by Darren Senn

Created on: June 02, 2008   Last Updated: September 05, 2008

You may be surprised at how many of the songs you know and love are really not difficult to play on the guitar. If you learn all, or even just a few of the basic open chords, you have the arsenal to play an endless amount of your favorite songs. So many of the classics that we have burned permanently into our brains are composed of three or four chords.

When my students can't come up with a song they want to learn, I try to turn them on to a couple of straight-forward, widely popular tunes that lots of people recognize and enjoy. Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" is usually the first song I teach. First of all, I would say it falls into the "easy" category because the chord progression is repetitive, a great quality to look for when you want to learn easy songs. In its most basic form, you can simply strum the G chord twice, then the D chord twice, then the A minor four times. Next time around do the same with the G and D, but strum the C chord four times instead of the A minor. Repeat; Gx2, Dx2, Amx4 - Gx2, Dx2, and Cx4 until you're blue in the face. You've got it. Now start singing along and get your friends and neighbors to join in, I'm sure they know it!

Another crowd favorite that has an easy, repetitive chord progression is "Hey Joe" by Jimi Hendrix. Okay, so this one has five chords, but they are all easy to make. In its simple form, you strum a C chord twice, a G chord twice, a D twice, an A twice, then land on the E for eight rockin' strums. That's it folks; Cx2, Gx2, Dx2, Ax2 and Ex8. For extra credit, learn the E minor pentatonic scale (one of the best scales to start with), get together with a guitar-playing buddy and start playing the scale notes notes over the progression and you will be making even more music!
I chose the above two songs first because you can get away with very straight-forward strumming along with your easy open chords. Now let's look at America's "Horse With No Name", which might call for a tiny bit more dynamic in the strumming to sound authentic, but only uses two chords that simply switch back and forth. Those chords are E minor and Dadd6add9. Don't worry about that fancy name for the D, just put your middle finger on the second fret of the low E string, and your ring finger on the second fret of the G (3rd) string and strum all six strings. When finding the rhythm, just play along with the song and try to identify where the upstrokes are stressed in the strumming. This song only has two chords and never strays from the second fret! What a dandy to learn!

I think you and anybody listening or playing along will find enjoyment and inspiration in these simple, yet brilliant songs.

Okay, now go pick up your guitar and start making magic....it's easy!

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