A riff is number of notes or chords that are repeated throughout a song. Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, Crossroads by Eric Clapton and Stroll On by The Yardbirds are classic examples of riff-based songs.

A lick is simply a sequence of notes that can be used as a basis for improvisation or composing solos. The process of learning licks from other guitarists gives you a collection of musical ideas plus the experience gained from the hours you spend finding and learning these ideas.

As well as learning riffs and licks directly, you can learn the scales for guitar that are used in blues music. These will help you to compose your own solos, riffs and licks as well as give you the knowledge of the guitar that will make learning other artists’ material easier.

The major scale is the basis of all scales and modes you will encounter as you learn. You will need to learn the basic structure of the major scale before you move onto the scales used specifically in blues music.

The Blues Guitar Scales

Now I am going to show you three scales that are used in blues. These scales contain fewer notes than normal scales, and an unusual interval – one and a half tones. The pentatonic scales are commonly used in blues and rock, and the blues scale is a six-note scale derived from the pentatonic.

You will find some basic info on the major, minor, pentatonic and blues scales in the scales chart.

Students of the guitar usually learn the scales in five shapes found on the guitar neck. Each shape occupies the space of four or five frets.

The scale shapes shown in the charts below follow each other on the fretboard. You will see that groups of notes at the end of one pattern will be at the beginning of the next. If I showed all the patterns together on one fretboard, it would be a little confusing, so it is better to learn them separately and fit them together once you have gained some experience playing them. The root notes in all the scales are shown in red.

The pentatonic scales guitar players use are found in the music of many cultures, as well as in our popular music, and are most suitable for blues-based improvisation because all the notes can be played in any sequence with a pleasing sound. As well as being popular amongst blues and rock guitarists, the major and minor pentatonic scales are among the first jazz guitar scales taught to aspiring jazz guitarists.

The minor pentatonic scale is made up of the first, flatted third, fourth, fifth and flatted seventh notes of the major scale. The diagram below shows you the minor pentatonic scale in five different positions on the fretboard.

The Minor Pentatonic Scale in Five Positions on the Guitar Fretboard

A commonly used scale derived from the minor pentatonic is the blues scale. In the same position on the guitar as the minor pentatonic above, you add a flattened fifth to make six notes in the scale. Here are five positions of the blues scale. For a student of any modern genre of guitar blues scales give the opportunity for creativity and experimentation, which will take your playing beyond simply “learning guitar”.

The Blues Scale in Five Positions on the Guitar Fretboard The circles on the diagram are the flatted fifths – the “blue notes”.

The major pentatonic takes the first, second, third, fifth and sixth notes from the major scale. The interval formula for this scale is tone – tone – tone+semitone – tone – tone+semitone.

The Major Pentatonic Scale in Five Positions on the Guitar Fretboard

There is also a blues scale derived from the Major Pentatonic. This is the major blues scale, which uses the first, flatted third, third, fifth and sixth notes of the major scale.

The Major Blues Scale in Five Positions on the Guitar Fretboard The circles on the diagram are the flatted fifths – the “blue notes”.

How to Practice the Scales

The Fretting Hand

The fingerings you use depend a lot on the size and configuration of your hands relative to the fretboard. If a scale pattern covers five frets, you will be using your pinky to fret the notes at the end of the pattern, and you will need to move your hand up to use your first finger to fret the notes at the beginning of the pattern.

The scale shapes on the left have fingerings marked to give you a guide on how to approach playing scales.

The top pattern has the left hand positioned over four frets with one finger assigned to each fret.

The bottom pattern follows the same principle except for the notes on the second string. For these notes, you move your hand up one fret so your first and fourth fingers can reach their respective notes.

The “one finger per fret” rule is a good basis for negotiating the guitar neck, but do not let it get in the way of finding a practical and comfortable method that suits your hands.

The Picking Hand

As for your picking hand, beginner guitar players benefit from using alternate picking to practice scales. This means playing your first note with a down stroke, the second note with an up stroke, and so on. This should be followed strictly, until your hand gets used to playing that way.

There are other methods of playing scales called sweep picking and economy picking which can be learned once you have alternate picking under your fingers.

Learning and Playing Blues Guitar Scales

The four-string bass has just seven notes in four octaves. Here are the notes on the fretboard:

Knowing which key you are playing in is very important for a bass guitar player, as you will not make any progress until you can play with other members of a band. The key is the selection of notes you can choose from when you compose a song or solo. If you were playing in the key of G major, you would be using the notes G A B C D E F# and G.

It is important to learn the major scale as it provides the notes for many works in popular music. To understand the major scale, you need to understand its construction. One important aspect of scales is the spaces between the notes. These spaces are called intervals and give the scale its unique character. The intervals consist of whole steps and half steps. A whole step has the space of one fret between the notes on the guitar fretboard, and a half step is has no frets between the notes.

