# Guitar Players: First Song You Learned? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2008, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215 "2008-01-12T00:49:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/21 "2008-01-12T11:42:33Z")
[QUOTE=Carson O’Genic] A portion of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2,something my father often played on piano. [/QUOTE] As a _first_ piece? Man, the piano version is hard as an escaped con at the Playboy mansion. Did you just play out the melody line or was it a more full-bodied arrangement? ---
**Author:** ![Nunavut\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e95f7d/32.png) [@Nunavut\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunavut_Boy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/22 "2008-01-12T11:54:29Z")
About a girl by Nirvana. Two chords (until the bridge) ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/23 "2008-01-13T17:22:10Z")
The guitar part in “Is There Anybody Out There?” by Pink Floyd. Yes, I was an ambitious little runt. And the early intro to fingerpicking never hurts. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/24 "2008-01-13T17:51:29Z")
Once you learn the E-A-D progression, you’ve learned nearly every Neil Diamond song ever written, along with **Gloria** , as mentioned earlier. I think the first one I figured out for myself, though, was **House Of The Rising Sun**. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/25 "2008-01-13T20:30:22Z")
_Wish You Were Here_, Pink Floyd. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/26 "2008-01-13T20:52:29Z")
Leonard Cohen’s _Hallelujah_. ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/27 "2008-01-13T21:06:35Z")
[QUOTE=longhair75] “Let me tell you a story about a man named Charlie on one tragic and fateful day…” [/QUOTE] Oy! Oy! Oy! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/28 "2008-01-13T21:21:53Z")
I already knew a few chords, but the first real song was _Blackbird_, which is hellishly complex for a beginner. It took me weeks to get it right, but by the time I’d finished, the learning curve had been so steep that I could then play pretty much anything I wanted. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/29 "2008-01-13T21:32:23Z")
“Hey Joe” (Hendrix). Soon followed by the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” and Zep’s “Tangerine”. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/30 "2008-01-13T21:36:50Z")
Well, I started with ukulele. I went for as hard as possible right off the bat, kind of like jjimm above, so I chose Rondo alla Turka by Mozart. After I got that fairly well, I moved onto guitar, and never really learned any songs. I guess In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and a slew of Modest Mouse songs, which I know the ins and outs of but probably have never played them all the way through. Still working on it… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/31 "2008-01-13T21:42:29Z")
_Needle and the Damage Done_, by Neil Young. There are a lots of other, much easier songs to learn, though, so I wouldn’t recommend it to start off. Folk songs with just a bunch of strumming would be the way to go. Unless you hate folk songs. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/32 "2008-01-14T00:37:45Z")
Hard to remember but either English Rose by The Jam or Ripples by Genesis. Oh the shame! MiM ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/33 "2008-01-14T03:23:54Z")
Peter, Paul and Mary had their version of the folksong A Soalin’… I could play it on two strings, and soon after, add the counterpoint with my thumb. And then the whole thing. I’m sure if I was cooler it would have been Led Zep, or Black Sabbath. That’s what I get for growing up in Boulder. [Youtube link.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_fjXUk_30g) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/34 "2008-01-14T03:33:51Z")
I meant to link to [this clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY7ukwz7htE&feature=related)… ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/35 "2008-01-14T03:41:10Z")
The first song I learned was [Push The Little Daisies](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kkJPiTIyZ8) by Ween. I taught it to myself, after seeing that video on an episode of Beavis and Butthead. I found the tabs online. I think I was about 12. To this day, that song is usually what I first play if I happen to pick up a guitar somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/36 "2008-01-14T11:09:41Z")
[QUOTE=amarinth] . . . I can now make it from D to A and back without pausing overly long between them. [/QUOTE] You can now play practically all of Jonathan Richman’s[_Roadrunner_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHv8Rok9UfA)🙂 First song I learned? Good grief that was over thirty years ago (some of us have been at it a long time) some Beatles song\*. Closely followed by _House of the Rising Sun_ because it uses practically all the open chords. \*probably in the wrong key, the only Beatles music books at the time seemed to pick the key at random :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/37 "2008-01-14T15:48:05Z")
The first song I can remember playing all the way through was “Polly” from Nirvana. In fact, a lot of my early songs were Nirvana and NOFX. Power chords are my friend. ---
**Author:** ![mambocrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@mambocrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambocrow)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/38 "2008-01-14T16:24:22Z")
It was so long ago I can’t remember. Had to have been some folk song popular in the “Hootenany” heyday of the folk song genre in the early 60’s. Probably “Lemon Tree” by Peter, Paul, and Mary. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/39 "2008-01-14T16:47:53Z")
[QUOTE=Astroboy14] _Wish You Were Here_, Pink Floyd. [/QUOTE] Me too. I’m not sure if it was actually the first song I learned – I may have played some others off of sheet music – but definitely the first song I figured out for myself how to play, which was a really good feeling. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215/40 "2008-01-14T16:57:21Z")
Most of _Nevermind_, by Nirvana. This was back in 1993 when Nirvana was known both as one of the biggest bands in the world, and having the easiest guitar parts ever to learn. Oh, and I learned to play left handed on a right handed guitar. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-players-first-song-you-learned/433215.md?page=3)