# 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:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**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, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/21 "2004-04-02T01:05:17Z")
Another decent, and cheap, tabbing program is [Tabit](http://www.tabit.net). It’s so cheap, it’s free. You can upgrade and register it (I think for like $25), this gives you a few extra doo-dads to it, most importantly the ability to play more than one track at a time. That is, you can tab out your song, layer a bass line on it, add some horns, maybe a solo track, you can even program a drum beat. It doesn’t come out sounding like studio quality, by any means, but it’s pretty damned nifty. The site has a ton of transcribed songs too, it’s just that some of them are transcribed by tone deaf people with no sense of time, but most of them are accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/22 "2004-04-02T01:24:52Z")
This is not a song suggestion, but one random thing that helped me when I was beginning was the realization that the simplest voicings (finger positions for the same chord) were not neccessarily the correct one for a song. For example, when going from F (1st position) to G to F#m (2nd position), the “normal” open position G (320003) is less smooth than the 3rd position G (355433). So, if a particular chord transition is really annoying you, a different voicing may make all the difference. As for song suggestions: - I second Good Riddance (Time of your Life) because it’s a nice intro to picking patterns through some of the power chords - American Pie by Don Mclean is kind of neat in that it’s mostly just strumming through a decent variety of chords, but there are a couple of spots of quick progressions, if you feel up to tackling them - Tracy Chapman’s Telling Stories uses an oft-heard chord progression (Em C G D) and sounds pretty good with just voice and acoustic guitar ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/23 "2004-04-02T03:23:34Z")
Dylan - North Country Girl If you can get someone to show you open G tuning, it is very easy to play Norwegian Wood just by playing the lead notes on the two A strings with your pinkie and index finger. I was never better than an awful guitarist but for years my wife thought I was terrific based on hearing me play that one song. ---
**Author:** ![thermalribbon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@thermalribbon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thermalribbon)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101/24 "2004-04-02T18:20:35Z")
Two Suggestions: Heart of Gold by Neil Young Redemption Song by Bob Marley I’m assuming you are starting off on an acoustic. I think that is the best way to begin. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-songs-to-start-playing-guitar/237101.md?page=1)