The G major scale begins on the third fret of the E string, and the first two intervals are whole steps. As you can see from the diagram, the notes E and F do not have a fret between them, so the interval is a half step. The next three intervals are whole steps, and the final interval is a half step.

The series of whole steps and half steps in the major scale are usually written using initials: W W H W W W H.

Starting on any natural note on the guitar and counting the intervals will give you the note’s major scale. Here are the notes in the G major scale as they are found on the E string:

When we actually play the bass, we play the scale across several strings rather than along just one string, so here is what the G major scale looks like, as it would be played on the E A and D strings.

Learn the G major scale as it is written above because the fingering pattern can be moved up the guitar neck to play the major scale in any key, and you can move the fingering pattern to any position of the fretboard to play in any key. This is a way for your fingers to remember the sequence of intervals.

Here is the same pattern moved to begin on the fifth fret. This is the A major scale.

Here is the C major scale, which is the same pattern starting on the A string:

Now for the minor scale patterns starting on the same fret. As a broad generalization, music written in a major key is “happy” and music in a minor key is “sad”. The intervals in the minor scale are W H W W H W W.

Here is the G minor scale:

Here is the C minor scale:

The minor scales above are called “natural minor” scales. There are two other minor scales – the “harmonic minor” and the “melodic minor”.

The harmonic minor scale has a raised seventh note. To explain the difference in the minor scales, here are the notes in the G natural minor scale: G A Bb C D D# F G.

The notes in the G harmonic minor scale are G A Bb C D D# F# G. Here is the basic fingering pattern of the harmonic minor scale.

The melodic minor scale is slightly more complex. When you are playing up the scale, you raise the sixth and seventh notes: G A Bb C D E F# G. When you play down the scale, you simply play the natural minor scale.

Here is the fingering for the melodic minor scale.

As with lead guitar scales, when you practice on your bass you will also be using slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs and other techniques. Which techniques you specialize in will depend on the genre of music you are interested in.

You will also be making use of the most popular of the rock guitar scales – the major pentatonic. This scale contains only five notes, and one of the advantages of learning it is its user-friendliness. Any combination of notes in the pentatonic scale will sound pleasing together, thus eliminating the stress of making mistakes that are painfully obvious to your audience. To vary the sound of your playing, you can vary where you play the scale on the fretboard.

The diagrams below show the major pentatonic in five different positions on the fretboard. These diagrams do not refer to the scale in any particular key. To use these scale positions, you need to know the key of the song you are working on. Next, find the root note of your key. The root note of the pentatonic pattern is shown in red in these diagrams. If you want to play in the key of G major using the pattern shown in the first diagram, you place the second finger of your left hand on the third fret of the E string. The note at this fret is G. You can use the root notes shown in red as a guide while you are improvising or composing using these scale patterns.

The second position for playing the major pentatonic scale is two frets above the first position.

To find the next position, move your hand three frets above the second position so that the root note is on the third string as shown below.

The fourth position is another two frets up the fretboard with the root note occurring at two frets.

The final position is three frets further up the neck, with the root again in two places.

To begin working with these major pentatonic scale positions, make sure you understand how they work. Experiment with using different root notes. Once you have an understanding of the diagrams in your head, practice the positions so they become second nature for your fingers.

Understanding Bass Guitar Scales

String Brands and Tension

Before getting into how to change nylon strings, you should know a few facts about selecting the best classical guitar strings to suit your particular guitar and your playing. The top brands of classical strings include D’Addario, Savarez, La Bella and Hannabach.

Strings are available in high, normal and low tension. Tension governs how the strings feel to play as well as how they sound. High tension strings have more volume and sustain. Most classical guitar teachers recommend low tension strings for beginners. The conventional wisdom is that professional level classical guitarists use high tension strings but many prefer the sound produced by low tensions. Others mix the strings, using low tension for treble strings and high tension for the bass. When you are trying different strings, bear in mind that the tensions vary between manufacturers.

As a starting point, you could try D’Addario Pro Arte Dynacore strings. If your hands sweat a lot or are greasy, the D’Addario EXP Coated will help the strings to last longer. All the brands and mentioned can be bought online or in music stores. There are also cheaper strings available but they usually do not last as long as the better quality strings.

The Difference Between Classical and Acoustic Guitars

A classical guitar with nylon strings has a bridge with holes to take the ends of the strings. The ends must be looped through these holes, as they have no ball on the end to anchor them. The strings on a classical guitar will become dead with regular playing. Unlike steel acoustic guitar strings, they do not mellow or settle; they just get old and greasy. If you play for four hours a day, you will need to change classical guitar strings at least once a week. If you only play for 30 minutes or an hour, you could go for a month between string changes.

