First off, let me thank all the individuals that contributed to the several recent threads on beginning guitar. I researched a number of them and while y’all are too many to name individually, your advice and words of encouragement were invaluable as far as keeping one’s spirits up in an endeavour that’s no small task.
I’ve tried to follow the consensus and in so doing have replaced a cheaper Yamaha that was poorly set with with a nice Alvarez accoustic, the PD85SCAV with light strings. I’m finding 5 to 10 hours a week to practice and do so as frequently as possible instead of lump sessions. The fingers are callousing nicely and I’m making progress on memorizing most major and minor chords. They’re starting to transition okay from one to the next and I’ll strum or pick along with Sirius Classic Vinyl to work on my right hand’s mechanics. I didn’t read music before but am going through some manuals and starting to put things together.
Now is when I think I’m ready for some fun. I’d like to start playing some of my favorites but would genuinely appreciate any recommendations you experienced guitarists might have with regard to what’s easy but satisfying. Some songs I originally thought might be easy actually proved rather trying and discouraging.
Not to limit any suggestions but instead to offer a theme, Classic Rock would be the general classification, although many of the folksy artists would be enjoyable. In other words Zepplin, Stones, ZZ Top, Beatles, Allman Bros and Tommy Bolin are my mainstays but Creedence, Neil Young, Canned Heat and James Taylor are aspired to as well, as is most everything inbetween. Also love Nirvana, Beck, etc.
I cannot recommend this more strongly: start with the master - Chuck Berry. Learning songs like Johnny B. Goode, Roll Over Beethoven and Rock n’ Roll Music (let along Carol, Maybelline and all of his other masterworks) is the very foundation of rock. All the bands you mention in your OP are beholden to Chuck Berry for their approach to playing. You should be, too!
Learning how to play a “Cheater’s A” - my term for it - where instead of using three fingers to fret the 2nd 3rd and 4th strings at the 2nd fret, you just use your index finger (and focus mostly on fretting the 4th and 3rd strings) is key. Then you can use your ring finger to fret the fourth string, 4th fret to get the patented Chuck Berry sound. If you want to really head out there for a beginner, you can also try, with your hand in the same position, reaching out with your pinky to fret the fourth string at the 5th fret. Cheater’s A, then ring finger on 4th fret, then pinky at 5th fret, then the same in reverse - that’s a slice of rock n’ roll.
Chuck Berry is what a buddy who had studied rock theory used to play 20 years ago at parties. We were only teens but he’d get on stage and cause the rest of the band’s jaws to collectively drop. I’d not though of Chuck but yes, that’s an excellent suggestion.
Thanks for the “A” tips too. Me of large fingers has been experiming with different placements but not that one yet. That’ll change this evening.
Cool and best of luck. Remember: Rock rhythm is different from regular strumming. Do the Cheater’s A and, with your picking hand - rest the fleshy part of your palm on the bridge of the guitar - in fact, actually let the fleshy part touch the strings to dampen them a little. This is called “palm muting” or “muffing” or any number of other terms. Try only downstrokes at first and really try to focus on the A and D strings - which is why your Cheater’s A doesn’t have to be perfect; you are only try to get 3 or so strings to sound!
If you do this right and play the Chuck Berry chording I mentioned, with a little palm muting, you should hear it more crisp and chunky - more rock…
My cursory list of classic rock songs that everybody needs to learn. Some of these require an electric, or at least an acoustic cutaway for access to barre chord on 12.
House of the Rising Sun
Johnny B. Goode
Sweet Home Alabama (bleaaargh)
White Room
Sunshine of Your Love
Purple Haze
Hey Joe
Stairway to Heaven (just don’t play it in front of anyone)
Over the Hills and Far Away
Daytripper
Many other Beatles songs are just chord progressions, so they can be learned easily in one sitting.
Lieu, your email isn’t listed. I tabbed out the chords and strums to Who’ll Stop the Rain for my dad a few weeks ago. If you’re interested, drop me an email and I’ll send it to you.
I second the recommendation for playing CCR, its mostly open chords with simple rhythm strumming. Have you ever seen the rain (to go with who’ll stop the rain) is also a great one, and is a little more interesting to play IMO. House of the Rising Sun and **Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door ** are also songs that every begging guitar player should have in their songbooks, Blowing in the Wind is another and so is La Bamba. And since you like the Allman Brothers, so you should learn ramblin man.
Zeppelin doesn’t have a lot of what I would consider “beginner material”, though Zeppelin shouldn’t be too far down the road for you, same with Hendrix. Though everyone cites the Beatles as a really easy, Beatles songs are mostly not beginner material if you want to play them right. Many of the chord progressions Lennon put together are very simple, but he used a lot of chords you are probably not too familiar with yet (major 7th’s and add 9 chords in particular) as well as some less traditional chord voicing, so while you can play a lot of the songs with chords you DO know, they won’t sound quite right. (This is a broad generalization and is by no means universally true.) But if you want to learn a Beatles song that has only one funky chord in it (and its a chord that is good to know anyway) check out I’m only sleeping.
Slim Harpo has a song called Shake your hips which was covered by the Stones on Exile on Mainstreet. The main rhythm riff on that is lots of fun and fairly easy, and is very similar to the riff on ZZ Top’s song La Grange. (maybe identical, I never checked). Nirvana’s come as you are was actually the first song I learned how to play on guitar along with stand by me.
If you know the Violent Femmes Kiss off is super simple (as is almost all of their stuff).
The best advice I can give you is to start actually keeping a physical song notebook. As you are learning a song right down the chord progression and put it into a notebook. This is good for a couple of reasons. One is memory. Eventually you will know so many songs you won’t remember what you know how to play, or even worse, you will remember that you should know how to play a song but can’t remember how the song goes. This type of notebook is also good to help you keep track of your progress. You will be able to flip through the book in a years time and look at all the songs that you once thought of as difficult that are now child’s play.
You are going to get a lot more song recommendations, and some of the songs you might not be ready for yet. Write them down and put them in your notebook, you can come back to them after you have improved a bit. This may be a few days later, it may be a few months later. But if they are in your notebook you will make sure that you do come back to them. And DO make sure you come back to them.
What a bunch of great tips and tunes! I bought Chuck Berry, Zepplin and Beatles songbooks last night and will be searching out a better stocked store for more. Johnny B. Goode is the first I’m attempting and will put a personal songbook together too as I really like that idea.
Thanks all for the suggestions. I see quite a few above that would be kick butt to know but that I might have hesitated on without your recs.