GUITARHABITS

How to Read Guitar Tabs – Tablature

May 14, 2019 by Klaus Crow

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Tab (Tablature) or Tab notation is an easy way to read and notate guitar music.

It is commonly used for notating rock, blues, country and pop music. Whereas standard notation is more used for classical music, film scores and jazz music.

Tab is widely transcribed and used by guitar players on the internet but it also published in official guitar books (which is often more accurate).

It is especially designed for fretted stringed instruments like guitar and bass, while standard notation is arranged for all instruments. There are some pros and cons for each notation method.

When you’re learning music from tabs you can not just plainly rely on the tab notation. You need to listen to the song first, because the tab doesn’t indicate note lengths, pauses, rhythm and dynamics.

To know how long or loud each note is being played you need to use your ears and listen to the song. Train your ears because they are your most essential tools while reading and learning from tabs.

We focus here on Tab because of it’s convenient pros. Tab is easy to read and it gives you the exact fret numbers and strings you need to play.Continue Reading

A New Year for Guitar and Essentials

By Klaus Crow 9 Comments

May 14, 2019 by Klaus Crow

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What wonderful things will 2015 have in store?

I love fresh new starts. Of course I can start over each day, but the new year is just a great way to symbolize that.

A new year to start a new dream or to expand and improve on something that you already really love doing.

I always start writing down new ideas, goals, thoughts, just everything that comes to mind at the beginning of each new year.

And I look back on the things I’ve written down last year to see if some of the things have come alive.

Usually a couple of those things have and that’s great! For other things I took a different turn because of some new insights I came across.

I know this happens every year. I write down goals. Not really goals but rather ideas or projects I’d like to fulfill as a vehicle to get started and be inspired.

And then life comes with surprises that I didn’t expect. Some beautiful and some less beautiful. Well, it often depends on how I perceive that.

It’s part of growing and part of the deal to get to where you want to be and where life wants you to go. You have to open your mind and eyes to see new opportunities and life lessons right in front of you, dare to go with the flow or let go and follow your heart. That’s when you find the real treasures.

Still, I like some guidance to kickstart the new year. I always keep focused on a few essentials that I write down in my Moleskine.

Here’s the list:Continue Reading

Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

By Klaus Crow 59 Comments

January 14, 2025 by Klaus Crow

In this lesson we got a list with the best easy guitar songs for beginners that will get you started on the right track. 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, basic fingerstyle tunes, riffs, and guitar intros for you. For 2024 and 2025 these are still timeless and the perfect ones to start out with. It’s all here!

How to Play Easy Songs on the Guitar

For an easy guitar song you need two, three or four basic open chords and an easy chord progression like G – C, G – C – D or Em – G – C – D. The songs have a simple rhythm and strumming pattern 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 to play on the guitar, that’s where this post comes in.

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.

Enjoy!

What are Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners?

1. A horse with no name – America

One could argue that “Horse with no name” is the easiest guitar song ever as far as guitar chords concerns with only two chords for the entire song. The chords are Em (022000) and D6-9/F# (2×0200). While the name of the second chord sounds overwhelming, it’s actually a really easy chord to play. The song also contains 2 different strumming patterns that are quite simple and straight forward. Strumming pattern #1 = ↓↓↑ (2x) Strumming pattern #2 = ↓↑ (4x)

2. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for – U2

This classic U2 ballad uses only three basic chords C, F and G. “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” is also perfect for beginners due to it’s slow tempo. You can strum the song with a basic 4 down strums per measure which sounds perfectly fine with this song or you can try a bit more musical strumming pattern that I’ll explain in the video lesson.

3. Have you ever seen the rain – CCR

The verses for “Have you ever seen the rain” is a perfect beginner workout with only two chords for the verse C and G and it starts with four measures on C, then two measures on G, two measures on C and repeat. For the chorus they play | F | G | C | Am | (2x) | F | G | C | You can play an easy down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up strumming pattern throughout the song.

4. Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond

Sweet Caroline is Neil Diamond’s most famous song that is really fun to play. It can be simplified without having to compromise too much. The chord progression is as follows: Verse: / A / D / A / E / Prechorus: / A / A6 / E / D / E / Chorus: / E / D / D / E (2) D ↓— The strumming pattern for the song is just simply down-down-up throughout the entire song.