How to Change Your Strings

There are two ways to go about changing classical guitar strings. You can remove all the strings at once or change the strings one at a time. There are myths about which method to use, but as ther is no evidence to support any of them, so go ahead and do it the way you want to. Many guitarists prefer to remove all the strings as it makes keeping the guitar clean a much easier job.

To remove the strings, use wire cutters to snip the strings at the bridge end. Now you can simply pull the ends out of the holes in the bridge, and pull the rest of the strings off the tuning pegs.

While the strings are off is the ideal time to give the fretboard a clean. Usually a damp cloth is enough for all areas of the guitar but to rejuvenate the fretboard use boiled linseed oil. This will help loosen the buildup of oily deposits from your fingers, and keep the wood from drying out.

If you are new to changing strings, it might be an idea to arrange the strings in their packaging in the order in which you will be fitting them to the guitar. It is not easy for a beginner to tell some of the strings apart, so start with the sixth string on top of the pile and read the label as you remove each string from its packet.

Begin fitting a new string by sliding about 15 centimeters (six inches) through its hole in the bridge. Now you have that length sticking out of the bottom of the bridge.

To fasten the string, bend the short section around the long section, and loop it around four times, finishing with a loop on the underside of the bridge. You now have the short section anchored under the long section as in the picture.

Pull the long section of string up to the headstock and through the hole in the tuning peg. Pull the string tight. Now loop the string around itself just as you did on the bridge. Begin winding clockwise. As you wind the tuning peg, the string will anchor itself, but you can add extra security by passing the string through the hole in the peg once or twice. It is advisable to do it this way on the treble strings, as they are more prone to slipping and stretching.

You should trim the strings at the headstock and bridge so they do not get in your way or cause unnecessary vibrations.

How To Change Classical Guitar Strings

Learning your first songs on the guitar should give you a sense of achievement. You can express yourself through strumming, picking and singing your songs. Of course your first songs will be easy but they will also inspire you to take your guitar playing further. You will see that you can achieve so much more by learning fingerpicking, more intricate strumming patterns or barre chords.

Ideal Beginner Guitar Songs

It will be useful to look at the qualities that make an easy song ideal for beginner guitar players.

• There are hundreds of songs to learn on guitar covering pop, country, rock, folk, blues, Celtic or any other genre you can think of. Just because you are new to the guitar should not mean you are stuck with learning boring or old-fashioned songs.
• Typical inclusions in any list of easy guitar songs for beginners contain only a few simple chords. These chords include C major, D major, D minor, A minor, E minor, and G major. Usually these songs do not include barre chords, except for F major played with a half barre.



• Your beginners songs should not only be easy to learn but familiar to your audience. You will get more feedback if the song they are hearing is one that they know and feel relaxed about commenting on your performance.

Song Structures

Fortunately many popular songs have similar structures.

• One simple song form which is used a lot in popular music is the “verse-chorus” form. La Bamba by Richie Valens is an example.
• Another popular type of song is the 12 bar blues form. Listening to Little Red Rooster by The Rolling Stones or Sweet Home Chicago by Robert Johnson will show you the simplicity of this style.
• The 32 bar ballad is also used widely. Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis is an example of this form.

To hammer home the point about popular music being less complicated than it looks, here is video showing how similar many songs are:

Easy Guitar Songs

Now for a list of easy songs to learn on guitar. Horse With No Name by America is easy because you really only need one chord, but do not expect all songs to be so easy. Many songs only require three chords. Bald Headed Woman by The Kinks is an early example of a typical three-chord song. To give you an idea of what can be done with a few chords, here is a video featuring many songs using the same four chords:

Here are some more easy guitar songs to learn:

Avril Lavigne: Complicated, I Will Be, I’m With You
Boys Like Girls: Two Is Better Than One
Coldplay: Clocks, Viva La Vida
David Cook: Always Be My Baby, Time Of My Life
Daughtry: Home, Life After You, No Surprise, Over You, What About Now
Eric Clapton: Wonderful Tonight
Green Day: When September Ends
Howie Day: Collide
Jason Mraz: I’m Yours, Lucky
Lady Gaga: Bad Romance, Poker Face
Lifehouse: You And Me
Ronan Keating: When You Say Nothing At All
Oasis: Wonderwall
Owl City: Fireflies
Plain White Ts: 1 2 3 4
Taylor Swift: Fifteen, Love Story, Teardrops On My Guitar, You Belong With Me
The Calling: Go Wherever You Will Go
The Script: The Man Who Cant Be Moved
U2: With Or Without You

Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners Using Full Chords

Which Strings are the Best?

Choosing the best strings for your guitar is also a matter of experience. For the first few times you change the strings, just buy the same brand and gauge as was already fitted to your guitar. As you grow as a guitar player, you will develop your own tastes in tone and playability.

Generally, the best acoustic guitar strings for a beginner are extra-lights because they need far less finger strength to produce a sound. When you are more experienced, you can choose heavier gauge strings that will give your guitar more volume.

