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by Ricky Sharples
An acoustic guitar is not the instrument of choice for rock guitar players but it is the best choice for a beginner. I am talking about the nylon string acoustic guitar which is a little bit gentler on the fingertips than the steel strings of an electric guitar. So now you are a rock guitar player with his first guitar, let us talk about finding easy guitar tabs to start off your playing experience. Your technique will be restricted to strumming your guitar at first so the tabs you look for should be for songs that have interesting lyrics and do not rely on riffs and licks.
If you run an internet search for “most popular songs” you will get a mountain of song titles that people think are most popular, but a basic list of popular rock song should look something like this: Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Seger, I’m a Believer by the Monkees, American Pie by Don McClean, Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf, Johnnie B. Goode by Chuck Berry, Angie by The Rolling Stones, Blowin’ In The Wind by Bob Dylan, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, I Remember You by Skid Row, Come As You Are by Nirvana, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan, Horse With No Name by America, A Day In The Life, Here There And Everywhere and Hey Jude by The Beatles, I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash, Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton, Gloria by Van Morrison, Hotel California by The Eagles, Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, White Room by Cream, Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin, Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Maggie Mae by Rod Stewart, Thank God I’m a Country Boy by John Denver, and Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix.
Keep this list for when your guitar technique improves so you can expand your repertoire, but now you can pull from this master list some songs that are easy to play. This list is: Angie by The Rolling Stones, Blowin’ In The Wind by Bob Dylan, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, A Day In The Life, Here, There And Everywhere and Hey Jude by The Beatles, I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash, Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton, Gloria by Van Morrison, Hotel California by The Eagles, Behind Blue Eyes by The Who I Remember You by Skid Row, Come As You Are by Nirvana, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan, Horse With No Name by America and White Room by Cream. According to some guitarists, Horse With No Name is THE easiest rock song to play, using only two chords.
For all these songs you only need to know the chords G, C, D, Am, Em and, for playing Horse With No Name, F#m7sus which is more difficult to write down than it is to play. So armed with your list of easy rock guitar songs and your list of basic chords, you can buy your tabs in a music store or take advantage of the wealth of free guitar tabs available on the internet.
Ricky has many more tips for guitar players of all levels at his blog Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free, a continuously updated directory of free guitar lessons, videos, chord charts and lots of useful guitar stuff.
Guitar Lesson - Mastering Arpeggios is a recent entry in the blog Lead Guitar Secrets:
When learning how to play effective lead guitar, there are two areas guitarists must be prepared to delve into - the theoretical side, and the physical side. Theoretical aspects include things like knowing your scales, knowing how certain notes work to highlight particular tensions, basically anything that involves the translation of the creative mind onto the fretboard. The physical aspects include techniques such as hammer-ons, vibratos, tapping, and anything that involves your fingers really working the creativity onto the fretboard.
Arpeggios are no exception - they involve both these aspects.
This is a blog that is dedicated mostly to the guitarist wanting to specialise in lead guitar but it contains such a wealth of information that any guitarist at any level of competency would be rewarded by a visit. Even if you are interested in learning to play acoustic guitar, a browse through Lead Guitar Secrets would be well worthwhile.