begining gutar (song recomendations)

Post Reply New Topic

i play bass with a pick so ive got the hitting strings sorta stuff, but i'm starting with a regular guitar mainly for interest in harmonies/ chords

i was wondering what songs might be good to play? whatever i lookup ends up being all power chords

Beginner songs?

Undone by Weezer (mostly power chords too but you can play it as regular chords)
Photograph by Weezer
Jamie by Weezer... weezer is really good for beginners!
pretty much anything by the White Stripes
Where is my mind by The Pixies
Steady As She Goes by the Raconteurs
Radio America by the Libertines

hope that helped!

If you're into Tom Petty, look up the chords to some of his songs.

For the most part, they're all really simple progressions, and it's easy to make up your own elaborations on them.

oh, here's another good one... The Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana

What kind of music do you like? It's hard to give recommendations without knowing your taste.

My taste is somewhat varied, and I don't play many covers, but when I want to seriously get better at playing guitar, I look up some Led Zeppelin tabs and learn a song or two. Led Zeppelin songs run the gamut from extremely easy ("When the Levee Breaks") to extremely challenging ("White Summer"). They're fun to play and they're full of interesting chords and time signatures. I've learned a lot from them.

Of course this only applies if you're familiar with the songs and don't hate them.

I also recommend investing in a good guitar book - one with a large section of chord diagrams.

Blues are good... you can start out with walking bass exercises, work on your 12-bar blues

Rock... like Kim says, it depends on which bands/genres you like

Southern Rock - Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama), Little Feat(Willin'.. on youtube look for the BlackBerrySmoke version, other than the original LF version this is the next best)

Classic Rock - Led Zepplin(Stairway To Heaven), Doobie Brothers(China Grove), Eric Clapton(Hand Jive)

Other Rock - Black Sabbath(Iron Man), Audioslave(Show Me How To Live), The Offspring(Pretty Fly For a Whiteguy - aka: Pretty Monotonous For a Guitar Player )

You can go all the way back to Buddy Holly, any of the Blues Guitarists, Carl Perkins, etc.

Or... if you're not talking rock or blues

John Denver, James Taylor, Waylon Jennings,

I'm just pulling names off the top of my head... there are so many to choose from depending on what you're trying to do and play.

I can suggest software to help you figure out how a song is being picked/played...

Here's the link... --->The Amazing Slower Downer

It's a great program that you use to slow down a song without changing it's pitch.
I have used it for fiddle tunes when trying to learn them on fiddle or mandolin.
It works for guitar as well... you want to learn that solo but it's too fast for you to figure out? This program will make it work for you.. it's really neat and worth the money imho

I recently discovered this website for finding the names of chords if you are like me and an idiot when it comes to music theory
the link --->CHORD NAME

wsmac, that Chord Name thing is VERY useful! I'm bookmarking it.

I also downloaded the trial version of the Amazing Slower Downer. I've taken on a challenge / informal competition to learn to play "White Summer". The Amazing Slower Downer could mean victory!

Last edited by EvilKimEvil on 04 May 2008, 9:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Good for you!
I hope they help.
The chord finder I stumbled upon today actually while trying to name a particular chord I was playing but couldn't figure out using my very limited knowledge of music theory.

The software I was introduced to at LARK Camp last year and I have found it to be a really cool tool!

I know a bit about music theory, but I'm too lazy to figure out all the right names for the chords I play. So I just make up chords and make up names for them like X, Y, Z, Thing-A-Ma-Jig, etc. I was surprised to learn that some of my "weird" chords are basic major chords that somehow just aren't included in guitar books, and some of my "slightly modified major chords" are something else entirely! One that I thought of as a Cmaj7+? is actually an E9#5!

thanks for the suggestions, theres a link to my last fm profile in my signature if you wanna know what i listen to, but i like a variety of stuff i just something something with some variety of chords

and for the program i just listened to psycroptic - alpha breed at a quarter of the regular speed, it was still good


im having more trouble than i thought i would though, ive been using the palm sorta bits of my fingers on the bass frets for some time, and its hard going back to fingertips

I just looked at your last fm profile. You have good taste. I like a lot of the same stuff.

It's hard to make recommendations based on your list because out of the stuff I'm familiar with and have at least tried to play, everything is either easy and made of power chords or too hard for most beginners. Except the Led Zeppelin, of course. Typically, I'd recommend Black Flag - "Nervous Breakdown" is a classic learn-to-play-guitar song, but it is all power chords.

Oh MAN Mouapp... thanks for the link to your last.fm page..err.. thing... whatever it is

I checked out your playlists and although I can't make sense of the majority of the names, one hit me RIGHT IN THE FACE

TOM WAITS!

I don't run across too many people who know who he is let alone like his music!

You're alright in my book!

but damned if I know what to recommend for you based upon your tastes in music... LOL...

You've done it too me now!

While I'm cruising around WP, I have last.fm playing Wait's songs in the background in another tab LOL

I'll have to drag out my CD and pop that in the stereo next.

I'm doomed... look what you've done to me mouapp!

eh... I'm a little bit punchy tonight for some reason... none of it chemically induced either!

If you are ok with 60's country music, Johnny Cash recorded a lot of music with fairly simple chording. Great for practicing quick changes.