I am practicing arpeggiating chords on the guitar and I am really getting tired of playing House of the Rising Sun over and over. Does anyone know of any simple songs that are similar? They need to use basic, open chords.
You could try To Rid the Disease by Opeth. It’s also a good song for singing and playing at the same time, if you’re looking to try that.
“Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. springs to mind. Well, except for a brief section later on, but you can omit that part. It’s just D, G, Em, A7.
You could also just take any chord sequence you like and play it in the arpeggiated style.
Just want to wish you luck. I bought a banjo 4 weeks ago and am having a great time learning to play.
I took Beginning Folk Guitar at a community college back in the '80s. If you’re just getting started, simple folk songs worked for me. Let’s see what I can remember…
Rock-a My Soul
Tom Dooley
Banks Of The Ohio
Rollin’ On The River
OK, the last one is Creedence and not a traditional folk song. But most of it is basically a D.
Sloop John B is easy to play, and there are a couple of ways to play it. To start out you can just use D, A, D, and G to get the rhythm down. Then you can make it sound better by using D, A, D, D7, G, and G7.
I should point out that though I’ve ‘been playing’ for 20-something years, I’ve had other interests in my life and often little time; and there’s usually no one about to help me learn. So I’m still a strummer. (I did take some Blues lessons a couple of years ago.)
One song I like to play is Northern Line by Opal:
E D
I’m going on a night train
E D G A
It’s only been a light rain, the darkened sky, and the starry night
I’m humming on a cold train
I’m singing by the wreck of the old 97
D E
And I’m walking through the city
D C
I tell my story to the rain
G F C D
And I won't come back no matter what you say
<snipped for coyright>
Looking through my song documents, I’ve found Good Riddance (aka Time Of Your Life) by Green Day.
You can pick out the notes pretty easily, but I can’t sing and pick at the same time so I just strum the chords – which are (probably simplified for me) G, G, Cadd9 (or just a C), D for the first part and Em G, Em, G, and Em, D, G for the refrain.
Thanks for the suggestions. There are some nice songs for practicing exactly what I need.
When I first picked up the guitar, the very first song I learned was the guitar part to Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There?. The arpeggiated part begins at 1:24 and is based on a basic A minor chord. It’s very simple but sounds great, and everyone thinks you’re a pro when you play it for them 
The very first song I was taught to play when I was learning was Stand By Me. It is stupidly easy yet I still love playing it because, since it is so very simple with a lot of open space, there is a lot you can do within the framework of the song. You can jazz the crap out of it. Grab some notes from the famous baseline to transition between chords, hit arpeggio riffs, noodle off all kinds of embellishments on the chords or little solos and just play around.
The song that got me started on the guitar was “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”. A lot of Dylan songs use simple chord progressions and if you play arpeggios instead of strumming you can pretend you’re Roger McGuinn. I think the main thing is to find a song you really like, because it’s such a thrill to be able to play it that you can’t stop.
I’m in the same boat-trying to learn guitar while being terrible at chord progressions. Some songs I’ve worked on recently that I can actually kind of do are:
Mary Jane’s last dance (Tom Petty) and
It’s so easy (Buddy Holly)
I can play both of these though at a slow tempo.
Since getting an electric guitar I’ve found that Sammy Hagar’s 3 lock box riff is super easy though it won’t help you with the basic chord progressions.
Almost all the Eagles hits are easy to play.
I have said this in a few threads: find a few songs that you like that are basically a repeated chord-groove, e.g.,
Good Love: C F G F
What I Like About You: E A D A
La Bamba: D G A G
While songs are the heart of the art of music, as a beginning, I strongly recommend that you focus on *getting a feel for a song’s groove *- so you can keep hands clapping or feet moving - and make mistakes but play right past them and no one notices.
Can you play those simple, circular riffs I lay out above? If not, focus on getting smooth with those chords. If yes, well, get yourself in front of your TV with a sports event or something you can pay half a mind to (the news? ;)) and strum your guitar (I prefer an unplugged electric), and get inside the groove. If you play any one of these riffs for 10 hours - well, that is barely the beginning of a start. Heck, 100 hours is a start.
I am very serious. Until you can get inside the groove of a song and keep folks who are listening to you connected to the groove through your playing, well - doing anything like singing along or playing leads are next to impossible…
Old Crow Medicine Show has a great tune that is easy to play, it’s called Wagon Wheel and always seems to be a favourite of everyone that hears it.
The chords are:
G D Em C
G D C
Poison’s “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn.” G, Cadd9, D, bridge goes to Em. Easy as pie and the girls still love it 
Thanks to all. Some good stuff here.
I can change chords fairly smoothly, my strumming is a little beyond beginner, I am trying to work on my right hand and accurately picking different strings. Have been practicing alternate bass and walk downs in a few different keys. Also some arppegios like G Cadd9 D etc.
The chord names look scary but you can mouseover the chord names for a diagram. There are some interesting chords in there.