A lot of songs are actually far easier to play than they seem to be from listening to them. One of the best pieces of advice I give to guitar beginners is to search online for ‘easy songs by …..’ - inserting their favorite band or artist. You’ll probably be amazed by what you find.
However, certain parts of the song you want to play may stretch your talents somewhat and the solos are normally a bit too technical at this early stage, but you should have no problem playing the basics of many of the songs you love.
That’s why I decided to cover a variety of great beginner’s electric guitar songs in a number of genres. However, you will need to at least know your basic root chords - A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, and G, as well as a few simple rhythm patterns to play them. I’ll be avoiding the typical best songs for a novice guitarist suggestions, such as Happy Birthday, Amazing Grace, etc. for songs that are a lot more interesting to play and to listen to.
So, let’s get started with…
7. Your Ghost - Kristin Hersh
My first choice is unusual in that it isn’t an incredibly well-known song, in fact, most of you reading this will have probably never heard of Kristin Herch, or her band, Throwing Muses. You, however, will have heard of the male vocalist who joins her in the choruses, Michael Stipe from REM.
Regardless, this is easily one of the best songs for any beginner guitarist, acoustic or electric, to learn for a number of reasons. First off, it only contains three simple chards, Am, G, and D. And secondly, the rhythm - down - down - down/up/down - is equally as easy.
But what makes this song so good is that, unlike lots of standard beginner’s songs, it sounds much more complicated than it is. This is because even though it only contains three chords, whose order never changes, the melody is sung over different chords as the song progresses. Let me explain…
The first line of the song is sung over the chords Am, G, D, Am. The second over G, D, Am, G, the third over D, Am, G, D. The fourth line consists of Am, then G, and then the D chord is strummed and left to ring before the whole sequence starts again as the vocals re-enter.
This makes it a lot more interesting to play and play along with the recording/video than most of the standard songs that beginners learn.
Here are the Your Ghost lyrics and chords if you want to sing and play along.
6. Zombie - The Cranberries
From a beautiful little-known song, we move to an absolutely massive worldwide hit. Zombie basically only contains four chords, and they are some of the easiest chords to play. Plus, the rhythm couldn’t be much easier, and the solo is nearly all on one string making it superb for beginners to learn. However, the rhythm parts require some palm muting, which I’ll explain soon, but apart from that it’s all very easy.
In simple terms, the chords are Em, C, G, and D. Easy enough, but to make it even easier, you don’t even need to play the full chords. Play the Em as normal, then for the C play a Cmaj7 (CM7), which is the same as a normal C, but you don’t use the first finger. Now for the G, this is a G6, which only involves the first and second fingers - so it’s the same shape as the Cmaj7 we just played, but up a string.
And finally, a little more complicated, the D is a Dadd9/F#, which is a D chord with a finger on the 2nd fret of the low E string to create a F# note, with the other fingers on a D chord, but no finger on the high e string. You can play the F# note with the first finger (easiest option), second finger (harder for most people), or your thumb, by wrapping it around the neck.
That’s the chords covered, the rhythm for theteh intro and verse is all downstrokes, so down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, with palm muting. For the Em, G6, and Dadd9/F# hit the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings, for the Cmaj7, hit the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. To palm mute, you need to rest the palm of your strumming hand very gently over the bridge of your guitar so that it mutes the strings slightly. This will require a lot of trial and error, with small movements back and forth until you get it to sound right - it should sound a little staccato with no ringing notes, but not completely dead.
As mentioned the solo is also well worth learning, check it out (along with the rest of the song) in this online Zombie Tab.
5. What’s Up - 4 Non Blondes
I mentioned in the introduction that to play these easy guitar songs, you need to know your root chords, well this song contains two root chords - A and D - plus a barre chord - Bm. The reason I am including it is thatbecause once beginners can play their root chords to a good standard, it normally takes them a while to move on to and master barre chords. However, the time this takes is rapidly decreased if you learn songs such as What’s Up.
You should be able to play your A and D chords well by now, but the additional barre chord - Bm - makes the song far more difficult to play. However, the fact that the chord progression just goes round and round for the entire length of the song, means that even if you just strum the chords once as you play along with the song, your chord changes will get quicker in no time.