5. Zombie – Cranberries

“Zombie” by the Irish rockband The Cranberries is a great easy rock song to play. It contains four super easy chords: Em – Cmaj7 – G6 – D6-9/F#.

| Em = 022000 | Cmaj7 = x32000 | G6 = 320000 | D6-9/F# = 2×0200 |

While the strumming pattern for the song is a little bit more varying it can be played with simple eight note down strums on each chord | ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓ | throughout the song. The chords and the strumming pattern make the song instantly recognizable. Try it and you’ll see.

6. Dreams – Fleetwoodmac

The legendary “Dreams” from Fleetwoodmac sang by Stevie Nicks is a beautiful song with only two chords Fmaj7 and Gmaj6 following with a simple chord progression playing one measure for each chord throughout the song: | Fmaj7 = xx3210 | Gmaj6 = 320000 | or play the Gmaj6 by moving the Fmaj7 chord up to the third fret | Gmaj6 = xx5430 | For the strumming pattern can play down-up-down-up-down-up-down-up ↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑ Practice thoroughly on the chord-changes and you’ve got a great beginner song.

7. Three little birds – Bob Marley

“Three Little Birds” is a song by Bob Marley and The Wailers. This song is a real classic and contains 3 easy open chords A – D – E. In the chorus only the chords A and D are played and the E major chord is added to the verse. The strumming pattern is a reggae beat that means you play four down strums on the after beat for each measure / bar. Count 1 and play the down strum, count 2 and down strum and so on. 1 ↓ 2 ↓ 3 ↓ 4 ↓

8. Love me do – The Beatles

There is no easy guitar song list complete without a Beatles song. “Love me do” was their official debut single and was released in October 1962. This song can be played with three chords G – C – D and you can add a G7 chord if you want to get fancy. The strumming pattern is a basic 4/4 strumming pattern: down-down-up-up-down-up ↓↓↑↑↓↑.

9. Stand by me – Ben E King

“Stand by me” by me, one of the most famous songs ever covered by many artists from every generation that followed, is always on the top 10 list of easy guitar songs. The chords for the song are G – Em – C – D, also referred to as the I – VI – IV – V chord progression, which is a very common chord structure for many popular 4 chord songs. The strumming pattern for the song is down-slap-down-slap ↓-x-↓-x

10. Knocking on heavens door – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s classic “Knocking on heavens door” has become an easy rock song due to the cover version of Guns ‘n Roses. The chord progression for the song is | G D | Am | G D | C | and can be simplified by just playing two down strokes on G and D and four down strokes on Am and C.

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.

How to Play and Apply Sus2 and Sus4 Chords

By Klaus Crow 20 Comments

September 6, 2023 by Klaus Crow

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Sus2 and sus4 chords are very often used in music to embellish chords and chord progressions.

It’s an easy way of adding some extra flavor to a chord and give you a little space to mess around with that chord.

Especially when you have to play a chord for several consecutive measures in a song and you don’t want to get bored out of your mind, it’s nice to implement a sus4 or sus2 here and there to spice things up a bit.

Chord Analysis

To understand what a sus chord really is and how it operates you have to know a little bit of music theory. A normal major chord consists of the root, 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale (1-3-5). If we take the C major scale for example: C D E F G A B C and you take the root (1st), 3rd and 5th note of that scale you get C-E-G. The minor chord consists of the root, flat 3rd and 5th notes of the major scale (1-b3-5) and becomes C-Eb-G. Here’s where the sus chords comes in…

The sus4 chord consists of the root, 4th and 5th notes of the major scale (1-4-5) = C F G. You can see that the sus4 chord (“sus” stands for “suspended”.) replaces the third with the fourth note.

The sus2 chord consists of the root, 2nd and 5th notes of the major scale (1-2-5) = C D G. The sus2 chord replaces the third with the second note.

By removing the 3rd in a chord, the chord becomes neither major nor minor, as the 3rd determines the happy major or sad minor sound. Therefor sus chords can be applied to both major and minor chords.

Chords in practice

Suspended chords have the tendency to resolve. The four and fifth in a sus4 chord creates tension and so does the second and root in a sus2 chord. That’s why sus chords are often played in combination with their parent chord.

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