10 Easy Songs To Learn On Guitar For Beginners

The best way to learn is to play. Are you going to get better at basketball by reading about basketball? No, you've got to go play it. Same goes for an instrument like the guitar. Beginners need to find simple songs and play them, top to bottom (or as much as possible), to learn rudiments. Thankfully, lots of songs — even big songs from big artists — are not only shockingly easy to play, but even suitable for novices.

Beginner guitarists have to lock down certain sets of skills. They've got to move through basic chord shapes, coordinate their left and right hands to play together, stay on tempo, and lock into the right rhythm, learn core terminology like "semitone" (one half of a musical step, like from an A to an A#) or "action" (how high the strings are from the fretboard), etc. Players can't get swamped in a technical morass, though. They need a happy place where they can feel rewarded. They also need to stay focused on meaningful practice, not busy work (the so-called "80/20 rule" for guitar). This means starting with simple fare like G D C open chords and power chords — things music snobs roll their eyes at but which will help you play whole, actual songs.

For this article, we've chosen a variety of songs that build basic skills, bit by bit, and even contain stretch goals within songs. We've got folk-rock, punk, country, metal, and more, all within the reach of a new player.

Don't worry. We're not asking you to play Slash's solo from Guns N' Roses' 1991 version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." Bob Dylan's 1973 original, however, is 100% within your grasp. It's an acoustic guitar strum-along that employs the simplest, most typical open chord combo you'll encounter on your guitar journey: good ole' G, D, C (all major) with an A-minor tossed in there for fun (a typical add-on) in standard tuning: E A D G B E. Making basic chord shapes and switching between them, keeping time with a mid-tempo song with a simple melody: These are the rudiments that'll help you grow.

Lest anyone forget, pre-"American Idiot" Green Day was a purely Californian pop-punk band. This means lots of power chords (often a simple three-note chord), high tempos, big hooks, and, in the case of 1995's "Brain Stew," a fantastically easy song for guitar beginners. Forget the open-chord strumming with this song. We're talking a series of power chords chugging down the fretboard in an ultra-simple rhythm. Toss in some palm mutes and a detuned guitar (all strings are a half-step/semitone down — typical for grunge-era rock) and you've got yourself a stellar rock tutorial.

"Something in the Way" from Nirvana's legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged performance is an exceedingly simple song to play. Like "Brain Stew," the tuning is a half-step down across all strings, then drop-D for the low E string (making it a Db). Drop tunings are commonplace in hard rock and metal, as they allow you to play a power chord with one finger on the lowest three strings. You can play "Something in the Way" just by pressing a fourth-fret power chord, lifting, and repeating the whole song. There's also a little picking part in the beginning and a D-major-shaped chord during the chorus that you can build into the song. It won't help you get over the loss of Nirvana, but it's a start.

"Slowhand?" you balk. Indeed, because a lot of Eric Clapton songs are actually pretty simple, including one of the most romantic songs of the '70s to crank up on Valentine's Day: 1977's "Wonderful Tonight." This is another open-strumming G D C song with an E minor tossed into the mix. You can strum it or try your hand at picking through the chords. This song might even grant you your first "riff" ala its famous lead line. No guarantees you're going to get Clapton's tone, but you can still use a Fender Stratocaster like him (one of the best electric guitars for beginners).

Now something for all the country lovers out there: 1963's "Ring of Fire" from none other than the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash. Believe it or not, this is yet another G D C song. But if you want to mimic Cash's rhythm, you'll need to buckle down and play cleanly, which makes this song excellent practice. It's also easy enough to sing along with, though sounding like Cash's resonant baritone is another issue entirely. Also, you'll have to hire your own mariachi trumpet and "ooo ooo" background vocalists while singing about burning alive.

G D C again? No, no, although U2's "With or Without You" from their 1987 masterpiece, "The Joshua Tree," could be in G if you transpose it to that key. No need to worry about that, though, if you build baby's first barre chord into your repertoire. This will be the hardest thing about "With or Without You" for a beginner — the finger strength needed to hold down all strings with one finger (and pain tolerance). Besides that, this very emotional, quite beautiful song is just the same four chords again and again: D-major, A-major, B-minor, and G-major. Pine away.

If you've ever wanted to bash out this garage anthem hit from 1966, now's your chance. The Trogg's "Wild Thing" is so, so, so (several more so's) simple, it's easy to make fun of — unless more advanced guitarists forget how hard certain things are for beginners. No matter that "Wild Thing" only has three chords, beginners might find it tricky to keep going back to the D major. No matter, because the song is fun enough to make you keep trying. And if you want to challenge yourself, you can do the barre version of each chord.

Finally, it's time to get heavy. Those who've heard the opening lines from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" know how singable the vocal melody is: "Has he lost his mind? / Can he see, or is he blind?" Well, guess what: The song's power chords directly follow that vocal line. Forget the solo later on in the song and just practice the main over and over till it flows. You can even play the riff using either E A D strings or the A D G strings, so you can hear the difference in tone between the two. Either way, you'll be playing one of the sickest riffs in metal history.

Weezer's "Island in the Sun" is a fantastic song for beginners, right down to the upstrokes and palm mutes (and focus on the high strings). It's basically four chords repeated again and again (with some variation), but the timing and sequence of the chord changes force precision and are a bit more inventive than a standard G D C loop. The song has simple lead lines you can try, too. But most of all, it's superb because of its free-floating feeling, exactly as its lyrics describe. Hip, hip, indeed.

Bet you didn't see this coming, huh? No matter that Rammstein's "Du Hast" wields simple power chords, the rhythm is a bit tricky and the chord changes are a bit quick. Plus, you're going to be switching between full chords and single notes, which will force both hands to be on point (unless you want to chug the whole thing, which is fine). This isn't a first-week song for new guitarists to try, but more of a first-month or two song. No matter what, it's worth it as soon as you start headbanging to your playing.