There are other elements to acoustic guitar strings besides gauge. The sound produced by the strings varies according to what they are made of. Phosphor Bronze strings usually hold their bright tone as they age, while 80/20 bronze strings tend to sound warmer as they get older.

There are also acoustic guitar strings that have a coating of plastic that helps prevent the damage inflicted by the oil and sweat from your fingers. These strings are more expensive than uncoated strings, and unless you sweat a lot, you probably will not benefit from them.

A steel string acoustic guitar has its strings wound onto posts in the headstock, and anchored by pins in the bridge. The first step in changing your strings is to remove the old strings and extract the bridge pins.

Clean up Your Axe

After you remove the strings and pins, and before you replace the strings, rub the frets with a microfiber cloth to get the gunk off. Give the area around the bridge a rub to clean off any accumulated dust.

Removing the Bridge Pins

The bridge pins sometimes get stuck in the bridge and there are several effective ways to loosen and remove them. The gentlest method is to unwind the tuning pegs until all the strings are loose, and you can get your hand into the sound hole. Pull the pins with one hand while pushing them from under the bridge with a flat screwdriver. Another way to remove the pins is to use the pin puller that is usually part of a string winder. String winders are available at music stores or online.

Once all the pins are out, place the end of the string which has a ball on it into its hole in the bridge. If the ball does not fit, push the other end of the string into bridge from inside the guitar. Next, replace the pin and pull the string through until the ball is up against the bridge pin.

Sometimes bridge pins tend to pop out during restringing. If you are sure that the string is secure in the bridge, you can push the pin further into the hole by hitting it with a rubber hammer. To do this without damaging the guitar body, put your hand inside the guitar and make sure the bridge is supported by your fingers.

Once the string is secure in the bridge hole, push the other end into the hole in the tuning post. Now turn the tuning peg until the slack in the string is taken up. The sixth, fifth and fourth strings are turned counterclockwise, and the third, second and first strings are turned clockwise.

When the string is no longer loose, gradually tune it to its correct pitch. New strings have a lot of stretch in them, so you will need to pull on the string after you have tuned it. This will put the string out of tune, so you will need to tune it again. Do this a few times until the string loses its tendency to go out of tune. Acoustic guitar tuning is a straightforward task once you get the hang of stretching the strings a few times.

Finally, use a wire cutter to trim any extra bits off the strings.

How To String An Acoustic Guitar

This lesson starts by assuming you do not know much about acoustic guitar music. We will start with the two basic types of acoustic guitar, and the kinds of music associated with them. We then move onto the challenges of holding the guitar while playing, with some exercises which will help you work on the best playing position for your individual needs.

The Types of Acoustic Guitar

There are two basic types of acoustic guitar:

Steel string guitars have a bright, ringing sound, while the sound produced by nylon strings is warmer and mellower. Nylon string guitars lend themselves easily to finger style playing, as the strings do not break the nails as much as steel strings do. The sound of a steel string guitar will carry slightly better than that of a nylon string but in a crowded room, both will need amplification.

Acoustic Guitar Styles

Learning how to play acoustic guitar will vary in approach according to the kind of music you are interested in playing. Nylon string guitars are usually associated with classical, flamenco, Latin American or folk music, while performers in the American genres such as blues, country, flatpicking and bluegrass favor steel string guitars. Two major exceptions to the rule, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, often played nylon string guitars, and jazz player Charlie Byrd played on a classical guitar. You can play the nylon string guitar with a pick, fingernails or the flesh of the fingertips.

If you decide to try fingerpicking on a steel string acoustic, you can use your fingertips without nails. Alternatively, you can buy finger picks and a thumb pick which slide onto your fingers. These are easy to use but they do take a little practice. Pioneer acoustic blues guitarist Reverend Gary Davis used a thumb pick with a finger pick on his index finger. Another early acoustic blues player, “Doc” Watson, often used finger picking but he was known for his intricate “flat picking” using only a plectrum.

A fingerpicking style made famous by Chet Atkins is “Travis Picking”. The style was invented by country artist Merle Travis who played his electric guitar using thumb and index finger. Chet Atkins expanded the style by adding the second and third fingers, and the style has been adopted by electric and acoustic guitarists such as Tommy Emmanuel.

There were many acoustic guitar innovators amongst the big names of the British folk revival of the 1960′s. Davy Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne and Martin Carthy are all artists you can catch up with in online videos.

Acoustic Guitar Songs

Many songs have become associated with the acoustic guitar even though they may not have started out that way. Layla by Eric Clapton and Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano are famous examples of acoustic guitar songs which began as rock songs.

Blackbird by The Beatles is in the repertoire of almost all acoustic guitarists, but other Beatles songs such as Revolution and When I’m Sixty-Four are also acoustic-friendly. The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals, Tears in Heaven by Eric Clapton are easy acoustic guitar songs to start a repertoire, and when your confidence grows you can try Stairway to Heaven.

