Learn to accompany yourself with these 10 easy songs to sing and play on guitar!
In this free lesson you will learn…
10 easy songs to sing along with
What a chord cycle is & why it's important to know
How to learn songs in sections
An easier approach to the dreaded F chord
The value of a capo
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Spice Up Your Songbook With These 10 Easy Songs To Sing And Play On Guitar
One of the hardest and most necessary things to do when we first learn to play the guitar is sing and play at the same time. Sometimes songs that sound like they should be easy just aren't.
Luckily, there are plenty of easy songs to sing and play on guitar out there, and we've assembled some of our favourites here for you.
All of these easy songs to sing and play on guitar have complementary rhythms that we can master with ease, familiar lyrics, and chords that don't turn our fingers into pretzels.
Not only will you learn how to sing and play guitar, you're going to learn some musicality as well!
Easy Songs To Sing And Play On Guitar 1 – Green Day – "Minority"
The first of your easy songs to sing and play on guitar is a classic from Green Day.
Listen to Minority below so you can play along:
Here are the chords you'll need for "Minority." If the F major chord is not yet your jam, you can easily substitute the Fmaj7.
C (x32010)
(If you don't understand the above image please read our article "How To Read Guitar Chordboxes In 60 Seconds". It will make everything clear!)
G (320003)
F (xx3211)
Fmaj7 (xx3210)
Am (x02210)
The chords in the chorus get two beats a piece, in this order:
C F G F (x4)
The chord progression in the verse is similar:
C G F C
C G F G
C G F C
C F G C
Then there's the bridge, "Stepped out of the line…".
That progression goes like this:
Am Am F C
Am Am F G
Am Am F C
Am Am G G G G
Pro Tip: Playing this song with power chords is a great way to bring out that punk sound that Green Day has. Power chords are also a fair bit easier if you're a beginner.
Check them out below:
C5 (x35xxx)
G5 (35xxxx)
F5 (13xxxx)
A5 (57xxxx)
To sing and play "Minority," you can start by strumming the chord only on the beat, which coincides with a lot of the lyrics.
Strum on the bold words: I wanna be the mino-ri-ty to start nailing down the rhythm of the song.
This is one of those easy songs to sing and play on guitar that you can learn faster by listening and playing along.
Easy Songs To Sing And Play On Guitar 2 – Joni Mitchell – "Big Yellow Taxi"
Joni Mitchell has a whole catalogue of songs with weird tunings, jazzy chord voicings, and uneven meter, but this is one of her easy songs to sing and play on guitar.
Have a listen below:
By moving the E major chord shape up the neck of the guitar, you'll be able to play all three chords in this song. Here are the locations of the E shape that you'll need.
E (022100)
A (077600)
B (099800)
The chords to the verse, "They paved paradise, put up a parking lot," goes like this. Each chord gets four beats.
A A E E
A B E E
The chorus, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone," goes like this.
B B A |A E|
A B E E E E
Those chords between the goal posts signify a split measure, so you'll play two beats of the A and then two beats of the E. You can even hit the E chord just once in those two beats!
This song sounds good with a continuous down-up eighth note strum (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &).
After you get used to playing it that way, you can choose to incorporate some muted strums here and there. All easy songs to sing and play on guitar can benefit from the percussiveness you get with muted strumming.
If you're interested in learning how to perform this technique, check out this lesson on palm muting.
Pro-Tip: When you're working out any of these easy songs to sing and play on guitar, keep the rhythm simple. Strum only on the downbeat to keep track of the beat.
After you've gotten used to singing the song while playing on the downbeat, you can make the rhythm more complicated.
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Easy Songs To Sing And Play On Guitar 3 – The Beach Boys – "Do You Wanna Dance"
This Beach Boys number is one of their many easy songs to sing and play on guitar. Take a listen to "Do You Wanna Dance":
This 1958 Bobby Freeman tune was popularized in 1965 in the US by The Beach Boys.
It was also recorded by infamous punk band The Ramones.
The Beach Boys' version is in the key of Bb, an unfriendly key for guitar.
With that, you can play it in A along with the Ramones, or put a capo on the first fret to play with The Beach Boys.
If you'd like some information on using a capo, check out our lesson here this out!
A (x02220)
D (xx0232)
E (022100)
"Do You Wanna Dance" plays like this the whole way through:
A D A D
A E A E
One hallmark feature of easy songs to sing and play on guitar is a chord progression that's easy to memorize..
This song has the same progression during the verse as well as the refrain, making it quite simple.
This song is a great way to try out different rhythms! Try these on for size:
Down, down, down-up, down-up
Down, down-up, -up, down up (the calypso strum)
Down-up, down, down-up, down-up
Easy Songs To Sing And Play On Guitar 4 – Billy Bragg & Wilco – "California Stars"
Your collection of easy songs to sing and play on guitar would not be complete without some Billy Bragg and Wilco.
Check out "California Stars" below:
Bragg and Wilco collaborated on setting some of Woody Guthrie's found lyrics to music, resulting in the 1998 album Mermaid Avenue.
There are a couple of easy songs to sing and play on guitar in this lovely project, and "California Stars" is suitable for absolute beginners.
A (x02220)
E (022100)
D (xx0232)
The chord progression for the whole song goes like this, with each chord getting four beats:
A E D A
What makes this one of your particularly easy songs to sing and play on guitar is the simple and reptitive melody and lyrics.
There are two verses, and you can play the entire song twice through.
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