My guitar teacher has requested we start finding some simple songs to learn with the idea being that we are more likely to stick with guitar if we like the songs. The chords we have learned so far are A, D and E. Can you recommend any easy to learn songs that are catchy and fun? I’m going to head to the music store on Saturday to see if I can pick up a book of tabs but any suggestions would be welcome.
Oh and I am very beginner! Just had my third lesson.
You can start doing 12 bar blues in the key of A with those. Once you have the basic feel down you can change the rythym and tempo and have lots of tunes available to you. Making them into seventh chords (those are traditional blues chords) is pretty easy in the key of A, even if sevenths are probably not the next chords they’re planning to teach you, unless blues is your thing. If you learn a 5 note A minor pentatonic scale as well it’ll be a year before you run out of things to do. Let me know if you want a more info.
Larry
I am assuming that you learned some variants of the A, D and E chords, specifically major and minor. Assuming you like rock the following are pretty easy to learn.
Fly By Night by Rush is a standard, most people like it and it is pretty easy.
Back in Black by AC/DC, another three or four chord song that is pretty easy to learn.
Smoke On the Water is the standard that every guitarist learns really early for a reason. Great riff and it is way easy to play.
I Don’t Know by Ozzy is fairly easy and if you are going to play rock you need to practice pedal tones.
Just for fun you ought to tell your teacher that the next song you want to learn is Tumeni Notes by Steve Morse or Mediterranean Sundance by Al Di Meola.
There are sooo many possibilities. It’s really a matter of your own taste. A couple of songs I learnt when learning those chords were Beck’s “Fuckin with my Head” and Dinosaur Jr’s “Freak Scene.”
E D A is the chord progression for the verse of Beck’s “Fuckin with my Head”. The chorus uses those chords plus G.
D Em A is the chorus of Dinosaur Jr’s “Freak Scene”. Em is just an E without the index finger.
Keep Your Hands To Yourself by The Georgia Satellites uses your 3 chords in the same pattern as Johnny B. Good, but slower. Crossroads by Cream also uses these chords. You can play any 12-bar blues in A using these chords as well.
Wordman
Actually, that 3rd chord in “Louie, Louie” is an Em - a subtle but nonetheless significant musical distinction.
And as Fredescu said, there’s no problem learning the Em chord. Just lift your index finger.
And of course there’s the great garage band favorite “Gloria” by the Shadows Of Knight which goes E, D, A . Play with the pick as close to the bridge as possible if you want to sound like the recording. Of course, “Them” had their version of “Gloria” but the Shadows of Knight had the definitive “garage” rendition.
Do not confuse the garage band song “Gloria” with the 1985 Laura Branigan recording called “Gloria”. These are 2 completely different songs and have nothing in common. (except for the title I guess).
We’ve learned Hey Jude and our new song this week is Heartbeat (?). I’m still very slow at switching between chords but perhaps a more varied song would help.
I think it has four. The main riff has two, then the main riff is transposed up a step (adding a third, new chord), and then the original main riff is up a fifth, adding two more chords–so five chords in total, by my count.