Holding the Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic guitars are more responsive than electrics which means you need to be careful how you place your left hand fingers and how you use your fingers or pick when you play. All this depends on how you sit or stand. An acoustic guitar player needs to find how to hold the guitar without restricting the movements of either hand, or causing back pain or other discomfort during practice sessions.

Many online videos of guitar players are made with the artist sitting on the side of his bed. It is much better to sit in a dining chair or on a stool. A good way to begin your daily guitar practice is to place yourself towards the front of your chair, so you are not tempted to lean back. With your body leaning forward slightly, gravity will tend to keep your back straight but you will need to check your posture from time to time.

There are various opinions on where to rest your guitar if you play in a sitting position. Some guitarists use a footstool, others cross either leg. Whatever position you choose, your body should support the guitar. If you take your hands away from your guitar and it falls down, you need to find another position. Your left arm should not be supporting the weight of the guitar because it needs to travel up and down the neck without having to stop the guitar from falling.

The right arm should also have plenty of freedom but it is needed to hold the instrument in position against your chest. Finding the ideal way of placing the right arm to support your guitar will possibly include changing the way you attack the strings with your fingers or plectrum. The basis for playing an acoustic guitar while sitting should be the classical guitarists’ position. Classical players often use a footstool but flamenco players who require just as much stability, have other ways of supporting the guitar.

In this video you can see that having a footstool to raise the left leg leaves John Williams’ right arm completely free of supporting the guitar. In other sections of the video, Williams, Paco Pena and the other flamenco players rest the right arm on the top of the guitar.

This position also requires some discipline because most beginners will tend to lift their right arm off the guitar from time to time.

Whenever you are adjusting the way you play guitar, it is always helpful to use material you have never played before so you do not bring any old habits into the new routine. I have used a video of classical and flamenco guitarists to illustrate some ways of holding the guitar. To eliminate the need for you to rush out and take classical or flamenco guitar lessons, I have included a Travis picking pattern, a folk guitar fingerpicking pattern and a crosspicking pattern to help you see what you need to do to keep your guitar stable while the left and right hands are busy playing. The Travis picking and fingerpicking patterns are played with the fingers, and the crosspicking pattern is played with the plectrum.

The chords you need for these patterns are A minor, C major, and D major.

Travis Picking

Play the A and D string notes with your thumb, the G string with your index finger and the B string with your middle finger. In the third measure you will need to transfer this pattern onto the D G B and e strings.

Fingerpicking

Play the bass string with your thumb. In the third measure, the bass is the D string; in the others it is the A string. Play the G string with your index finger, the B string with your middle finger and the e string with your ring finger.

Crosspicking

Crosspicking is the art of moving from one string to another while picking with your plectrum. For beginner guitarists a moment of tension arises as they move between strings. This can take all the fun out of single note picking. Crosspicking is the ideal way to learn how to jump between strings comfortably while at the same time learning an interesting style of playing. In bluegrass music, the aim of crosspicking is to thrill your audience with your ability to pick a repeating fast pattern of notes.

For the crosspicking pattern below you play only the A G B and e strings in the first, second and fourth measures. In the third measure, you play the D G B and e strings. You can play this exercise using alternate up and down strokes of the pick.

Another way of crosspicking is playing the up or down strokes according to the direction of your next string. In the first measure of this exercise you would start with a down stroke on the A string, then play another down stroke on the G string, down on the B string, up on the G string, down on the e string, up on the B string, up on the G string, finishing with a down stroke on the B string.

These exercises will only be useful for developing your acoustic guitar playing technique if you practice them slowly. Speed will come in its own time.

Learn How to Play the Acoustic Guitar Without Stressing Your Body

Covers or Originals?

Many booking managers will ask to see a list of songs before booking an artist. If you are a songwriter, you may need to explain your decision to include your original material in your list. The reason for this is that one of the elements of a successful acoustic solo act is familiarity. Patrons of a pub, cafe or outdoor venue will usually pay more attention if they hear songs that they know and love. This is regardless of the quality of your original material.

If you are just starting out, it will be best to test the waters by including a small selection of originals mixed in with a repertoire of strong covers. If you intend to play a number of your own songs, the person booking for the gig might want to check out your Facebook friends or reviews of past gigs to make sure your material is going to be well received. If you feel that playing covers stifles your creativity, you could follow the example of performers who play original arrangements of popular songs.

You might also find yourself faced with the question of whether to include material that is popular with audiences but you personally dislike. The obvious answer is to please the paying public but if you are unable to live with playing music you do not feel connected to, you will need to keep searching for quality songs that you enjoy performing.