Start with the A and strum it once as the song starts, then change to Bm, and strum that once in time with the song, then move to D, strum, and back to A. Carry on doing this for the full duration of the full song. As this gets easier, strum two or three times per chord. Then learn the rhythm and practice it while changing the chords. You’ll be playing along with the song far quicker than you ever thought possible.
Here is the full What’s Up Tab if you want to learn the lead guitar sections, which are relatively simple as well.
4. Knocking on Heavens Door - Bob Dylan
Another classic, that a lot of guitarists, even beginners, can already play, but it’s much more than a great campfire singalong song - it can open the door to techniques such as random picking and improvising!
In its most basic form, the chords are G, D, Am, Am, - G, D, C, C, although most guitarists play an Am7 (Am without the third finger) instead of the Am. The rhythm is simple - down on the first beat, rest on the second, down on the third beat, and down-up on the four-and, so no problems there.
But, as mentioned, it’s a great song to learn so many other techniques, from random picking to improvisation. For random picking, play a chord’s bass note - 6th string for G, 5th string for Am and C, and 4th string for D, then play any other three strings (normally the high e, b, and g strings) in any order. Once you get the hang of it, try playing the bass note followed by a sequence of 7 random notes.
For improvising, learn the Em (Gmajor) pentatonic scale in the root position, then while playing the song, try inserting very simple two or three note riffs using the notes of the scale while keeping some of the basic strums going.
When that gets easier, learn the first position G major scale starting on the third fret of the low E and create simple short riffs using those notes while keeping the song going.
3. House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
As with What’s Up and the B minor chord, this is the go-to song for mastering the infamous and illusive F major chord. The rest of the chords in the song are simple enough, Am, C, D, and E, it’s the F that will cause the problems.
However, as with What’s Up, because the chord sequence circles around and around (even though it is quite a bit longer than in the 4 Non Blondes song), you will soon get the hang of playing the F. Plus, once you get in rhythm with the other easier chords, it forces you to try and make the change from the D to the F chord as quickly as you can so that the song doesn’t stop dead.
The song goes along at quite a pace, a lot quicker than people realize when listening to it, plus it’s very long, making it a great rhythm workout as well.
Here is the full House of the Rising Sun tab for the chord sequence and if you also want to learn the cool picked intro section.
2. High and Dry - Radiohead
The fact that there is a Radiohead song in my Top 7 Easiest Songs to Play on Guitar list might well be a shock for a lot of you. But it deserves to be here, even though a few sections might be too difficult for complete beginners, such as the intro.
The intro involves octaves (the root of a chord and its octave) played up the neck, along with some open strings. They are not particularly hard to play once you get the hang of them, but if you’ve only played root chords so far, they can be challenging at first. If you’re up for the challenge, then check out the full High and Dry Tab.
Next to the verse, which is exactly the same as the chorus, both of which contain only three chords. They are F#min7add9 (don’t worry it sounds much harder than it is!), Asus2, and E.
Starting with the mouthful of a chord, F#min7add9… place your first finger on the 2nd fret of the G string, your third finger on the 4th fret of the A string, and your pinky underneath it, on the 4th fret of the D string. Then play these strings along with the open high e and B strings.
Next is the Asus2, which is an A chord without the third finger, then a standard E chord. And that’s it!
Once you get the hang of the chords, strum them once per chord change as you play along with the song, then try doing two strums per chord, then three, then four, until you can complete the rhythm and change in time along with the video.
1. Everybody Hurts - REM
It’s amazing how such a beautiful song can be so easy to play, but it is.
The verse is D and G, the chorus is Em and A, and that’s basically it. The picking is the root note - 6th string for G and Em, 5th string for A, and 4th string for D - followed by the third string (G), second string (B), first string (high e), second string (B), and third string (G).
There is a middle 8 section that contains harder barre chords - F#m7 and Bm - but don’t worry if you can’t play them yet, the section is only a very small part of the song. But if you do want to master the whole song, here is the full Everybody Hurts tab.
Wrapping it Up
That’s it for my look at the best easy guitar songs for beginners. I hope I’ve included a few songs you already know and like, as well as some others that you will grow to like over time. Every single one will greatly improve your skills as a guitarist, so even if some of them are not what you would normally listen to or aspire to play on the guitar, give them a go, then move on to other things, you won’t regret it.
As with everything guitar-related, practice is the key, so get your guitar out, tune it up, and then learn the songs, one by one, you won’t believe how much better you are playing in a month or two.
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