How to play guitar songs

Last Updated on June 18, 2022 by Klaus Crow

If you want to learn some easy guitar songs for beginners you’ve come to the right place. I’ve put together a great list of simple songs to play on guitar that are great to strum and sing along with. We got easy acoustic and electric guitar songs, fingerstyle songs, riffs, and guitar intros for you. It’s all here!

How to Play Easy Guitar Songs

What are easy guitar songs for beginners? Easy guitar songs for beginners contain 2, 3 or 4 basic open chords and an easy chord progression like G – C – D. The songs have a simple rhythm and strumming patterns in 4/4, 3/4 or 2/4 time and usually played with a capo to transpose the song to the appropriate key. Finally you need a list of very easy songs play on the guitar like the list below.

Top 10 Easy Guitar Songs For Beginners

Here’s the Top 10 Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners. These songs will appear in every Top 10 Beginner Guitar Songs and are perfect to start your guitar journey. When you learn the songs I recommend you follow the order of the list. You can find the video lessons, chords and tabs further down this post.

1. Horse with no name – America
2. Three little birds – Bob Marley
3. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
4. Love me do – The Beatles
5. Zombie – Cranberries
6. Lazy Song – Bruno Mars
7. Have you ever seen the rain – CCR
8. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for – U2
9. Stand by me – Ben E King
10. Knocking on heavens door – Bob Dylan

Check out the Songs List Categories below or scroll right to the Easy Beginner Guitar Songs via the green button:

Easy Guitar Songs List Categories.

Scroll to Easy Beginner Guitar Songs

Basic Open Guitar Chords

Right from the start you want to learn how to read and how to play the most important basic open guitar chords: C – A – G – E – D – Am – Em – Dm (see video and chord diagrams below).

Once you got those under your fingers you can add the F and Bm chord and some dom7 chords like A7 – E7 – D7 – G7 and C7. You can check them out right here: The Second Most Important Guitar Chords For Beginners  Chords are you building blocks to create the harmony for the songs. You don’t need to learn all the chords at once, just start with the ones that are in the song you want to learn.

Strumming patterns

Rhythm guitar is all about the strumming and strumming patterns. It defines the groove, the beat and tempo of the song. For easy songs we’ve got easy strumming patterns that are universal for the most popular songs of all times.

Most songs have a 4/4, 2/4 or 6/8 time signature which can be played in different varieties using simple straightforward strumming patterns.

Playing with a Capo

Some of the songs in this list below are played with a capo. A capo is a small device that you can clamp onto the neck of a guitar and allows you to easily change the key of the guitar. It makes it possible to play the song in the original key but use simple open chords to make the song easier to play.

This is a common thing in guitar playing and guitar players do it all the time, not just beginners. It’s also a way to be more creative with your guitar playing. I always say: “Life is too short not to use a capo.”

Easy guitar songs of all times

In the song lists we’ve got links to video guitar lessons and tutorials, song chord sheets with lyrics and easy-to-read guitar tabs to learn the songs even faster. We’ve got easy songs of all times from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2010, 2020 up till now, but also every style of music from easy rock, blues, country to jazz songs.

Finally we added some easy song riffs and intros to spice up your playing. Remember, take small steps, practice daily and diligently, and you’ll be playing these songs in no time. 

Start with your first easy guitar song or pick a song in the beginner song lists below: