Skip to main content

10 Easy Guitar Songs You Can Play to Brush Up on Your Skills

If you’re spending lockdown feeling bored, you probably count yourself as one of the lucky ones. But counting your blessings doesn’t help you figure out what to do with all that extra time on your hands. There’s only so much sourdough bread you can bake, after all.

Allow us to suggest a return to a favorite pastime of your tender years. That’s right — it’s time to dig that old hardshell case out of your closet, crack it open, and rediscover your lost love for playing guitar.

guitar neck practice learn
Oleg Ivanov

In high school, you could spend hours noodling away in the privacy of your bedroom. In college, you went from dorky zero to coffeehouse hero with just your two hands, a red spotlight, and a sheaf of tabs. But if you’re like a lot of us, the busyness of adult life slowly drove a wedge between you and your love for a good power ballad. Now is the perfect time to get those rusty fingers back into shape and express all your pent-up emotions (and we know you’ve got a few, by this time) through the magic of song.

To bulk up our admittedly meager list of guitar tune recommendations, we reached out to Andrew Burri, a Los Angeles-based musician who spent the last few years playing guitar for indie glam-pop band Lucius. In addition to putting out his own music, he’s been spending lockdown playing a series of innovative covers on Instagram that are definitely worth a watch.

Here are our 10 easy guitar songs that are also classics.

Learning to Fly by Tom Petty

“Tom Petty was the master of simplicity, while conveying universal themes with so much emotion and integrity,” says Burri. This song literally has the same four chords (F, C, Am, G) over and over again, but that repetition just serves to drive home its relentless positive vibes.

Wonderwall by Oasis

We all loved to hate (or hated to love) this angsty ’90s standard, and the number of times it’s been covered over the years is a testament to its fundamental greatness. It doesn’t hurt that it’s easy to play. According to Burri, “All you have to do is keep your hand in the same position the entire song and just move your fingers to different strings.”

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

Opening riff aside, says Burri, “If you’re still a little rusty, this song is awesome and easy all the way through. Plus, it’s a great crowd participation song!” This tune is guaranteed to make you the star of your next Zoom happy hour.

Brown-Eyed Women by Grateful Dead

This cornerstone of the Dead catalog has been covered by bluegrass bands, country singers, indie rockers — the list goes on. In other words, it’s a solid base for any flavor of jam you care to contribute.

Yellow Submarine by The Beatles

The fun singalong vibes of this goofy Beatles tune makes it another great option for video hangouts, but it’s just as effective when you need a solo pick-me-up. If you’re feeling adventurous, try opening your windows and playing and singing as loud as you can, and see if your neighbors don’t join in.

Satisfaction by Rolling Stones

Once your fingers are warmed up, crack out this perennial favorite from the Rolling Stones. “This one is a little harder because the riff happens a lot through the song,” says Burri, “But it’s not too bad once you get the hang of it. After that, it’s mostly the same thing over and over again.”

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams

“I could not love Hank more,” says Burri. “So much emotion and earnestness in a simple song.” And could there be any better anthem for the global lockdown?

Blue Moon by Elvis Presley

If you’re looking for love during COVID-19, we recommend finding yourself an opening to play this tune during your next FaceTime date. A classic of Elvis’ early years, this croonable number is the social distancing equivalent of taking a girl’s hand in a dark movie theater. “This era was the best for repetition and sincerity,” says Burri. “I wish I was around during this time.”

Cold Blows The Wind by Ween

We asked Burri for a wild card, and he did not disappoint. “More chord changes on this one than the rest,” he warns, “But still not bad at all. I think it’s based on an old Irish song. It’s dark, and it repeats and repeats. So dope.”

Redemption Song by Bob Marley & The Wailers

A rare solo acoustic track from the reggae legend, “Redemption Song” is said to have been written when Marley was dealing secretly with the pain of his newly diagnosed cancer, and with it, awareness of his own mortality. The achingly beautiful melody and indomitable lyrics are a spiritual tonic in troubling times like these.

Editors' Recommendations

Chelsea Batten
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Chelsea Batten is a writer, photographer, and Kerouac groupie. One of the original digital nomads, she was seduced from life…
Learn Guitar (and Don’t Give Up) With the Fender Play App
fender play app hutton hotel 5

As with any instrument, the guitar isn’t something that’s easy to master, nor are there any shortcuts to make it happen overnight. The learning curve for string instruments can be a strenuous journey that will pick at your ambitions and present frustrations that may drive you to put down the strings for good. The biggest challenge, however, isn’t beginning; it’s persistence. 

Fender, one of America’s most famous manufacturers of guitars and amplifiers, has taken notice of this retention issue and created a bold solution that’ll make the learning process easier and more enjoyable: the Fender Play app.

Read more
5 Ways You Can Turn Your Apartment Patio Into an Urban Oasis
upgrade apartment patio into urban oasis man on gettyimages 585356877

Summer is here and that means barbecues, chill nights by the fire, and quality time outside enjoying the sun. But if you’re a city dweller, the best outdoor spots like rooftop lounges can be hard to find and even harder to get into. Have no fear, we’ve rounded up our favorite products for creating your very own urban oasis.

Whether it’s a balcony or a rooftop space, there are special considerations for creating the perfect urban oasis that your suburban friends with backyards don’t have to worry about. Two of the biggest issues are privacy and wind. Cramped city blocks filled with highrises means you most likely have neighbors across from you, or even above you, who can see right into your patio. These same buildings create wind tunnels that can put a damper on parties and send lightweight patio furniture flying. To upgrade your apartment patio, begin by blocking the wind naturally by starting with ...
Plants

Read more
From The Crown to Stranger Things, these are best Netflix original series to stream right now
If you're a subscriber, you can't miss any of these original shows
Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen's Gambit

While there are tons of streaming platforms out there these days, Netflix is the original. It's hard to believe it started off mailing DVDs to people's homes. While streaming used to mean showing content produced by others, it seems natural now that streaming services all produce their own content. In recent years, Netflix's original series and programming have become the dominant part of its library, and in that time, it has produced a truly extraordinary number of shows. It would honestly be hard to consume more than a fraction of the content they're putting out. And as part of their content, they've produced some great TV.
The best of Netflix's original television stands up to any other TV channel or streamer out there. It has produced shows across a variety of genres and formats, and it's found success in pretty much every area it has experimented with. The Netflix original series listed below are the cream of the crop and the very best that the streamer has to offer.

BoJack Horseman (2014)

Read more