As a musician, learning songs for whichever instrument you are playing is one of the best exercises. Not only do you get to practice your chops but you also get to learn exactly how a particular song is played. As a beginner/intermediate guitar player, learning songs is all about knowing where to put your fingers on the fretboard, listening to the strumming patterns used, and taking note of any special techniques or chord combinations. Being aware of these things as you learn songs will help you become a better guitar player and composer.
However, as a new/intermediate guitar player, you may be looking for a list of easy songs to learn. That’s why I’ve compiled a list of the 100+ best easy guitar chord and tab songs. As you’ll notice below, I’ve broken up these lists of guitar songs into two sections. The first section is comprised of chord songs and the second section is for tab song. For each section, I’ve included the:
- Song/Artist
- Ultimate Guitar (UG) Chords/Tabs
- Guitar Pro Tabs
- Official Chords/Tabs from the artists themselves
I’d highly recommend using a piece of software such as Tux Guitar (free) or Guitar Pro (paid, however much more comprehensive) to open the Guitar Pro tab files below. Be aware that some GP tabs are for version 6 of Guitar Pro which won’t open in Tux Guitar.
Easy Chord Songs
For this first section of easy guitar songs, the primary guitar portion of the tune consists of chords. They usually don’t have too much else in terms of riffs or picking – they are mainly strumming-based songs.
Easy Tab Songs
In this second section, I’ve included a list of tab-based guitar songs. These songs primarily consist of tunes that either have important riffs/licks within them or use power chord / regular chord variations that need to be tabbed out.
Which Songs Should I Start With?
As a complete beginner you might find it overwhelming that there are over 100+ easy guitar songs on this page. You might be asking yourself where you should start and whether you should try learning a chord song or a tab song first. Well, typically it’s recommended to learn a few chord songs before moving to tabs. Therefore, you’ll find below that I’ve listed 5 easy chords songs that I recommend learning first if you’re a complete beginner (of course, this may vary depending on your musical taste):
- Free Fallin
- Wagon Wheel
- Wonderwall
- Bad Moon Rising
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Additionally, if you feel that you’re ready to take on something slightly more challenging and want to move into the world of tabs, I’ve also listed 5 easy guitar tab songs that beginners can start with to work their chops. These include:
- Smoke on the Water
- Start Me Up
- Takin Care of Business
- Seven Nation Army
- Enter Sandman
Once you’re done learning these songs try moving on to some of the others in the list. Note that the songs above are in no particular order in terms of difficulty so have a listen to them first if you don’t already know them and decide whether you like the song and or feel that you would be comfortable playing it.
Using Tabs vs Guitar Pro Tabs vs Official Tabs
There’s no right or wrong answer here as to which version of the song’s tabs you should be using. They all come with their advantages and disadvantages for instance:
- Ultimate Guitar Tabs
- Pros: Easily accessible, free, community-driven so there are many different versions/comments of most tab submissions.
- Cons: Tabs can be incorrect, Ultimate-Guitar is very persistent on showing ads which can be very annoying.Guitar Pro Tabs
- Guitar Pro Tabs
- Pros: You can hear how the tab should sound which is very useful, provides a complete depiction of the song, Guitar Pro software comes with many additional features and tools to help you learn songs/guitar in general.
- Cons: Although all Guitar Pro tabs linked in the post are free, official Guitar Pro tabs are not, you either need to purchase Guitar Pro or use an inferior software: Tux Guitar.
- Official Tabs
- Pros: Typically very accurate, usually comes with more than just one tab from a given artist.
- Cons: You must purchase the official tablature book from a music store or an online shop such as Amazon.
Regardless of which method you choose, they’re all great for learning new songs. I personally prefer using Guitar Pro for learning complicated songs while I usually stick to Ultimate Guitar tabs if I’m learning a simple song. Furthermore, if I’m teaching a student, I find it more convenient to simply purchase an official tab book and give it to them to study instead of having them search for tabs online.
Easy Guitar Songs – In Summary
Hopefully, this list of easy guitar songs has given you some ideas as to where to start in learning some of the best guitar-based songs I know of. Remember to try giving the Guitar Pro tab a shot if you need to get a better idea of how the actual tab should be played. Both Guitar Pro and Tux Guitar also have other important capabilities such as slowing down the tempo of the song, soloing/muting certain tracks, a ready to use chord chart available, etc.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the songs listed above or have any songs you think would fit in well, don’t forget to leave a comment below.
Additional Resources
- How to Play Guitar (an EASY Beginner’s Guide)
- Everything You Need To Know About Power Chords (Power Chords Chart Included)
- MOST POPULAR Beginner Guitar Chords Chart
