Guitar lessons for beginners and more

Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners: Round Two

This is a continuation of last week’s post of 10 easy guitar songs for beginners. Check those out if you haven’t already. Chords, lyrics, and videos of each songs are included so you can play them!

The best thing a beginning guitar player can do is to apply all the new chords they are learning to playing an actual song. After all, isn’t that why you’re learning how to play guitar in the first place?

So again, here’s my picks of some easy guitar songs for beginners that you should be able to pick up right when you are first beginning guitar (or even if you’ve been playing awhile! These are good songs still!). There’s a mix of some new pop songs and older classics in this list.

Click on the song title to view chords, lyrics, and a video.

Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

1.) House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
2.) I’m Yours by Jason Mraz
3.) Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne
4.) I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash
5.) Viva La Vida by Coldplay

What would you add to this list?

10 Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners with Guitar Chords

When you’re first learning how to play the guitar, the best thing you can do is practice learning a new song. However, it can be hard to find easy guitar songs for beginners when you’re first starting because you don’t know which songs are easy to learn on guitar and which ones aren’t.

Here’s my collection of some easy guitar songs for beginners that you can pick up right away when you are learning how to play the guitar. There’s a mix of some new pop songs and older classics in this list.

I’ve also written up the chords and lyrics. Click on a song to see the video, chords, and lyrics.

Top 5 Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

1.) Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver
2.) Free Falling by Tom Petty
3.) Yellow by Coldplay
4.) Come On Get Higher by Matt Nathanson
5.) Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynard

More Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

6.) Clocks by Coldplay
7.) Teardrops On My Guitar by Taylor Swift
8.) Lost by Coldplay
9.) Realize by Colbie Caillat
10.) You’re Beautiful by James Blunt

What songs are you learning how to play? What easy guitar songs for beginners would you add to this list?

3 Reasons Why You Should Know Some Music Theory

Music theory. You know, it’s the way we understand how music functions and operates. If we’re honest, it can be kind of boring. It can be dry and tedious. For some, it can just be plain scary and nonsensical.

I love playing music, but I can’t say I fall head over heels for music theory. Maybe you’re like me.

However, understanding a little bit of music theory for guitar can only help us and make us better off as guitarists and those who compose or write songs with the guitar. Here are some reasons why.

1.) You Gain a Better Understanding of the Guitar Fretboard.

Music theory helps us understand how the notes on a guitar fretboard connect into the music we play. When we have a little bit of understanding of theory, the notes on the fretboard aren’t just merely notes, but there is actually a connection between them, and they relate and function together in a particular way. If we understand how the notes connect and relate to one other, how much more easily can we then creatively express ourselves through our guitar playing.

2.) You Gain a Better Understanding For How Chords Function.

Different chords have different characteristics such as major, minor, augmented, or diminished. It’s in a better understanding of music theory that we understand how different chords are characteristic to different scales and how those chords function in those scales. In our understanding of music theory, we also learn how to [...]

Freshening Up Your Guitar Playing: How To Use a Guitar Capo

Guitar capos are a beautiful thing. Not only are guitar capos practical, but by using a guitar capo, you’re given a whole new palette of options in the realm of creativity. You can even get a certain characteristic of sound in the songs you play. Every guitarist should keep a capo in their guitar case.

What Is a Capo?

A capo is a small tool that “clamps” down all the strings on your guitar. In a certain sense, it bars all the strings on a particular fret. This allows a guitarist to transpose keys. The capo shown on the left is a Kyser Capo, which is a pretty popular style of capo.

How Does a Capo Work?

As I said, a capo allows a guitarist to [...]

How to Read Guitar Chord Symbols

Guitar chords, or any chords for that matter, can be expressed in a variety of different ways. Sometimes this means guitar chords might include weird symbols or numbers.

I want you to be able to identify the different ways guitar chords can be written, even if you don’t quite have a full grasp of what the chord might be representing. For that reason, I’m not going to go too deep into the theory behind these ways of writing guitar chords or show you how to play these chords. To learn how to play guitar chords, visit our growing list of guitar chords with chord chart diagrams here.

1. Major guitar chords

Often major guitar chords are just represented by a capital letter. For example: G, D, C. Sometimes major chords might have an added “maj” attached to the letter like: Gmaj, Dmaj, Cmaj. Those can all be understood as major guitar chords.

2. Minor guitar chords

Minor guitar chords will often be represented by a capital letter followed by a lowercase “m” or [...]

Guitar Chords: Learn Your Major Chords

I thought it’d be a good idea to take a look at guitar chords. Every now and then I’m going to post some guitar chord tabs (A.K.A. “diagrams”–whatever you prefer) with pictures of the guitar chord’s finger position. If you are just beginning guitar, a good start is to learn some major guitar chords. I’ve tabbed the guitar chords out and then show a picture of the guitar chord’s finger position.

Finger Placement For Guitar Chords: Eliminate String Buzz!

There is a common mistake that I’m always seeing with beginning guitar players. From what I’ve noticed, this mistake accounts for a lot of string buzz, and it’s all because of poor finger placement. I want to show you correct finger placement for guitar chords. This will help you out tremendously so you can play clean, no buzz, guitar chords. Let’s take a look.