A simple guitar song is defined by the limited number of beginner chords it uses and that it normally employs just one strumming pattern. There are many popular easy songs which fall sweetly into this category making there the perfect starting point for beginners. Going online to search for a list of easy guitar songs to play is highly recommended especially when you may also be able to download song sheets and chord charts to go with them. The only weakness is that chord sheets often do not contain any instructions about which strum pattern to use for the song.
Guitar Song Video Tutorials
YouTube is a wonderful resource for anyone learning to play acoustic guitar. Not only can you find a massive amount of free acoustic guitar lessons but many beginner guitar songs are taught as well, and all for free. The best method is to combine downloading song sheets or guitar song TABs along with watching video lessons. You can print out the song sheet as a way of cataloguing the songs you’re learning and use the video lessons to get the strum patterns. If you read through this site you’ll see that you actually don’t need a lot of strums in order to play lots of songs which is super convenient for beginners everywhere.
Buy Yourself A Capo!
A guitar capo is extremely useful when learning to play simple acoustic guitar songs. Often you’ll find that songs are in more remote keys than C or G and so will contain barre chords. These types of chords are out of the range of most beginners who have only just mastered open chords. Using a capo however it’s possible to convert songs using barre chords into open chord versions, all you need is a little knowledge of music theory or access to a guitar teacher who can do the work for you. You do not need to be an advanced guitarist to use music theory so don’t let that stop you from starting to learn about it now.
Once transposed into open chords with a capo position, what was once an advanced song can be brought into the range of a beginner just like magic! A capo clamps down across all six strings in order to reproduce the ‘nut’ of the guitar. It allows you to play in a different key while still retaining all your usual open chords. More on that in another article coming soon.
Prepare For Simple Guitar Songs
The first thing to work on are your guitar chords. All the best acoustic guitar songs for beginners will be made up of open chords which the easiest to learn. First you should learn all the shapes of your chords then practice a lot to be able to change between them quickly. Not beging able to change chords fast enough is the number one reason why beginners struggle to play easy songs on guitar. Yes they may be ‘easy’ but it’s a relative term, you still need to be technically capable on the instrument to pull it off.
You also need to practice strumming in different patterns. Your rhythm must be controlled and fluid so that you can keep constant and even time. Combining the two elements together – strumming on one side and chords on the other is the basic equation necessary to play simple songs on guitar. With good quality guitar lessons it can take just one month before you’ll be ready to learn your first songs from scratch.
Guitar TABs
As your playing gets better you’ll find that you can move up a level and into guitar tablature. This is a more detailed form of guitar music notation and allows you to read melody lines and riffs rather than just chords. Often, songs will have some signature guitar riffs or melodic signature content which can be lots of fun to learn. Acoustic guitar tabs are perfect for showing you how to do it and they are widely available for free on the web. When you’re able to make the transition out of song sheets (chords and strumming) and into guitar tab (riffs and melody lines with chords) then you’ll know for sure that you’re making some decent progress on guitar.
The key is to always push forward but not at a rate which is going to cause you unnecessary frustration. Find the right balance between keeping yourself entertained with new things to learn or master and over-doing it by asking way to much of yourself on guitar – only go for things you are ready for and keep your steps small. That’s actually the fastest way to get good at playing simple guitar songs.
