Playing easy songs on an electric guitar is relatively simple. The first step is to familiarize yourself with the instrument and its basic components: strings, pickups, frets and so on. Then, practice some of the basics such as chords and scales until you can perform them without difficulty. Once these are mastered, start learning basic riffs from popular songs or get a book of popular tunes with tabs that can help guide your playing. Take it slowly at first until you become comfortable with more complicated pieces. With enough practice, you’ll soon be able to play easy songs on your electric guitar.
Contents:
Choosing the right chords
When starting to learn how to play easy songs on an electric guitar, it is important to understand which chords should be used. In order to make the songs sound pleasant, it is essential that you select chords which work together in harmony and create a balanced sound. The best way to do this is by practicing chord progressions until they become second nature and comfortable for your fingers. This can be achieved through trial and error – trying different combinations of notes until one feels right. It would also be beneficial if you familiarized yourself with music theory fundamentals such as scales and modes so that you know what intervals go together well when picking chords.
The next step towards creating simple but beautiful melodies on the electric guitar is understanding how many strings need to be strummed at once for each chord. It is not necessary (and oftentimes too difficult) for a beginner guitarist to try and play all 6 strings for each chord – instead, start out with some basic 3-string voicings where only certain notes are sounded out at any given time. This technique gives the player more control over the dynamics of their playing and allows them greater freedom when crafting simple melodies from various chords rather than just strumming full barre shapes across all 6 strings.
Another great tip for learning how to play easy songs on an electric guitar is keeping a log book or journal of all the lessons learned throughout your practice sessions; whether it’s noting down new scale patterns or writing down new chord sequences after experimenting with them in real time during practice – having something tangible which records your progress will help keep track of what techniques have been learnt, allowing you revisit these concepts further down the line when required.
Start with open chords
Learning to play the electric guitar can be a daunting task for those without any prior knowledge. The best way to get started is by mastering open chords, as they form the basis of most easy songs. Open chords are guitar chords that use one or more open strings along with several fretted notes. These typically include major and minor chord varieties, as well as other specialized sounds like 7th and barre chords. By using these shapes, you can easily play simple melodies or fingerpick strumming patterns on your instrument.
Knowing how to build and identify open chords is critical for playing popular tunes in various keys and styles on the electric guitar. To begin with, familiarize yourself with the most common shapes such as A-minor, D-major, E-major and G-major in particular – all of which feature an open string within their construction. Moving forward from here, it’s useful to explore additional voicings such as Cadd9 and Bm7b5 so that you can add interesting variations when performing pieces in different musical genres like country music or rock ‘n roll.
Once you’ve become comfortable with moving between various chord forms while playing both lead lines and accompanying progressions on the electric guitar, why not take things up a notch? Consider adding some basic embellishments including vibrato techniques or hammer-ons/pull-offs into your repertoire – this will add interest to your playing beyond just basic chording.
Simplify chord progressions
Aspiring electric guitarists who are just starting out often think they have to play complicated solos or intricate chord progressions in order to impress. But the truth is, with a little bit of practice, it’s easy to learn how to play simple songs on an electric guitar and sound great. One way to make learning easier is by simplifying chords in your song.
Rather than playing complex barre chords, opt for their open string equivalents. Barre chords require more coordination as you must press down multiple strings at once with one finger; whereas open string chords only involve pressing one single string at a time. Open string versions of popular chords such as E Major and A minor can be found easily online and are definitely worth memorizing for beginners.
Once you get familiar with some basic open position chord shapes, take them a step further by stripping them back even more. An experienced player might use interesting hybrid voicings that combine several shapes together, but this can be overwhelming if you’re just starting out on electric guitar. To simplify the process even further try using power chords instead – these contain only two notes which makes it much easier to switch between different positions while still sounding full and complete. With all these tips in mind, you should be able to play any easy song without feeling like it’s too daunting of a task.
Use tablature to guide your playing
Learning to play the electric guitar can be a daunting task. It’s natural for a new player to feel overwhelmed, especially when considering mastering some of their favorite songs. But with a few helpful tips and techniques, you will soon find yourself strumming out melodies with ease.
One great way to learn how to play easy songs on an electric guitar is by using tablature, or tab. Tablature makes it easier to understand the finger positions and notes that need to be played in order to form chords and riffs. You don’t need formal musical notation training – all you need is your instrument and a bit of dedication.
If you’re looking for a starting point, there are many websites available where you can find tablatures of popular songs. All you have to do is plug in your desired song title into an online search engine or use an app such as Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords which provides access over 900k accurate tabs from various genres across the world. With this extensive library at your fingertips, learning has never been easier.
Practice, practice, practice
When it comes to mastering the electric guitar, a commonly heard piece of advice is practice, practice and more practice. To really get familiar with the instrument and begin playing songs you will need to dedicate hours of your time into improving. But fret not – once you start learning chords, scales, strumming patterns and rhythm exercises the whole process can become enjoyable rather than laborious.
To make sure that the chord changes sound smooth on each song you try to play, focus on increasing your accuracy when transitioning from one chord shape to another by practicing at different speeds and adding in pull-offs or hammer-ons where necessary. Make sure you also take time out to focus on making any open string notes sound cleanly as well as plucking accurately and consistently between strings.
Once you feel confident enough with all of these skills then it’s time to combine them together while working through an easy song – this may seem daunting but if taken one step at a time you can quickly achieve great results. Start off slowly so that each component has enough emphasis before gradually increasing speed until eventually reaching full tempo. This way there is less risk of errors occurring within each part which could mess up the entire performance – bear in mind though that having some mistakes here and there is completely normal for those starting out so don’t worry about aiming for perfection just yet!
Leave a Reply