Guitar How-To

All beginner guitarists want to know how to play songs on the guitar. As the acoustic guitar is still a popular instrument and the best one to learn guitar on, I will stay away as much as I can from songs that sound better on electric guitars.

How long will it be before you can play simple guitar songs? That mostly depends on how much practice you do. For some people learning chord changes and strumming patterns is a little easier than for others, but it usually evens out somehow in the end. One important element here is having a friend who plays the guitar. The presence of somebody that you can hang out with and get advice from is really valuable when you are learning to play songs.

You could also think about learning a bunch of songs that are easy to remember. Blues and country songs use a great deal of repetition in the way they are composed. Some people think that all country songs sound the same, and most blues songs share the question and response form within twelve bars. If you do not know what that means, just listen to a few twelve bar blues songs and pick out the common elements.

If you want to learn how to play songs on the guitar you will be looking for simple chords to learn. Many people, when they first pick up the guitar, go for the easy songs rather than songs that they enjoy listening to. Of course, learning to play a song with two simple chords in it is going to yield quicker results than learning a song that you like that has three chords, working within your own musical tastes is always going to help with your motivation. If you are really worried about learning simple chords quickly, you could consider just strumming the treble strings – the third, second and first strings. Approaching chords this way will mean that if you want to learn four of the most common chords, C major, A minor, F major and G major, you will be playing the chords with only one or two fingers. Just take a look at a chord chart and you will see what I mean. You will still be doing a bar across the first two strings for the F chord but if you are in a hurry to see results, this will be the way to go.

You will be able to strum accompaniment to lots of songs within a week. If your voice does not match up with the chords played in the first position, go to your local music store and buy a capo. This is gadget that clamps onto your guitar neck at any fret you like and makes the pitch of the strings higher so that your two-finger chords will match the pitch of your voice.

As you are probably looking for a list of easy songs to play, here are a few of the common ones that come up in discussions about which songs a beginner should learn to play first. Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple is always on the list somewhere, and for good reason, it is easily recognizable by your friends who are waiting to check out how you are doing on the guitar, and it is easy to learn. Wild Thing by The Troggs is another iconic pop song that can be learnt by a beginner. Other favorites are Hendrix’ (or Dylan’s) All Along The Watchtower, Wonderwall by Oasis, What I Like About You by The Romantics and Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

So here we are talking about songs that are associated with the electric guitar when I was supposed to stick to easy acoustic guitar songs. Well, the truth is you can still play electric guitar songs on your acoustic guitar, but you will not have the electronic effects available and you will be coping with a wider fretboard, higher action and lack of a cutaway. The plus side is there are many rock and metal artists who have surprised their fans with acoustic guitar versions of their classics. You just need to think outside the box.

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