# Best songs to start playing guitar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101 "2004-03-29T16:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/1 "2004-03-29T16:34:32Z")
I’m finally starting to play acoustic guitar. Now I’m really BAD at it, on the “Hey, what’s the note this string plays?” level. So I armed myself with patience and started studying. Can you advise me some easy songs I can start practising? A note: I was initially advised it was better to go for the ones I know and love - only, being a bit of a prog-fan, I am a bit overwhelmed… Definitely too complex for me. Plus, any advice you’d care to give me? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/2 "2004-03-29T16:55:15Z")
Try the Animals’ version of “House of the Rising Sun.” A lot of players I know cut their teeth on it. The chords are basic and the strumming pattern is easy enough to pick up with a little work. The first tune I myself learned to play was “Rocky Raccoon.” I’m not sure if I can offer you much advice, because I never had a guitar teacher and never learned notation, scales and a lot of other stuff you’ll probably want to know (esp. if you’re into prog rock). I’m basically a self-taught strummer, and the best advice I can give is to get a bunch of Beatles CDs, a book like [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0881887579/104-1928797-0876726?v=glance]this one[/ul], and just start playing. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/3 "2004-03-29T16:58:22Z")
Oops, that link should’ve looked [like this](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0881887579/104-1928797-0876726?v=glance). Tell me again why we can’t edit our posts? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Spaulding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5a626/32.png) [@Capt.Spaulding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Spaulding)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/4 "2004-03-29T17:08:10Z")
I know you stated a preference for prog-rock but I would start with acoustic numbers by the Beatles (Hide Your Love Away, Norwegian Wood), the Rolling Stones (Dead Flowers, Sweet Virginia) and Bob Dylan (Tangled Up In Blue, Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright). Anything in the vein of those songs will give you a good sense of rhythm and chord changes. Then you can move on to things like Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” or ELP’s “Lucky Man”. ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/5 "2004-03-29T17:31:25Z")
One of my first was “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” Easy G-D-Am, G-D-C progression, it gives you four of the most basic chords and some practice at switching without being overwhelmingly fast. Blues Traveler “Hook” is a good repetitive progression (essentially Pachelbel’s Canon in D transposed to A) to practice some barre chords. And for an easy song that looks far more difficult than it is, and if you’re into learning some fingerpicking, the Beatles “Blackbird” is surprisingly easy, needing only two fingers sliding around the board for the most part. The key, at least when I taught myself, was 1) do songs you could enjoy, 2) play songs that teach you how to smoothly get in and out of all the primary major and minor chords you’ll need to know, and 3) (perhaps most importantly) play songs that have repetitive chord structures. Practice makes perfect, and they’re easy to memorize and pick up any guitar anywhere to play, instead of trying to memorize difficult and changing progressions or carrying music around with you all the time. A lot of country, blues, and motown are good for finding simple chord structures. Once you know “Please Mr. Postman” is I-vi-IV-V, you also know half a dozen other songs. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/6 "2004-03-29T18:42:24Z")
Horse With No Name, America. Easy, (two chords!) instantly recognizable, easy. And there are great things at [www.guitarnoise.com](http://www.guitarnoise.com), with .mp3s and such to help you learn a song. Highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/7 "2004-03-29T19:09:39Z")
[Beginner Guitar Lesson Archive](http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm) I’ve recently been giving some friends lessons and have been using this site as our planner. It has very good overviews and easy to understand explanations of chords, scales, finger placements, and all the basics. Its got a ton of songs mixed in with each lesson and a bunch of mp3 and real audio downloads of scales and chords. Plus… it’s FREE. [Brown Eyed Girl](http://guitar.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.geocities.com/etheltheaardvark/browneyedgirl.txt) [Take It Easy](http://guitar.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://strongmanthuey.tripod.com/eagles%5Ftakeiteasy.txt) [House of the Rising Sun](http://guitar.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.olga.net/dynamic/browse.php%3Flocal=main/d/dylan%5Fbob/house%5Fof%5Fthe%5Frising%5Fsun.crd) [Otherside](http://guitar.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://zepperfan.tripod.com/otherside.txt) [Hashpipe](http://guitar.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.geocities.com/etheltheaardvark/weezerhashpipe.txt) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/8 "2004-03-29T20:19:17Z")