Your choice of repertoire also depends on the venue. A crowd in a bar might enjoy an acoustic rendition of Highway to Hell, while cafe patrons might prefer 500 Miles. Of course, the advantage with playing pubs is that as the night wears on nobody cares what you are playing.

Vary Your Repertoire

When you are choosing songs, bear in mind that your audience will get bored if all the songs sound the same. Do not place a bunch of songs in the same key or tempo together. You should also vary the position you play your chords in. Another consideration is the mood of your songs. If you have a list of songs with varying degrees of introspection, comedy, tragedy, teenage angst or forbidden love, mix them up, then check out whether the songs smoothly flow from one to the next. Remember, a band does not have to be quite so careful with mixing moods or themes, but if a solo artist loses his audience’s attention, you can hear the coyote howling in the distance.

If you have a wide range of skills, show them off. Use strumming in some songs, fingerpicking in others, flatpicking in others. Acoustic blues guitar provides opportunities to highlight your guitar playing. One of the advantages of using blues songs in your performance is that the 12-bar blues progression can be used for hundreds of songs.

An acoustic solo artist will usually have at least three hours’ worth of good acoustic guitar songs to fill a four-hour gig. The night is usually 45 minutes of playing with 15-minute breaks. Your repertoire should have more songs than you think you need. Once you have your song list, play through it. You will probably be surprised at how little time it takes.

Good Guitar Songs

There are so many lists of acoustic guitar songs on the web, half an hour’s searching should give you more than enough songs for your set list.
The suggestions I have included are all tried and true songs that work well for an acoustic guitar player.

There are some songs that many people would regard as essential for an acoustic guitarist to know. These include Stairway to Heaven, House of the Rising Sun, Happy Birthday and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.

Some great acoustic guitar songs from the Beatles repertoire include Blackbird, Michelle, Girl, Across the Universe and Yesterday.
Emerson Lake and Palmer recorded two great songs that easily fit into an acoustic set list: From the Beginning and Still You Turn Me On. Hotel California by The Eagles, Dust in the Wind by Kansas, Stand by Me by John Lennon, and Wonderwall by Oasis are also great acoustic guitar songs.

Leo Kottke instrumentals are always popular with crowds as they provide a break from vocals, and give you a chance to show off your virtuosity. Of course, you would have to choose your material carefully so you will not be changing tunings too often.

If you want to build up your professional song list while you are still learning to play, some easy acoustic guitar tabs to look for on the internet include Leaving on a Jet Plane by John Denver, Horse With No Name by America, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, and Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton.

Getting together a list of songs will tell you something about yourself as a musician. Take a look at your set list and think about what kind of venues would be ideal settings for playing your kind of music. Even if you are not quite ready to play professionally, it will be helpful to have some idea of the size and type of gig you want to play.

As a new solo artist you should approach small venues at first. Finding yourself at your first gig trying to entertain a large crowd or a small crowd in a large room will not do a lot for your confidence. Getting used to playing for small crowds will help you polish your act and attract a local following.

Choosing Acoustic Guitar Songs to Play For an Audience

If your aim is to learn guitar chords for songs in order to play folk or campfire songs, these chords will be just about all you need. If you are able to practice your chords every day for half an hour, you will be playing some easy songs very soon.

When you first begin to study chord playing, it is important not to overload. If you decide to learn the eight chords above, take just three for the first week, another three for the second week, and the final two for the third week, making revision part of your routine.

The first stage in learning a chord is placing it in your memory. Make sure you can practice a chord or group of chords without looking at your chord chart. Of course, you will remember a chord better if you try to place your fingers in position and play it, but having to tear your attention away from practicing to look at your chord diagram is not going to be productive.

The next stage in learning guitar chords is positioning your fingers so they are pressing on each string you need to play without brushing against the adjacent string. It is important to be exact in this part of learning chords because the position you practice is what will be recorded in your muscle memory.

One mistake beginner guitarists often make is pressing too hard on the strings. To find the minimum pressure needed to produce a clear sound, first just place your finger in position without pressing down. Now press down lightly while picking the string. At first, the note you play will be muffled, but when you apply a little pressure, you will hear a clean sound. This is the amount of pressure you need; if you find yourself applying too much, stop practicing and begin again without pressing down too hard.

Every time you take a chord position, the most important thing is to produce a clean sound. As you establish a practice routine, your fingers will naturally begin to go to their places without your brain needing to think about it.

To begin playing chords, place your thumb in the middle of the guitar neck, at right angles to the strings as in the photo. This is often called the “classical position” because it is taught to classical guitar students. This is the position that provides the guitarist with greatest freedom to move the left hand fingers without causing unnecessary tension or damage to the muscles and tendons in the hand and wrist.

Placing your fretting hand in the classical position when you learn your first chords will make your work easier when you start to learn chords that require your fingers to stretch to reach some of the notes. Barre chords will also be less trouble if you use this position. The term “classical” is often used in a negative way by guitarists who see it as too rigid and not giving the guitarist opportunities to loosen up and play less rule-ridden genres. In fact, the classical position offers the greatest flexibility and least likelihood of injury.

