The 5 Easiest Bob Dylan Songs To Learn On Guitar

Is there a singer-songwriter more singer-songwriter than Bob Dylan? The "poet first and ... musician second," as he once called himself (per The Spokesman-Review), is the living embodiment of coffee shop folk dreams, where a single person plays simple, strummy songs in a corner and changes the world. Thankfully for the rest of us, many Dylan songs really are that easy to play, even for absolute beginners. 

Simplicity is a big part of the reason why Dylan has sold over 125 million records and earned a Nobel Prize in literature. It's not just that his lyrics are generally easy to understand — it's also that his songs are so singable and easy to follow, and not in a dumb way but a universal way. That's what we're focusing on for this article: Nigh-perfect melodies woven through the simplest chords and chord shapes. 

Our recommendations are physically easy to play and build on skills learned from playing each other, like the use of capoes, the incorporation of barre chords, and the typical G, D, and C open chord combo that all guitarists encounter sooner rather than later. But our choices are also easy to understand, rhythmically and melodically, which is important for muscle and musical memory, respectively. We're not taking singing and harmonica playing into account, though. That's up to the reader. On that note, we're recommending colossal hits like "Blowin' In the Wind" and widely covered songs like "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."

No, no, no — not the Guns N' Roses version. We're talking about the OG, "Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door" singer and writer, Bob Dylan. Released along with the 1973 film, "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (in which Dylan acted), "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is a shockingly cool song for such die-cast, simple chords. It's one of the easiest songs for beginners to learn, and it relies on the three most prevalent open chords that a nascent guitarist needs to play about a bajillion-kajillion songs: G, D, and C (all major). Okay, there's an A-minor tossed in there, too, but that's just a C-major with your ring finger moved to the G string (in standard tuning). Don't know what we're talking about? It's fine, because it doesn't take too long to learn.

"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" has been covered over 300 official times since its release, no doubt because the song is so simple to just pick and strum. Eric Clapton, Wyclef Jean, Avril Lavigne, Babyface, and, of course, GNR, have all given it their unique stamp and spin. Such a wide variety of styles ought to show you not only how easy the song is to grok and play but also how widely applicable its core writing is to a variety of musical styles and genres. Good music is good music, after all.

As an extra bonus, the strumming rhythm for "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is super, super simple. Downstroke on every beat, work the upstrokes in between them, and boom: Acoustic masterpiece suitable for unleashing from the bedroom and sharing with your extremely patient partner. 

We know you've probably heard "Blowin' in the Wind" enough over your life. There are plenty of great Bob Dylan songs besides it, but there might not be an easier one. If possible, it's even easier than "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." Good ole' G, D, and C rear their trifold head again in this song, and ... well, actually that's it. That's one less chord than "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." All chords are open, the change-up between each occurs at regular, predictable intervals, and there are only downstrokes on the first and third beats (you can do upstroke shucka-shuckas in between them). Hand to God: Once you get past your initial finger pain and chord shape practice, dear beginner, you could quite literally play this song perfectly with your eyes closed and with zero practice on the very first try, some years or even months down the line.

If you're thinking, "Hey, this song is so simple and easy that it sounds like Bob Dylan could have written it in no time," well, you're right. He had a very on-brand, one-word reply in response to being asked if he wrote the song in 10 minutes: "Probably." Non-guitarists will likely think this is A) Indicative of Dylan's genius, or B) Think it's impossible. But really, folks, it's not. Pick up your acoustic guitar and strum the same chords as "Blowin' in the Wind," but hum your own tune — whatever comes to mind. This might demystify Dylan's mystique a bit while not denigrating his talent. It should prove encouraging that such long-lasting work came from the simplest of musical components and spontaneous energy.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" from 1965's "Bringing It All Back Home" is written in F-major, which would be a bit annoying to play, barre chords and all, without the use of every acoustic folk cafe singer's favorite easy-mode guitar weapon: the capo. Bob Dylan capoed "Mr. Tambourine Man" on the third fret so he could use the typical, open-chord G, D, and A shapes you'd get if your guitar was tuned to standard tuning (E, A, D, G, B, E) and you played without a capo. So, beginners: Slap your capo on the third fret and play as though you're playing G, D, and A (which, with a capo, is actually Bb, F, and C). The rhythm is a tad less intuitive than a song like "Blowin' in the Wind," and it requires you to return to A in between switching between G and D, but you'll get it quickly enough.

Also, beginners beware: "Mr. Tambourine Man" crops up in different keys across time, so don't let your ear get tricked. Dylan played the song in E-major at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, a choice rendered confusing because his guitar is still capoed on the third fret, meaning the whole guitar must have been tuned down a half step. Then there's the Byrds' version that they covered for their 1965 folk rock album of the same name, which is in D-major and requires no capo.

Such key swapping doesn't make the song any more difficult to play, though. If you want Dylan's original, use a capo on the third fret and play G, D, and A shapes. If you want to challenge yourself, ditch the capo and do Bb, F, and C.

Even though 1964's "The Times They Are a-Changin'" is very much a song that Bob Dylan wrote for the mid-'60s, it nails the meaning of life across generations and calls to mind anything of contemporary importance. It helps that the song, like most Dylan tracks, is extremely easy to sing and play. How easy? Would you believe it's another G, D, and C affair? This time, there's an A-minor and an E-minor tossed in there, which are two of the most common open chords to tie into songs built around G, D, and C. There are also a couple of weird, unconventional chords played across the "And you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone" verse line, but they're so subtle (they're variations on C-major) as to be practically unneeded. Just keep bashing on the C-major for that line and play around with the rhythm a bit, and you'll be good to go.

The one thing about "The Times They Are a-Changin'" that might trip up a beginner player is its rhythm, as the song isn't in 4/4 time like most Dylan songs and the others in this article but 3/4 time (up for debate, but that'll only complicate things for beginners). 3/4 time is what many folks might understand as "waltz" time, with a three-note, 1-2-3 sway, not a 1-2-3-4 snare-and-kick rock feeling. This rhythm isn't difficult to handle by any stretch, and beginners should be able to fairly easily sync with Dylan's playing using their ear and bodily intuition. Instead of downstrokes on the first and third beats, you can downstroke on the first and play around with upstrokes for the rest of the measure. It'll come very naturally if you keep it up.

The newest song on our list and also the rockiest (for Bob Dylan), 1975's "Shelter from the Storm" from "Blood on the Tracks" is another capoed song — on the second fret, this time. Once you do this, you've only got three open chord shapes to worry about: D, A, and G in that order, the entire song, again and again. That's it. The tempo is a bit higher than a song like "Blowin' in the Wind," which will give you a chance to practice some faster downstroke-upstroke variations. We could stop there except for two big bugbears that all beginners need to be wary of: Alternate tunings and unnecessarily difficult chord shapes. 

Folks who've bought the best acoustic guitar for beginners and who are looking to learn beginner songs will quickly learn that the internet is full of misinformation, bad takes, and incorrect tabs (i.e., tablatures, the fret/string diagrams that show you how to play a song). "Shelter from the Storm," for whatever reason, has become a victim of this particular malady. There are goofy open tunings that require you to change the tuning of your strings just for this one song, overly complicated explanations and difficult chord shapes (no matter how nice-sounding), unconventional chord shapes that will confuse beginners looking to lock down the basics, etc., etc. 

Ditch all of this — every bit. Do the second-fret capo thing like we said, or try the song without a capo, which will require you to play E-major, B-major (barre chord), and A-major. This is a bit more difficult, but it's good practice and a way to cap your Dylan repertoire of beginner songs.