easy songs Archives - GUITARHABITS

Top 20 Best Acoustic Guitar Songs of the 60’s

Today I’ve put together a list of the most popular acoustic guitar songs of the 60’s. The purpose of this list is to give you inspiration, fuel that spark to take your guitar out of the stand and play some of these golden classics.

Maybe you’ll find some marvellous songs you haven’t heard before. Well now is the perfect time to learn something new. There are songs here for beginners and intermediate players, so take your pick and strum along!

Tip: Don’t just quickly glance through the list and go on with your day, but really take a moment and pick out one song you want practice. Write down at least one favourite. Just to remind yourself and reward yourself to play guitar. You’ve earned it!

Notes: This list is in no particular order and of course it’s incomplete. So if you have a suggestion for a great 60’s acoustic guitar song please share them in the comments.

Each song title contains a YouTube link to the original song. The “Chords” link will take you to the chords & lyrics or tabs and the “More” link will show you more great songs, chords, Tabs of the same artist.

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Enjoy playing!
Continue Reading

Three Chord Songs – C major, G major, and F major

By Klaus Crow 4 Comments

When you are at the beginning of your guitar learning journey, one of the best ways to practice is by learning songs you like and playing them until they sound perfect. This approach is fun and allows you to perform in front of your friends as soon as possible. You just need to know a bunch of chords and some simple strumming patterns.

In an another tutorial I listed 10 songs that you can play with just the C major and G major chords. The next chord to learn is F major. Why? Because F major is the fourth chord in the Key of C and one of the most common chord progressions is I-IV-V, or C-F-G. There are thousands of songs that use these simple three chords.

F major barred “133211” is not always easy for a beginner so we can always play F major like this “XX3211” if necessary. The I-IV-V progression is known as the “Rock N Roll progression” so many of the examples below will fit into the rock and pop rock genre.

When dealing with two chord songs we are actually a little limited, especially when using only C and G, however by adding F major in a whole world of new music is opened up to us. One thing not mentioned in the last article was transposition. If we have a song in the Key of D using the chords D major and A major, it is easy to transpose that song to the Key of C were the chords will be C major and G major.

Since we are sticking to the Key of C some of the songs below may be slightly transposed, it all depends if it was possible. Sometimes a song just doesn’t sound right when transposed. So below are 10 songs that are perfect for knowing the chords C, F, and G.

KUMBAYA

Another simple traditional spiritual song, first recorded back in the 1920’s. This simple folk song is a perfect example of how these three chords work together. The fourth (F major) and fifth (G major) are used to create a musical tension and bridge before returning back to the root (C major). It is truly amazing how much western music is based off of how these three chords sound together!

TWIST AND SHOUT

This song was not written by the Beatles, but they are certainly the band who made it popular. This was the last song recorded on their album Please Please Me because their producer George Martin knew John Lennon’s voice would take a beating. He definitely gave it is all while singing this song!

How to Teach The Youngest Kids to Play Guitar

By Klaus Crow 12 Comments

The guitar is an attractive looking and beautiful sounding instrument. Also to young kids. And once the kids get excited about the guitar try stopping them.

I used to teach kids to play guitar from the age of 9, but my wife and I found a way to simplify things and start earlier for younger kids who can’t wait that long. We began teaching our own kids to play guitar from the age of 5. Along the way we discovered the best approach to teach these young students how to learn this challenging instrument and have fun at the same time.

Although our kids chose to learn the guitar without our meddling, we are aware of the influence we have as parents since we are both guitar teachers and the house is full of instruments. There is almost no escaping ;)

Melody and Riffs
We always start to teach easy and short melodies from familiar songs they love to hear. A big motivator! The practice of those simple melody lines, using only one string in the beginning, really contributes to the dexterity of their playing.

A nice touch to the experience is playing the electric guitar from time to time. We turn on the amp with a fat distortion and let them play the famous intro riff of Smoke on the water by Deep Purple. (Don’t worry, they also love to play it on an acoustic guitar). They can start off practicing that melody on just one string:

After a while they can learn the original riff which is played on two strings:

Top 20 Easy Guitar Fingerpicking Songs For Beginners

By Klaus Crow 17 Comments

Fingerpicking also referred to as fingerstyle, is one of the many guitar techniques that is part of the complete guitar skill set and incredibly fun to learn.

Fingerpicking is a technique where you pluck the strings directly with the fingertips, as apposed to strumming where you move your fingers in a sweeping action across the strings to play some nice and easy guitar songs in a more rhythmic fashion.

Fingerpicking Basics

There are some basic fingerpicking principles for how to place the fingerpicking hand. The traditional way to approach the strings is as follows:

Use the thumb for the Low E, A and D string (6th, 5th and 4th string)
Index finger for the G string (3rd string)
Middle finger for the B string (2nd string)
Ring finger for the high E string (1st string)

See image below:

how and where to place the fingerpicking hand

Make sure your fingers are curved when you place your fingers onto the strings. When you pluck the strings your thumb goes downwards and the fingers are going in an upwards movement. Now you are ready to practice some fingerpicking patterns.