Almost anything by Tom Petty can be played using no more than 5 chords. Also, everyone knows most of his songs so they can all sing along. This makes you look like you know more than you do. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lars\_Aruns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Lars\_Aruns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lars_Aruns)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/9 "2004-03-30T13:23:39Z")
Thanks to everybody for the links and the suggestions. By the way, what’s your stand on self-teaching? Should I look for a teacher or try self-learning? ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/10 "2004-03-30T13:47:24Z")
Just learn the intro to Stairway to Heaven, it’s as far as most guitarists get anyway 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/11 "2004-03-30T14:58:13Z")
> [@Lars Aruns](#): > > Thanks to everybody for the links and the suggestions. > By the way, what’s your stand on self-teaching? Should I look for a teacher or try self-learning? In general, I learn far better when I teach myself - I know what works for me, how I learn best, etc. In that spirit, I tried to teach myself guitar. Books, hints from friends, that kind of thing. I didn’t do well at all. Now I go to a weekly half hour lesson - he teaches me about chord theory and fingerings, etc and helps me analyze where I’m doing things wrong. An instrument like the piano I think one can teach themselves far easier, because there’s not really a lot of variation in how you would approach it. With guitar the correct fingering of chords isn’t really very obvious sometimes. Sure, you can take the, “Well I just need to hit this string here, and this one here, and that one there” approach, but it doesn’t help much when you want to do a chord change and your fingers are in all the wrong places. I’ve come much farther after 3 months of lessons with a teacher than I did in 10 years of trying to teach myself. Much. Again, that’s from a self-confessed “self taught or not taught at all” person. ---
**Author:** ![gyt\_fx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@gyt\_fx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gyt_fx)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/12 "2004-03-30T15:38:14Z")
Some songs many people learn (including myself) as beginners are **Smoke on the Water** , **Iron Man** , and **Brain Stew** (The simple little power chord riff is good for beginners: It’s what got me into power chords.) I can’t really suggest anything along… chord lines… I play electric guitar (I started with one, and I hate acoustic), so I just play hard rock/punk with powerchords and picking and such. Easy songs to learn on acoustic that are fun are, Hey Ya(Outkast), Island in the Sun(Weezer), and… yea. ---
**Author:** ![Mithril](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mithril/32/3517_2.png) [@Mithril](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithril)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/13 "2004-03-30T21:56:56Z")
Good Riddance by Green Day is easy. So is just about anything by Green Day, but most of it doesn’t translate well to acoustic. And while it’s not the most prog of prog-rock (my first love, as well), guitar tab converted from piano music for Space-Dye Vest is available on Dream Theater’s website. It’s challenging (are you learning tab or the real notation?), but I could at least tell what I was playing after about a week. Do you know about the [On-Line Guitar Archive](http://www.olga.net)? Poke around there some. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/14 "2004-03-30T22:55:38Z")
Sweet leaf? ---
**Author:** ![23skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f04885/32.png) [@23skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/23skidoo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/15 "2004-03-30T22:59:51Z")
“Caribou” and “Where Is My Mind?” by the Pixies “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/16 "2004-03-31T21:02:08Z")
