I want to learn how to play the guitar. I have tried a couple of times but failed due to my impatience with things. But i want to try again and wanted to know- what are the easiest rock songs to learn how to play? i mean i want minimal chord changes if possible.
Wild Thing by The Troggs comes to mind. It’s just A-E-D-E.
I would recommend taking a few lessons, just to have someone show you how to do things the “right” way, then practice using a Mel Bay chord book or something (probably something newer/better nowadays). Once you’ve mastered barre chords, a whole world of rock songs opens up to you.
The first riff I ever learned was Day Tripper by the Beatles. It’s one of those things where it takes a new player a little practice to get it right, but once they’ve got it, they can play it all day. Same with David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel. As far as chords go, U2’s Desire, from their 1988 album Rattle and Hum is pretty basic. D, A, E, A, E - and it’s fun to play.
Guitar is a great instrument because it’s so easy to play. If you can work out the basic chords (C, D, E, A, G) and then master bar chords, you are at least as accomplished as some rock stars out there. Try and play with some people who can play if you can, but most importantly of all, just practice.
There are an infinite number of three-chord rock songs.
The dirty little secret about Rock and Roll music is that most of it is mind-numbingly simplistic.
And gex is right. Guitar is like anything else…what you get out of it depends on what you put into it…practice.
I really started figuring out how to play when I got a Bob Dylan songbook for the album called Blood on the Tracks. I liked all of the songs, and I realized that you could play most of them with a few basic chords. That was 25 years ago. It still play nearly every day.
Go get a songbook for an album [showing my age here] that you really love. Then pick that favorite song and play the easy chord version; sing the words, and do it over and over until you have that one song DOWN. Then move on to a new song that has the same chords as the last song, maybe in a different order, with maybe one new chord.
Dylan again. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is a great first tune. It has four chords, and a nice resolution when it switches use of the E chord to the G chord on the same word.
Start playing the “D” chord.
“Mamma take this…” Switch to the “A” chord as you say the word
“Badge off of…” Now switch to the “E” minor chord when you sing the word
“Me…” bang away on the “E” chord for a while…
Back to “D” for
“I can’t…” Back to “A” for the word
“Use it any…”
Now hit the “G” chord for
“more…” Bang away…
Now back up to “D” for
“It’s getting…” back to the “A” for
“Dark, too dark…to…” Swithc to the “E” minor again for
“See…” and bang away on the “E” minor for a few beats until you move back up to the “D” again for the payoff–
“Feel like I’m…” down to the “A” for
“Knockin’ on Heaven’s…” and down to the “G” for
“Door…” bang away for a few beats again and then the chorus
“D” chord for “Knock knock–”
“A” chord for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s–”
“E” minor chord for “Door…”
then…“D” chord for “Knock knock–”
“A” chord for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s–”
“G” minor chord for “Door…”
I love playing the guitar. It’s good for you, and you don’t need to be Eric Clapton, or John Hurt. But the longer you play, the better you get…
I’d recommend not going for full songs, rather simple memorable parts of songs(hooks).
The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows is one chord, a C. Theoretically there’s a B flat here and there, but John’s just strumming a C.
BTW, it would be helpful to recommenders to know what sort of rock music you listen to. If you like modern rock, most Weezer and Nirvana songs are a cinch.
I just started seriously learning guitar this year. I’ve got the basic chords down, and am working on barre chords. Patience, regular practice with a friend and having fun with it are my keys to learning. I don’t know why I put this off for 20 years…
Louie Louie - A D E D
Blitzkrieg Bop - A D E
The even dirtier little secret is that for most mind-numbingly simplistic three-chord rock songs, you aren’t even playing full chords, but “power chords”, which consist of the root, fifth, and octave only, or sometimes just the fifth and octave. On the lower four strings of a guitar, that means playing two adjacent strings at the same fret, and possibly the next lower string two frets lower. Want simple A power chord? Just use your first finger to hold down the third and fourth strings (counting from the low E string) at the second fret, leaving the second string open, and strum the second, third and fourth string, damping the others with your free fingers. E? Same thing one string lower (second and third strings at the second fret, open low E string). D? Third and fourth string at the fourth fret, and optionally the second string at the second fret. You can now play “Wild Thing”, “Louie, Louie”, and probably a hundred thousand other songs. Learn the same thing for a G-C-D progression, and you just added another hundred thousand. C-F-G will get you another fifty thousand or so, including a lot of R&B stuff.
Of course, if you really want to learn to play, ignore everything I’ve said and learn the proper chord shapes and practice the hell out of them until your hand forms them automatically. That goes for both major and major-seventh versions of the chords, and minor, diminished minor, and minor-seveth versions as well. Ditto for scales – practice playing major, minor, and blues scales until your hands fall off, so that by the time your brain forms some notion of what note to play next, you find that your fingers are already there. You’ll also want to get a rudimentary grounding in music theory to understand the relationship between the root and the other component notes of a chord, how chord progressions work, etc.