No position should be taken rigidly. When you play your guitar your body, hands, arms and fingers should be constantly adjusting to whatever demands are put on them by the music. The left hand position and the posture as a whole should be returned to at every opportunity, not held onto desperately. When the fingers need to take a new chord fingering, you will need to pay a little bit of attention to keep the thumb at right angles while the fingers find the next chord. Practicing this way will have the fingers automatically in the correct position to put the tips on the strings without muffling the other strings.

Once this way of fingering chords has become a habit, you can play chords where the thumb reaches over the top of the fretboard to fret the sixth string, or any other variation you choose.

If you do a search on the internet, you will find guitar players arguing over the advantages or otherwise of a particular left hand position. The best course of action for a beginner guitarist is to use the classical position illustrated, and once it has become natural for you to place your hand like this, then you can decide when it is appropriate to depart from it.

These photographs show how the fingers can be placed in the chord positions with the thumb at right angles to the strings.

A Major

A Minor

C Major

D Major

D Minor

E Major

E Minor

G Major

When learning or practicing chords, always place the index finger first. The same goes for changing between chords. The index finger – or first finger – is easily controlled by your brain, so put it into position first and allow the others to follow. If you find this hard to believe, just try placing random fingers first and you will see which one feels right.

Some people have a problem with guitar chords because of the length of their fingernails. It is important to keep your nails trimmed to a length which allows your fingertips to press on the strings and make contact with the fretboard.

After a day or two of practicing chord changes by carefully taking each chord position, then randomly changing to another chord, you could start to use these chords for songs. Do not try to change the chords quickly while your fingers are not used to taking their places. To practice chord changes, simply strum the first chord once, then the second chord once, and so on. Only go onto playing the accompaniment for songs after your fingers have learnt the chord shapes.

When you practice changing chords, it is a good idea to release the previous chord completely. Make sure your hand is totally relaxed before taking the next chord shape. The exception to this rule is:

When you practice your changes, be aware when you do not need to take a finger off a string to assume the next chord shape. For example, changing from C major to A minor only requires that your third finger move from the fifth string at the third fret to the third string at the second fret. The first and second fingers stay where they are.

The songs listed below will give you plenty of material for practice.

A D E
Wild Thing
Louie Louie

G D Am
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

G C D
Ring of Fire

D A G D
Bad Moon Rising

G C
My Darling Clementine

G D
She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain

D A
Happy Birthday

A D E
Johnny B. Goode

E D A
Sympathy for the Devil

You should be able to find the tabs for these songs at www.ultimate-guitar.com/ or www.chordie.com/

The Basic Guitar Chords and How to Learn Them

When explaining to beginners about guitar scales tabs often add confusion, so I have used charts to illustrate some aspects of scales.

The chromatic scale

There are 12 notes in music. These are represented by the chromatic scale: A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab. The # indicates a sharp, and the b indicates a flat.

The term scale refers to the progression of notes between octaves. In the example of the chromatic scale, above, the notes proceed from the note A to the A an octave higher. The spaces between notes are called intervals. These intervals are called tones and semitones. On the guitar, one fret is a semitone, two frets is a tone. The chromatic scale consists of 12 semitones.

By beginning at the any one of the open strings, and playing the note on each of the frets all the way up the guitar neck, you can play a chromatic scale. If you begin on the open sixth string, and play all the way up to the twelfth fret you will have played a chromatic scale covering one octave.

In the above example, the notes follow each other along one string. In the modes and scales in the guitar scales chart below, the notes follow each other across all the strings on the guitar, within the limits of four frets. No matter where on the fretboard you are playing, four frets is a comfortable span for anybody’s fingers.

The Major Scale and the Modes

The chromatic scale is just a collection of all the notes it is possible to use. The scales you will be learning will consist of either seven, or sometimes, five notes, which will be a mix of the notes found in the chromatic scale. There are nine scales on the guitar, which are popularly used for guitar solos:

• The Ionian Mode (The Major Scale)
• The Dorian Mode
• The Phrygian Mode
• The Lydian Mode
• The Mixolydian Mode
• The Aeolian Mode (The Natural Minor Scale)
• The Locrian Mode
• The Minor Pentatonic Scale
• The Blues Scale

The modes are based on the major scale and are generated from different degrees of the scale. The degrees are simple the names of the notes in a scale as they relate to the “tonic” – the first note of the scale. In the F major scale, F is both the tonic and the first degree.

For the purposes of this tutorial, I will be using the F major scale and the modes derived from it. The reason I use the F major scale is that F is the lowest fretted note on the guitar.

