5 Easy Songs You Can Learn to Play on Guitar -- and SING!

Does this describe you? You have owned a guitar for years, and you even bought some chord books, but you never really got past basic chords, and you sure can't sing and strum at the same time. That is exactly where I was, until I happened upon a website full of guitar tabs for a wide range of songs and ability levels. I have always loved to sing, and singing is the reason I bought the guitar in the first place.

Alas, I did not seek out lessons (not sure why), when those surely would have helped, and I had never really learned an instrument (besides my voice), despite a few attempts during my formative years. There I was -- in my 30s, with a cool acoustic guitar made of cedar, and unable to really play a song. The one thing I had in my favor was the ability to keep time, learned from my years in choirs, choruses, and glee clubs.

My guitar playing went nowhere, for several years. Then, early this year, I stumbled across Ultimate-Guitar.com, and I can't even remember how I found it. The site is a treasure trove of -- essentially -- guitar sheet music that people have been posting since the mid-90s. You might think of it as sort of a guitar music wiki.

Easy songs you can learn to play on guitar -- Photo By: rockesty (Flickr)

Thanks to Ultimate-Guitar.com, I can now play each of the following songs, and sing them at the same time:

1. White Stripes -- We're Going to Be Friends

This was the first song I learned to play and sing, start-to-finish, on guitar. It is a simple, sing-song type of song, and it practically keeps its own time. Once you learn it. You will appreciate the genius of its simplicity. Thank you to Jack White for making it so fun to play!

2. Coldplay -- Yellow

To play this the easiest, you need a tool called a capo. Buy a capo -- mine cost me around $10 -- put it in place on your guitar's fretboard, find the matching tab for Yellow on the website, and you are good to go. With a little practice, you will think this song plays itself -- and you yourself will have learned to play a song on guitar.

3. Ben Kweller -- My Apartment

This is one of my favorite songs, and one day, after I had learned finally to play one song, I realized My Apartment would be relatively easy to play on the guitar. For the record, there is a segment of lead I have to skip (for now).

4. Plain White Ts -- Hey There, Delilah

If you are a guy and you want girls to swoon, learn to play and sing this song that includes the line, "Oh, it's what you do to me. Oh-oh, it's what you do to me." Of course, you probably recall this song was a huge hit. Why not learn to play a huge hit on guitar? You will get at least a few female fans.

5. Billy Bragg -- To Have and to Have Not

The person who posted the tab for this great song, Jake Sibel, wrote on the site, "This has got to be one of my favorite Billy Bragg songs and definitely one of the easiest." I agree with Jake entirely.

Now, if you pick up this song, be careful. You might find yourself willingly singing about something that has meaning.

Ultimate-Guitar.com is easy to use. Just plug a band or song name into the search feature, then look for the word "chords" among the search results, be sure to pick one that has rated well, and you too will be playing songs on guitar and feeling like a "real guitarist" before you even know it.

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Nena says:
11 months ago

Hmmm ... I have a guitar in the closet.

Reg Brittain says:
11 months ago

I thought that you did, Nena. Maybe we'll play guitar together sometime.

learningguitar says:
5 months ago

Great hub! Keep up the great and fabulous work!

Reg Brittain says:
5 months ago

Thank you so much, learningguitar! I shall do my best.

nicksstuff says:
2 months ago

This is a great hub. I have been learning chords from an article hat I posted on hub pages. I hope it's all the correct info - it makes sense so far. It's all going to help. There is too much to learn.