I have only had a guitar for about a week. I have been looking at lessons, trying out chords and been looking for a good beginner/first song. I think I found one that will work, Redemption Song.
What are some others that people have started out with?
Good question. I can't remember. Might have been Still The Same by Bob Seger. That's doing one complete. I think the first one I did part of might have been Horse With No Name by using David Hodges' lesson in the easy song for beginner's section of GN.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
My first song was "Wild Thing"! It's great, very easy--just the A, D and E chords, plus it's very easy to do the "I think I love you part", by just lifting the A chord off and playing the open strings. So you can get a good effect with just a few chords and it sounds great.
to be perfectly honest...it was maybe 5 or 6 months in before i could play anything 'passable'......ie something somebody else would recognise as a proper song...let alone singing too
so don't be down hearted or frustrated...its part of the guitar journey
My first was "Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric, as featured in the movie "Stranger than Fiction":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXAKEeYmUus&feature=related
I figured if Will Ferrell could play it then it probably wasn't too hard. It turns out it's just two chords, E and A.
Add a D and you can play "Wild Thing" as mentioned above. Or smelly cat.
your first song should have three chords.
there are tons of them.
mine were:
Louie,Louie
later on, Wild Thing
and Gloria.
if I began playing guitar in the 70's the Ramone playlist would be used.
but I started in the 60's.
Dylan's "The Times They Are a Changin"
Using A, D, E, simple 1 2 & 3 strum.
Not sure you looking for advice, but mine is:
Master these three and changing between them at a decent speed while maintaing rhythm. You will open the door to tons of songs.
Later you can add an A7, Em, Em7, Dsus2 etc pretty easily opening the door to mega tons of songs.
Repeat process with G, C, and F(non-barre shapes are available) and you will never run out of songs!!
Thanks for all the advice and recommendations guys. I don't expect to be able to play a whole song anytime soon, but it's nice to have a target. I got the intro to Redemption Song down and it is nice to here something resembling music come out of my guitar, other than scales and attempts at chords.
It was most probable House with no Name from this very site :D
Mine was (and is) LOL
Horse of the Rising Sun
or was it
House with No Name?
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
My first song was "Wild Thing"! It's great, very easy--just the A, D and E chords, plus it's very easy to do the "I think I love you part", by just lifting the A chord off and playing the open strings. So you can get a good effect with just a few chords and it sounds great.
:)
Me too.
I still enjoy playing it even though I just about wore it out when I first started.
Don
Nothing Ever Happens
by Del Amitri
Don't ask me why, but I love that song.
FIrst electric song,
You shook me all night long, by ACDC...
Really rocks, but not too hard to play.
Ande
The first complete song I learned was Blackbird by the Beatles. The real version, not the one that's in a lesson on this site. That version is easier than the real one. It's all fingerpicking, and I'd been playing around 2 months when I finally got the song down.
Mine was (and still is amonst other thinsg) House of the Rising Sun (D Hodge's lesson).
Mine was a Kiss song. "Cold Gin". I needed to learn A G D and E! It was from one of those fake books though. The right chords just not the right fingering. Today I play it just like Ace does. 8)
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
