by Ian Loft

Created on: January 04, 2010

Easy songs for guitar is a relative expression for reasons that vary from ability of an individual to rapidly acquire playing skills and coordination through to the actual chord progression required for a given song.  If it were as simple as just chord progression most songs would be easy so long as a player were content with four or five basic chords however reality is the diversity of music requires an equally diverse range of skill and knowledge.

As a guitar tutor I learned the fastest way keep students motivated in the early stages is by use of a carefully selected range of songs that require simple positional shift movements. The first three full chords learned are A, D and E major where the shift from A to D major requires movement of second and third fingers only, the first remains on the third string in the second fret. A change to E major requires this finger to slide down to the first fret while simultaneously repositioning the second and third fingers. These simple changes are fairly rapidly mastered and using these three major chords the range of available songs is surprisingly wide.

A familiar song using these three chords and starting in A is ‘Da Do Ron Ron’ – there is no need to get tied up in knots trying to assimilate rhythm while training fret board fingers because down-strokes suffice in the formative stages of tuition.  By the time fingers become accustomed to repositioning from chord to chord the new player is familiar enough with the time signature to deal with the introduction of upward strokes for simple rhythm patterns.

Some additional songs (noting of course that transposition into the key of A major is first required) using the three chords A, D and E major include:

Twist and Shout (Beatles)

Oh Boy (Buddy Holly)

Midnight Special (Creedence)

Walk of Life (Dire Straights)

Living Next Door To Alice (Smokie)

Cotton Fields (Traditional – various artists)

The Witchdoctor (Various Artists – a fun song for young learners)

Twinkle Twinkle (For younger learners – indeed most children's songs are possible using only three chords)

The reason I select these three chords as the first to be learned relate to the specific shape required for fingers on a fret board in forming them on a standard EADGBE tuned guitar.  I call these ‘closed pattern’ shapes due to minimal separation of individual fingers when placed on the strings.  Before moving on from the three basic major chords I

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