Otherwise, if you give in to the temptation to only learn a few power chords and then thrash away, you’ll end up like me – twenty years down the road and not able to play much better now than when I first picked up a guitar, and fit only for playing bass in company with anyone who does know how to play.
Funny, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is the first song I ever learned as well.
As for easy, Jane Says by Jane’s Addiction is about as easy as they come…G A.
How I learned:
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Get a good chord book and learn a couple of basic chords (A, D, G, C were my first)
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Find some songs you like that you think might be simple and that have these chords. I used this site: http://harmony-central.com/Guitar/tab.html. Dylan, Creedance, some Beatles songs are pretty easy.
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Expand into songs that have the chords you know and one or two new ones and add these to your repitoire.
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Rinse and repeat.
Good Luck. Everytime someone becomes a musician, I think the world becomes a better place.
Well…except for drummers.
Warren Zevon’s version of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, from his final album “The Wind” is really nice too.
I would reccomend learning scales first…
once you understand why certain notes played in certain order sound the way they do…well…you can pretty much play anything.
I would also reccomend a mid ranged guitar (price wise).
If you start with a real cheap finger blistering guit…well…you will not want to keep on playing and you will not sound good either…
making music is fun man…good for you.
An Arky? Great song, but Wild Thing is A D E D.
The other recommendations listed all sound good, too.
I love That’s What I Like About You by the Romantics. It’s basically E A D A - there’s more to it, but that is enough to get you going.
As a long-time, self-taught player, here are my tips that are key to sticking with it:
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Make sure your guitar is set up properly - in other words, is the neck straight, is the action (distance between fingerboard and strings) sufficiently low, and are the string lengths set correctly? The easiest way to check this is to tune the guitar (with an electronic tuner if possible) then play a D and a G chord. If the guitar is tuned properly and those two chords also sound in tune, you should be okay for beginner’s purposes. A poorly set up guitar sounds awful and can really discourage a new player.
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Play what you love - doesn’t matter if it is bone-headedly simple or mind-numblingly complex, all that matters is that you love the songs. If people don’t like your choices, tell 'em to bite you. If you aren’t playing songs you love, you won’t keep playing.
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Alternate between work and play - this was key for me. I would work on fingering chords or playing scales for 15 minutes or so, then rock out playing Smoke on the Water on one string or I Will Follow by U2 on two strings. I could close my eyes and fantasize and have a ton of fun. It keep me going when learning chords was really hard and depressing.
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Talk to people - even if you aren’t taking lessons, check with friends who are at the same place you are or know more. They can relate to what you are dealing with and make you feel okay when you are in a tough spot - or maybe even help you get out of it - I remember when friends showed me the “right” way to play songs I just could not figure out yet seemed like they should be easy. It was like the clouds parting.
Hope this helps and good luck!
I’ll second Slu as the first song I learned to play was Jane’s Addiction’s “Jane Says”. G to A, repeat (eventually add hammer-ons too).
Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes has 3 chords and a very recognizable lick too.
I started a thread of Guitar tab websites a while back that you might find useful.
My recommendation is to pick songs that you like and aren’t going to be irritated hearing after 200 or so attempts at playing.
I used to play along with the cassette (yeah, it’s been a while since I first started playing). I’d have the sheet music in front of me, start the tape and play along with the music whenever the chord I knew was coming up then listen to the others for the rhythm again. Eventually, I got up to chord changes and got two chords in a song down.
One last tip I learned from a friend, she said that it’s better to play wrong notes than to drop rhythm. To her, it was more painful to have the song stop to get the right fingering than it was to hear a misplaced note with the beat still going. After teaching friends how to play, I have to agree. YMMV.
Is it easier to learn on an acoustic or electric guitar?
I thought that was implied…but I guess this is a newbie thread:D
You’ll get different opinions from different folks, but I think the consensus will be that it’s easier to sound like you can play on an electric (especially if you stick to power chords and crank up the distortion), but that learning on an acoustic forces you to actually get your fingers somewhere near the right place before it’ll sound like anything. So, if you wanna fake it, electric; if you want to actually learn to play, acoustic. Me? I never owned and rarely played an acoustic until nearly twenty years after I started trying to play electric, which is one of the reasons I’m still so lousy.
I can’t stress this enough…
Learn on an acoustic. It’s more difficult. So when you transition to electric you’ll be amazed at how much better you are.
In some ways it doesn’t matter. As long as the guitar is properly set up and you can feed your fantasy and learn, either is fine. I learned on an acoustic, but practiced a lot on an unplugged electric after a few years.
Jonathan Chance’s point of learning on an acoustic to force better technique is true (at least it was for me), but again, you should play on whatever keeps you playing. If you would develop better technique on an acoustic, but get discouraged faster, then electric is better - you can focus on technique once you hit your stride…by the same token, if you find that you keep at it on an acoustic, then it will be better for technique…