The Ionian mode/major scale intervals are tone – tone -semitone – tone – tone – tone – semitone

Here are the notes of the F major scale: F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E

Wild World by Cat Stevens, Third Stone from the Sun by Jimi Hendrix and La Bamba by Ritchie Valens are all songs that will help you to learn to play in the major scale.

The Dorian mode begins at the second degree of the major scale. The intervals in this mode are tone – semitone – tone – tone – tone – semitone – tone

Here are the notes of the Dorian mode as it relates to the F major scale: G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F

The Phrygian mode begins at the third degree of the major scale. The intervals are semitone -tone -tone – tone -semitone – tone – tone

Here are the notes of the Phrygian mode as it relates to the F major scale: A-Bb-C-D-E-F-G

The Lydian mode begins at the fourth degree of the major scale. The intervals are tone – tone – tone – semitone – tone – tone – semitone

Here are the notes of the Lydian mode as it relates to the F major scale: Bb-C-D-E-F-G-A

The Mixolydian mode begins at the fifth degree of the major scale. The intervals for this mode are tone – tone – semitone – tone – tone – semitone – tone

Here are the notes of the Mixolydian mode as it relates to the F major scale: C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb

The Aeolian mode/Natural Minor Scale begins at the sixth degree of the major scale. The intervals in this mode are tone – semitone – tone – tone – semitone – tone – tone

Here are the notes of the Aeolian mode as it relates to the F major scale: D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C

If you want to practice working in the minor scale, you could experiment with a few well-known songs. Black Magic Woman by Santana, Hotel California by The Eagles, and Dream On by Aerosmith will all help you to gain an understanding of the minor scale.

The Locrian mode begins at the seventh degree of the major scale. The intervals are semitone – tone – tone – semitone – tone – tone – tone

Here are the notes of the Locrian mode as it relates to the F major scale: E-F-G-A-Bb-C-D

The minor pentatonic scale has only five notes, and is the most important of the beginner guitar scales. Its intervals are tone+semitone – tone – tone – tone+semitone – tone

The notes of the minor pentatonic scale in F are F-G#-Bb-C-D#

This scale is used extensively by guitarists of all levels of experience to create solos, licks and riffs.

The blues scale is the same as the minor pentatonic but with six notes. The extra note is a flattened fifth, which gives the blues, scale its characteristic sound. The intervals are tone+semitone – tone – semitone – semitone – tone+semitone – tone

The notes of the blues scale in F are F-G#-Bb-B-C-D#

The blues scale is the minor pentatonic with the addition of a flattened fifth – the blue note.

A Guitar Scales Chart for Beginners

Here are the notes of a C major chord in musical notation:

In other types of guitar music students who do not learn to read music can still learn how to play chords to accompany songs.

In popular music genres such as pop, rock and folk, chords are used as accompaniment for songs or melodies. Popular music makes use of only a small number of chords, so a beginner guitar student is usually given some simple songs with just two or three chords. Learning to play these simple songs will introduce the beginner to strumming, keeping time and changing chords. In addition to the tabs or sheet music for beginner level songs, most guitar teachers will give their students a chart or a list of guitar chords for reference while they are learning the basic chords.

Printable guitar chords charts are a feature of most guitar lessons websites. Designing guitar chords charts for beginners is a difficult job because the information on how to play the chord needs to be given to a novice guitarist in a way that will help them to start playing chords with a degree of confidence. There are several ways in which guitar chords can be written down:

They can be represented quite easily in tab form -

C MAJOR CHORD

e|———-0
B|——–1–
G|——0—-
D|—–2—–
A|—-3——
E|———–

Here is a link to a tutorial on how to read tab.

Apart from tabs there are many different pictorial ways of showing where to put your left hand fingers to fret a chord shape. The chord diagram I use shows the name of the chord at the top:

Under the chord name are two symbols:

indicates a string which is not strummed or is muted with one of the left hand fingers. These strings play no part in the chord.

indicates that the open string is sounded; in other words no left hand fingers are pressed onto the string.

The number on the left side of the diagram tells you where the chord is located on the fretboard.

Looking at the chord chart, you can get the following info on the chord you are studying:

the chord is a C major

the left hand fingers are placed slightly behind the frets.
The numbers inside the circles on the fretboard tell you which fingers to use to fret the chord. There is a standard way of numbering the fretting hand fingers, which is detailed in this picture:

The Basic Guitar Chords

Although there is no ultimate guitar chords chart containing all the useful chords and leaving out the obscure ones, most guitar teachers agree that the chords shown below are the basic beginners guitar chords.

These basic chords are called “open” chords because they make use of open strings. These chords are in the “first position” which means they are using only the notes found on the open strings and at the first four frets on the guitar. The first position also refers to the scales found within these four frets.

This tutorial is available in our free downloads section at Free Guitar PDFs with a larger version of the chord chart.

How to Read a Guitar Chords Chart