Well, if you’re into that sort of thing (prog-rock) . . . (and this will probably cost me my immortal power-pop/garage-band soul) . . . the intro and beginning of “Roundabout” by Yes is really fairly easy to learn (I know 'cause I did it in spite of myself back in high school twenty-mumble years ago, and I’m among the worst guitar players you’ll ever come across – in a room full of bass players trying to start a band, I’d end up as the bass player). I’ve learned a lot the last few months using [Guitar Pro](http://www.guitar-pro.com) and the GuitarPro-format files from [http://www.mysongbook.com](http://www.mysongbook.com) to learn a bunch of familar songs. GuitarPro is kind of like a tablature program on steroids – it displays songs in tablature, chord diagrams, and traditional notation, allows for multi-track song files with a built-in MIDI player, displays the current note(s) and the notes of the current bar on a fretboard diagram and keyboard. Supposedly it imports MIDI files and generates tablature from them, but I haven’t found any MIDI files I wanted to try that with yet. Basically, it’s like having a backing band that never gets tired, plus tablature and standard notation to show you what to play. For any track of a file, you can adjust the volume, MIDI instrument used, effects applied, panning between stereo channels, etc. You can select a track and have it play solo with a single click. You can select a measure or measures and have them play over and over in a loop. Adjust tempo (including quick ways to play the song at half or quarter tempo). There are thousands of tab files in GP format at [MySongbook.com](http://MySongbook.com), with a strong bent toward metal and progressive stuff (not my personal cup of tea, but I’ve still found a fair amount of worthwhile stuff). You can download the 30-day trial version from the site above. I don’t have any connection with either site or the company that makes Guitar Pro; I just have found it to be a really worthwhile product for me, and well worth the $60 or so I paid for it. No doubt there are other similar products out there that are also worthwhile – someone else happened to mention it in an SDMB thread a while back, and I decided to check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/17 "2004-04-01T23:25:26Z")
Eight Days a Week byThe Beatles was the first song I learned. Very easy. It also really helped me with my basic chord transitions. At first I had a really hard time with b-minor and C, but am doing okay with those from playing the song. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/18 "2004-04-01T23:28:57Z")
_Play **FREEBIRD!!** _ ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/19 "2004-04-02T00:24:13Z")
All in one lesson – well all in three. All major chords involved in just the verses: _Night Moves_ by Bob Seger (G, C, F) _What I Like About You_ by The Romantics (E, A, D) And then to get B thrown in there, learn some 12-bar blues (E, A, B). 12-bar blues is the best thing to learn, then when you’re at a party and there’s guy’s jamming, you can join in and fake it. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/20 "2004-04-02T00:45:16Z")
> [@rackensack](#): > > Well, if you’re into that sort of thing (prog-rock) . . . > > (and this will probably cost me my immortal power-pop/garage-band soul) . . . > > the intro and beginning of “Roundabout” by Yes is really fairly easy to learn (I know 'cause I did it in spite of myself back in high school twenty-mumble years ago, and I’m among the worst guitar players you’ll ever come across – in a room full of bass players trying to start a band, I’d end up as the bass player). > > I’ve learned a lot the last few months using [Guitar Pro](http://www.guitar-pro.com) and the GuitarPro-format files from [http://www.mysongbook.com](http://www.mysongbook.com) to learn a bunch of familar songs. GuitarPro is kind of like a tablature program on steroids – it displays songs in tablature, chord diagrams, and traditional notation, allows for multi-track song files with a built-in MIDI player, displays the current note(s) and the notes of the current bar on a fretboard diagram and keyboard. Supposedly it imports MIDI files and generates tablature from them, but I haven’t found any MIDI files I wanted to try that with yet. Basically, it’s like having a backing band that never gets tired, plus tablature and standard notation to show you what to play. For any track of a file, you can adjust the volume, MIDI instrument used, effects applied, panning between stereo channels, etc. You can select a track and have it play solo with a single click. You can select a measure or measures and have them play over and over in a loop. Adjust tempo (including quick ways to play the song at half or quarter tempo). There are thousands of tab files in GP format at [MySongbook.com](http://MySongbook.com), with a strong bent toward metal and progressive stuff (not my personal cup of tea, but I’ve still found a fair amount of worthwhile stuff). You can download the 30-day trial version from the site above. I don’t have any connection with either site or the company that makes Guitar Pro; I just have found it to be a really worthwhile product for me, and well worth the $60 or so I paid for it. No doubt there are other similar products out there that are also worthwhile – someone else happened to mention it in an SDMB thread a while back, and I decided to check it out. Just wanted to thank you for this reference - I downloaded Guitar Pro and several tabs from MySongbook and it’s an amazing thing… Excellent program! Great way to learn songs, this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101.md?page=2)