All it takes to learn these 5 beginner guitar songs are three easy chords. This is the second post in my guitar lessons for beginners series.
Are you hoping to learn to play guitar? These easy guitar songs with beginner chords are a great way to learn guitar. I am a guitar teacher and I take all of my beginning guitar players through these easy guitar songs.
If you have never played the guitar before, or if you are a teacher looking to get a new guitar player started, make sure to check out my first post “The First Seven Songs I Teach All Of My Beginning Guitar Students”. In that guitar lesson, I focused on three easy guitar chords; Easy G, Easy C and Easy G7. After learning those chords, I teach my students the D7 Chord.
You can learn literally thousands of songs once you can play G, C & D7. The 5 beginner guitar songs I’ve chosen below are in order of easiest to hardest. They build on strum pattern concepts and how fast you switch chords.
FIRST SONG
Down In The Valley
Down In The Valley is a folk standard and is a great song to help you practice switching from D7 chord to the G chord. This song works with both Easy G and the full G Chord. When switching from D7 to G, make sure to keep your 3rd finger on the first string and just slide it from the 2nd fret to the 3rd fret when switching chords.
Down In The Valley is strummed down once per measure. Each measure is in 3/4 time, which means that there are 3 beats in every measure. The dotted half note is used in this song to indicate that you strum down once every three beats.
SECOND SONG
Ring Of Fire – by Johnny Cash
One of my students favorite first songs is Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. Finally they can play a song that they recognize! This song helps students practice switching between G, C and D7 chords. I encourage them to start trying the full C and full G chords rather than the easy versions of these chords as they get more comfortable with the song. To make this song work for beginners, I had to take some creative liberties and change it around a bit from the original. Note the time change from 4/4 time (4 beats per measure) to 3/4 time (3 beats per measure) and back again.
THIRD SONG
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
This song is a folk standard and has been sung by many country and bluegrass musicians. It’s a great song and I usually take some time to have my students listen to different versions of the song. My favorite version is from June Carter Cash, who was an influential female guitarist. You can listen to her version here (she is in a different key, but you can play in her key if you put a capo on the 4th fret). This song reintroduces the G7 chord. Either the easy version or the full version works well here. You can find both versions of the G7 chord at the bottom of the sheet music I put together for this song.
INTRODUCING STRUM PATTERNS:
Up to this point, all songs have only been strummed down. This song has two strum pattern options. The first option is to strum down using quarter notes on each beat:
This gives you a strum pattern that looks like this:
This song also gives the option of a second strum pattern that uses eighth notes and upstrums.
Combining quarter notes and eighth notes can create all sorts of great strum patterns. The one I chose for this song is:
When you strum it, it should sound like you’re saying pie, apple, pie, pie.
FOURTH SONG
America
Everyone knows this song, which makes it a great teaching song. America is played in 3/4 time (3 beats per measure) and switches the chords you know fast. A new optional strum pattern is also introduced:
FIFTH SONG
Cecilia – by Simon and Garfunkel
The strum pattern for this song is a solid string of eighth notes that looks and is counted like this:
If you want this music to sound like the song, you’ll need a capo. You’ll want to put it on the 5th fret.
The PDF file available to subscribers is 3 pages long and each page is a different version of the song. You just need to pick which page to print. The first page of this song stops short of the next verse. Although the lyrics aren’t explicit, they might get your younger students asking questions you don’t want to answer. The second page adds in the next set of lyrics. The third page offers an easy strum pattern for those students who aren’t ready for eighth notes yet.
So, what’s next?
Hopefully you’ve found these songs helpful and worth taking the time to learn. Before you move onto more songs, make sure you can play the Full C, Full G, and Full G7 chords instead of the easy versions. After that, you’re ready to learn D and A7. Once those are down, you can move into adding minor chords! Below are the next two lessons I’d recommend checking out.
Images for Social Media:
