. Be warned, there are a lot of barre chords in this one, so it can get rather fatiguing.

“I Remember You” is a popular monster ballad from Skid Row. While the chords are mostly strummed, it does provide opportunities to incorporate some embellishments between the chords changes to spice things up a bit.

. It’s a simple chord progression played in the key of G, but there’s an intricacy to the strumming pattern that can trip you up if you’re not careful.

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. It’s a simple three-chord progression for most of the song and a suitable song for beginners. The C chord in the opening riff is played as a Cadd9, but if you’re just strumming along, the standard C major chord works as well.

Blind Melon’s “No Rain” came out during the surge of alternative and grunge music in the early ’90s. It’s primarily a four-chord song with an E7 brought in for a little embellishment.

Break out the electric guitar and crank up the gain. “Summer of 69” is a rockin’ song by Bryan Adams that’s just loads of fun to play.

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From their great debut album, Candlebox’s “Cover Me” is a fantastic acoustic song if you’re just starting out on the guitar. The strumming pattern is pretty basic and the tempo is ideal for practicing chord changes.

The second song on the list from Van Morrison, “Brown Eyed” girl is another easy, uptempo acoustic guitar song that’s just fun to strum.

Sticking to seconds, “Mr. Tambourine Man” is Bob Dylan’s second song on the list. This song is played with a capo on the 3rd fret. The chords are the open form shapes relative to the capo. Add this one to the list of easy acoustic songs to learn on guitar.

Easy Guitar Songs

There aren’t many Led Zeppelin songs that will make a list of easy guitar songs for beginners, but “Tangerine” is one of them. And if you’re not already familiar, it’s a great introduction to sus2/sus4 chords.

Three chords is all it takes for “Bad Moon Rising”. Again, Creedence Clearwater Revival shows that complicated chord progressions are not a requirement for a great song.

With chord names like A7sus4, “Wish You Were Here” may seem complicated. It isn’t. Don’t let the chord names throw you off, they’re all really easy to play.

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You can fill an entire list of easy songs for beginners with Bob Dylan songs alone. This is another great song from one of the greatest song writers ever.

Another easy three chord song. This one comes from 4 Non Blondes. “What’s Up?” is their hit song from their 1992 debut album,

Released in 1989, Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” has become an American anthem. Like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty was a masterful song writer that got a lot of mileage out of simple chord progressions.

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“Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is great 80s power ballad from Poison. Straightforward strumming pattern and open chords. Doesn’t get any easier.

“Two Steps Behind” is an acoustic song by Def Leppard. Nothing fancy here, just a straightforward chord progression that’s easy to play.

. Like a lot of Tom Petty’s songs, there’s nothing fancy here…just a simple chord progression that creates a great song that’s easy to play.

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. Guitar solos aside, the slow tempo and heavy use of open chords makes “Comfortably Numb” a really easy song for beginner guitar players to learn.

There are a lot of songs from The Allman Brothers band that wouldn’t be appropriate for an easy guitar songs type of list, but “Seven Turns” isn’t one of them. This song is definitely in the realm of a beginner guitar player, so it’s a good idea to start learning from The Allman Brothers band as soon as you can.

You can put Neil Young in the same category as Bob Dylan and Tom Petty for his ability to create timeless music with a simple chord progression.

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“Simple Man”, another three-chord masterpiece from Lynyrd Skynyrd. While on the recording the chords are arpeggiated, you can just as easily strum them and it still sounds great.

What easy guitar songs list would be complete without “Wild Thing” by The Troggs? For the most part it’s a simple 1-4-5 chord progression. Classic song.

When first starting out, it’s important to start learning songs right away. That’s why we all picked up the instrument in the first place, right? This list provides a wide variety of songs that keeps the learning process fun and will help sustain your motivation to play.You don’t need to be a guitar virtuoso to start playing awesome songs on your guitar. In fact, you can play a ton of cool songs using just four chords! Today, we have compiled a list of easy four-chord songs to help you kickstart and expand your repertoire.

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From pop, rock, and folk to reggae, you’ll be surprised to see just how many songs can be played by using four of the basic chords. Let’s just jump right into our list of easy 4 chord songs!

While different songs use various progressions of four chords in their compositions, several popular songs use the C Major, D Major, A minor, and F Major chord progression. These four chords are absolutely essential for any aspiring guitarist to know in order to play most of the songs we’ve mentioned below, but don’t worry. We’ve got visual guides to show you how to play them below!

Let’s kick off this list with one of the most iconic songs by

Easy 2 Chord Songs For Guitar

Posted by zodaries14

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