You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → What was your first song?
Great song for chord changes. Is she playing it in F or did her teacher transpose it? Great song to learn open F to C.
She's playing it in D, using G and A along with it. May not be Tom Petty's key, but it suits "our" vocal range. Her teacher (moi) felt that these three basic chords would be easiest for her to start with. We're now working on some tunes that use E-A-D, so she's already got 2/3's learned. Next will be C-F-G combos, so it'll be interesting to see how she does with F using a traditional shape as opposed to barre. The final root chord to learn will be B, but I won't torment her with that one yet (LOL).
She's also using www.justinguitar.com on her own, and making great progress due to her work ethic and consistent practice. She'll probably pass me by the end of January!
Colours - by Donovan. around 1976, on an Angelica guitar, a brand that i have never heard of since
My first song was anna songs. I played it in lead form for years before i learned the chords. I learned it by ear. Since then i have learned to improvise and add a little more to it to zing it up. It's still one of my favorites. smile .. .. 
First song I knew all the way through without the book was Nights in White Satin although I always stumbled on the F so I gave it up. First one I could play well was Down on the Corner. Yeah I know, still has the F but I had mastered it by then. Still one of my favorites and one that didn't get lost in my 20 year break from playing.
Great stories, my first song was Gordon Lightfoots Did she Mention My name....still afavorite but i do play it a bit better than 40 years ago!!!
It was 1977 and the first one I could play all the way through was Sloop John B by the Beach Boys. Played on a Kent acoustic. I didn't really care too much for the Beach Boys back then. But a pretty girl down the street did!
Seeing as how this thread got "bumped" and I haven't added my firsts to the list... here ya go.
I grew up in the middle east, and Mom played piano, so we wound up with this lovely Kimball baby Grand that moved with us for the eight years Dad was stationed over there. My sister took lessons, and I would have liked to... but she hated it like some kind of child torture, so I thought better of expressing any interest. When we returned to the States, Yup that huge piece of musical furniture came along and occupied the major part of our formal dining room in Palos Verdes. One spring break, I decided to at least give it a whirl... so I opened up the bench and pulled out this song book about half the size of the Los Angeles phone directory and opened it to a random page, that would stay open while balanced on the music stand. Beethoven's 5th Symphony as I recall and over the next week taught myself to not only read music, but bar by bar, the entire piece until I had it down.... with both hands! Thus began and ended my first music career.
Until.... I happened to hear Mason Williams' Classical Gas. Which started this on/off love affair with the Guitar, and was the first tune I taught myself on the slightly used Alvarez classical which I picked up at the age of fourteen for about $35.00 plus $6.00 for a new set of strings and the sheet music.
Been finger pickin' ever since, although the music selection has changed towards simpler things. Did the hard stuff while I was still young and stubborn.
Doug
Did the hard stuff while I was still young and stubborn.
Doug
The simple 3-4 chord songs are always fun to play but I still enjoy learning slightly more complex songs with lots of chord changes. Keeps the brain working. 
I'm relearning Queen's 39 and the Grateful Dead's Eyes of the World right now.
Uncle Joe ... gotta agree with you about enjoying some complex stuff also.
It's a marvel to me how a good songwriter thinks to put in all of the key changes, wrinkles, and surprises here and there. I'm terrible at it, or at least it never really sounds good to me. A song with a lot of quick chord changes and strumming that I like is Jethro Tull's "The Whistler". Here's a tube of the song, followed by the transcription here on Chordie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOuUYcenW0
http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/www.x … istler.txt
The added challenge to this is learning to sing-a-long and whistle-a-long (the flute parts) while keeping up with the chording. At least it's a challenge for me; there are others on Chordie who probably breeze through something like this no sweat.
My first tune if I remember right......so long ago 
was Eve of Destruction by Barry Maguire. Easy 4 chord song until that annoying Bm came into play but I had to learn it and I'm sure glad I did.
Ken
A song with a lot of quick chord changes and strumming that I like is Jethro Tull's "The Whistler". Here's a tube of the song, followed by the transcription here on Chordie:
http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/www.x … istler.txt
The added challenge to this is learning to sing-a-long and whistle-a-long (the flute parts) while keeping up with the chording. At least it's a challenge for me; there are others on Chordie who probably breeze through something like this no sweat.
Nice! Looks like a challenge for me as well. Think I'll play around with it.
Currently just shy of 6 months into learning the guitar. I started off like many with a useless book that teaches you how to play garbage songs one note at a time. I abandoned that after 2 months for song based learning using chords and have never looked back. Can currently play about 30 songs start to finish with varying degrees of accuracy. Re the original question:
The first ever song I played start to finish was “About a Girl” by nirvana. Great song, simple Em to G progression for the verses with some cool sounding power chords and a brief Em – A – C progression in the chorus. Even the solo in this is easy to learn. I think this is an excellent choice for beginners as it is so much more than just 3 chords repeated over and over and will teach you lots of important elements (open chords, power chords, different strumming patterns, simple soloing).
First ever song I could play AND sing to simultaneously was Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The chords in this are very, very easy and repeated through the majority of the song. The bridge even incorporates one of the easiest chords known to man – an A11 (top 5 strings played open). This has recently been followed by Bad Moon Rising…I can play and sing this. It’s a very simple, and very cool song.
Universal Soldier, written by Buffy Sainte Marie. It was a big hit for Donovan in America but never did to much here in UK. It's a truly universal folk song as those four chords can be used for literally hundreds of other songs.
I used to play it as a grumpy young man and it usually ended with me being escorted off the premises.
I'm now a grumpy old man and still getting the same reaction.
Mine was "A Boy Named Sue" (Johnny Cash's definitive version of Shel Silverstein's song), played on a baritone uke to entertain my Dad's drinking buddies down at the American Legion. Followed closely by "American Pie" from Don McLean on an old Stella 6-string with cheese-slicer action.
Mine was Stand By Me....(It was that or Jingle Bells) I had not discovered Chordie yet.They were the only two pieces of sheet music that I could get my sore and uncalloused fingers on...Seems very long ago now,
Early Morning Rain and House of the rising sun..............
Down in the valley! Chords written down on a piece of paper my dad got at work from a friend.
long time ago. but from memory, leaving on a jet plane, knockin on heaven's door. (hi everybody, this is my first post.)
Welcome Aboard Bouncer!
Good bunch of folks here and lots of music and conversation to enjoy, so tell us a bit about yourself and make yourself to home.
Doug
Welcome bouncer. Pull up an armless chair and make yourself comfortable.
Howdy bouncer. Glad to have you here
welcome bouncer!. What I say by Ray Charles if I remember right.
Hey all!, the first song I learned on my acoustic guitar is How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin. It was a pretty simple song to play once I got the strum pattern down
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Acoustic → What was your first song?
