Musikislove22

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Wannabe Guitar Girl

vanblah

What kind of music do you like?

Baraka_Guru

I've seen a lot of girls do some amazing covers of Beatles songs on acoustic guitars. There are some easy ones out there, even for beginners. Check YouTube by doing a search for "Beatles cover" and you'll find lots of girls doing these.

If you can do barre chords already, try learning "And I Love Her." You could change the lyrics to "And I Love Him."

It's a nice slow song with only a few chords and an easy enough picking part and solo, though it does lend best to at least a duet. You can figure our a single arrangement, I'm sure.

Many other songs in the Beatles category, but I'm biased; I'm a Beatlemaniac!

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Musikislove22

hah...which is fine by me i love the beatles! and i tried doing a barre chord when my friend was over and i just couldnt do it. lol...i guess i didnt press down hard enough and when i did i couldnt get my other fingers to do what i wanted.

oh and i like any kind of music really...just not country. lol

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Wannabe Guitar Girl

ratbastid

Barre chords take practice. It's not a natural position for your hand and finger, and it feels weird to press all the strings with the side of your first finger like that. Keep working on them and building strength in that hand. I know guitarists who "can't" do barre chords only because when they were first learning they decided that they couldn't.

Musikislove22

well i definately wanna learn to do them...i guess i'll just have to practice them more =]

i'll do finger exercises to strengthen my finger. lol

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Wannabe Guitar Girl

Baraka_Guru

Try "I Should Have Known Better" by The Beatles. It should be pretty easy for you. Same with "A Hard Day's Night."

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Fly

this helps...........touch each of your fingers individually to your thumb....and press them hard together for 10 secs.......do each one on either hand too.....many times a day.


works wonders for barre chords.......


good luck to you.........

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BASTARD

SterlingStudios

SSJTWIZTA

try something by Kimya Dawson or the Moldy Peaches.

that all the advice my drunk ass has to offer

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First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

Martian

So I've been pointed here. I'm assuming you're working on an acoustic.

Barre chords take a while to get down. It is all about finger strength; Fly's exercise should help, but even without it all you need to do is keep practice. You'll naturally develop the finger strength you need as you go. If you're impatient, you can definitely follow Fly's advice (which, as usual, is spot on) or you can grab a grip trainer and use that. The Gripmaster ones are best for musicians, since they work each finger individually and won't allow your pinky to slack off.

In terms of songs, I think what you're looking for in particular is a category that I tend to think of as three chord songs; songs that are literally just three chords in open position. A few good examples:

Bob Seger - Night Moves
Tom Petty - Free Fallin'
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Barenaked Ladies - What A Good Boy
Barenaked Ladies - Be My Yoko Ono (actually four, but close enough)

You'll need a capo to play some of those in the same key as the original version.

CCR also does Down On the Corner, which has a riff through the verses and chords in the chorus (specifically F, G and C). The Beatles have a bunch of good stuff too, as Baraka_Guru pointed out. A lot of their early material was based on a 12 bar blues progression, and if you learn that a lot of it will become available to you (along with a bunch of Elvis, Chuck Berry and a lot of other artists from that general timeframe).

If you want a song specifically by a female singer, you can look at Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin. (which was a Dylan song originally, incidentally). It's a little more complicated in that there's a few different chord variations, including seventh chords. It's not terribly complicated anyway and the strumming is easy as all get out.

I can't recommend songs specifically for you to sing, because that will depend on your voice as much as anything else. Regardless, there ought to be something here to get you started.

I may come back with more when I haven't just worked a late shift.

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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

ngdawg

Probably the easiest guitar tune in the world to play is Horse With No Name by America. It consists of two chords, Eminor (two strings, one fret) and D, altho I played it with Eminor and Aminor, lifting off the g-string on the upstroke.
This site describes it a bit differently, but same results:
http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/horse-with-no-name/
As does this:
http://www.accessbackstage.com/america/cord/cord005.htm

It's also very easy to sing as there is little variation in tonal scale, making it adaptable to almost any voice.

Oops, guess she won't see this.

Glory's Sun

well..not the thread I thought it was going to be..

was all prepared to point in the direction of any coldplay album

thespian86

Lisa Loeb's "You Say"; easy, cute, and very easy vocally.

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Baraka_Guru

Oh, good one.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot