Eviltree

I'm trying to teach myself guitar, and am wondering if there are any good songs to learn that are good, while not being too difficult to play. Any ideas would be appreciated

dobster

Start with the chords to nursery Rhymes as these are very straight forward in the norm. If you want to get adventurous, do some Rolling Stones tunes.

Ideally, you should get some playalongs to help you out. Most music shops in Britain have a book section and alot of tutor books have CDs included to help you get playing.

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stonegrody

What kind of music do you like or want to learn? Most Nirvana stuff is very easy to play and sounds good acoustic. That'll get you started with power chords. From there, you could learn some basic A, C, D, E, G songs. Check out some Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler, power ballad type of stuff. If you want specific songs, it would help to know what type of music you listen to and want to play.

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pcockren

There are a lot of songs you can start with...try www.wholenote.com or guitar.about.com for quick lessons and songs to go with them...cyberfret.com is good too but slow

mused76

I agree with the previous post: to start with Nirvana. Though their songs aren't complex you feel a sense of achievement after learning to play them. You can then tackle bigger more complex songs with your new sense of accomplishment!

shipofshame

The first song I ever learnt was the Beatle's "Day Tripper."

I'll never forget that.

lpj8

I think that no matter what type of music your into, you should learn how to play basic chords. I learned how to play the guitar on The Beatles. I got myself a huge Beatles chord book with a ton of the songs. I learned how to play the really easy ones first, just strumming the chords (Twist and Shout, I wanna hold your hand). The I moved on to the more difficult songs (Blackbird, Martha My Dear). I would really recommend learning your major and minor chords. There are tons of simple rock songs that utilize your standard G, C, D chord progression. Another whole bunch of easy songs are A minor, C, G chord progressions. Nirvana is OK to learn on, but most of it is power chords, which doesn't teach you true hand positions for chords.
What type of music are you into playing? Because you ultimately need to be playing something that you enjoy if you are going to stick with it.

MikeyChalupa

Hey Joe is a really easy way to learn all the open (non barred) chords. The progression is C, G, D, A, E.

Repeat until bored.

-Mikey

unregistered092

metallica. master of puppets.

i for one got bored extreamly fast with easy crap like nirvana and limp bizkit.

warrrreagl

In E Major???? Certainly not, or else you were a natural-born rock God!

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gyroscope

you should play songs that are easy and that sond good.
smoke on the water is a good example,or smells like teen spirit,chop suey,...
but first you should learn all the importatnt chords,it will help you a lot.
if you have adcanced,you can try nothing else matters,it's not that hard to play if you practise well,and it sounds really great.another song that sonds great and is not that hard to play is stairway to heaven(without solo)...and this song is a good fingerpicking exercise.

Midnight_Son

I agree 100%, I give lessons and if I get one more kid asking to learn Metalica on day one, I'll blow chow.....start with Chords, REAL CHORDS, none of this power chord shit, learn how to play it right,learn how to tune it (without your digital tuner), learn every note on every string... you can do the fun stuff once you have the fundamentals down. buy a Mel Bay book and learn all the majors, minors and 7th's.....you be in good shape in no time. Try "every rose has it's thorn" by Poison...nice and slow and only 4 chords, G C D and an Em. bigest thing to remember when your starting, it aint easy, it takes time and a LOT of patience....keep with it and you'll have a lot to be proud of down the road....Good luck!

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gboz

How quickly you progress depends on how strong a desire you have. When I started playing I had a guitar in my hand constantly. Hasn't changed much.

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shipofshame

HA! I wish.

It was actually just the opening 'picking' chords. Took me another year or so to get around to learning the chords when the lyrics pick up. Hehe.

d*d

counting crows - sullivan street just d, g, a, em.(d and g only for verse)
Green day - time of your life g, c, d, em. (not in that order)
really anything that doesn't require a barre chord (although the sooner you get used to them the better)

Eviltree

thanks everyone. to be honest though, I've been trying to learn guitar for a while, but have only recently started to take it seriously. I've been playing the piano for quite a few years as well, so that helps. I've laernd some riffs, and Keep on rockin' in the free world by neil young (although its rediculously easy: c,g,d,e, maybe an a or two. I enjoy most music, with the possible exception of country music, blah.