Easiest Electric Guitar Songs for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide

Have you just purchased your first electric guitar and are unsure where to begin? Starting with the electric guitar can be just as enjoyable as beginning with an acoustic one. Electric guitars often feature thinner strings, making them easier on the fingers compared to the heavier strings of acoustic guitars. Moreover, the slimmer necks found on electric guitars can be advantageous for players with smaller hands, providing an easier grip and shorter reach. Learning to play songs on an electric guitar is a fulfilling step for any new player.

This article compiles a list of simple songs that sound great on the electric guitar. This article avoids the typical beginner guitar song suggestions, such as "Happy Birthday" and "Amazing Grace".

Why Start with Electric Guitar?

While many people start playing guitar on an acoustic model, beginning on an electric guitar can be just as fun. Electric guitars have thinner strings, which are easier on the fingers as opposed to the heavier strings on an acoustic. What’s more, players with smaller hands might enjoy the slimmer necks on an electric, as it warrants an easier grip and shorter reach.

Essential Beginner Skills

Before diving into songs, it's important to learn your basic root chords: A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, and G, as well as a few simple rhythm patterns to play them.

Top Songs for Electric Guitar Beginners

Here's a list of songs, spanning various genres, that are perfect for beginners on the electric guitar:

1. "Smoke on the Water" - Deep Purple

The guitar riff of "Smoke on the Water" is a classic and one of the most recognizable riffs of all time. It's simple to learn and a great starting point.

2. "Enter Sandman" - Metallica

"Enter Sandman" by Metallica is another iconic and easy song to learn on guitar.

3. "Iron Man" - Black Sabbath

Aspiring rock guitarists will love learning this classic song by Black Sabbath.

4. "Creep" - Radiohead

One of Radiohead’s most popular songs, "Creep" is an excellent choice to practice your rhythm and fingerpicking fundamentals. Fingerpicking is definitely a less commonly used technique on the electric guitar.

5. "Seven Nation Army" - The White Stripes

This song is one of the easy songs to learn on guitar and sounds harder than it actually is. The big takeaway from this song is the string-skip from the low E string to the D string. Although this song is best played on the A and D strings, if you’re feeling like challenging yourself you can play this classic riff on only the D string.

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6. "Zombie" - The Cranberries

Zombie basically only contains four chords, and they are some of the easiest chords to play. Plus, the rhythm couldn’t be much easier, and the solo is nearly all on one string making it superb for beginners to learn. In simple terms, the chords are Em, C, G, and D. Easy enough, but to make it even easier, you don’t even need to play the full chords. Play the Em as normal, then for the C play a Cmaj7 (CM7), which is the same as a normal C, but you don’t use the first finger. And finally, a little more complicated, the D is a Dadd9/F#, which is a D chord with a finger on the 2nd fret of the low E string to create a F# note, with the other fingers on a D chord, but no finger on the high e string. That’s the chords covered, the rhythm for the intro and verse is all downstrokes, so down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, with palm muting. For the Em, G6, and Dadd9/F# hit the 6th, 5th, and 4th strings, for the Cmaj7, hit the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. To palm mute, you need to rest the palm of your strumming hand very gently over the bridge of your guitar so that it mutes the strings slightly.

7. "Throwing Muses" - Kristin Hersh

This song only contains three simple chords, Am, G, and D. But what makes this song so good is that, unlike lots of standard beginner’s songs, it sounds much more complicated than it is. This is because even though it only contains three chords, whose order never changes, the melody is sung over different chords as the song progresses. The first line of the song is sung over the chords Am, G, D, Am. The second over G, D, Am, G, the third over D, Am, G, D.

8. "What's Up?" - 4 Non Blondes

In its most basic form, the chords are G, D, Am, Am, - G, D, C, C, although most guitarists play an Am7 (Am without the third finger) instead of the Am. But, as mentioned, it’s a great song to learn so many other techniques, from random picking to improvisation. For random picking, play a chord’s bass note - 6th string for G, 5th string for Am and C, and 4th string for D, then play any other three strings (normally the high e, b, and g strings) in any order. When that gets easier, learn the first position G major scale starting on the third fret of the low E and create simple short riffs using those notes while keeping the song going.

9. "House of the Rising Sun" - The Animals

As with What’s Up and the B minor chord, this is the go-to song for mastering the infamous and illusive F major chord. However, as with What’s Up, because the chord sequence circles around and around (even though it is quite a bit longer than in the 4 Non Blondes song), you will soon get the hang of playing the F.

10. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana

The verse is D and G, the chorus is Em and A, and that’s basically it. There is a middle 8 section that contains harder barre chords - F#m7 and Bm - but don’t worry if you can’t play them yet, the section is only a very small part of the song.

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11. "Cherub Rock" - Smashing Pumpkins

Billy Corgan's knack for combining hard rock riffs and pop hooks comes together nicely under the chugging rhythm guitar pulse of the 1993 Smashing Pumpkins hit “Cherub Rock.” The first single off the breakthrough Siamese Dream offers a solid practice regimen for octave riffs and 16th note strumming .

12. "(Don’t Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Öyster Cult

Brush up on your arpeggio picking and palm muting with Blue Öyster Cult’s 1976 acclaimed “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” This song has a haunting vibe, and Rolling Stone named it song of the year the year of its release.

13. "I Can’t Quit You Baby" - Willie Dixon

Even though Willie Dixon wrote the blues standard “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” Otis Rush first recorded it in 1956 and many others, like Led Zeppelin, have covered it over the years. It’s got a blues flavor with only three chords (G, C, and D).

14. "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" - Black Uhuru

Work on your reggae rhythm skills with Black Uhuru’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” This song guides you through the classic reggae backbeat that runs through the entire hypnotic, groovy song.

15. "It Hurts Me Too" - Elmore James

Elmore James makes hurt and sorrow sound mighty appealing on the classic “It Hurts Me Too” with traditional blues chord changes. By learning the shuffle pattern and how to downstrum, it’s a great way in the blues doorway.

16. "Last Nite" - The Strokes

The Strokes brought punk and garage rock back to the charts in the early 2000s with their debut single, “Last Nite,” and its upbeat dancey rhythm. When it entered the American charts, it even reached the top five. Take a stab at the New York City band’s groundbreaking hit in a lesson that gets you familiar with chord anticipation and 16th note strumming patterns.

17. "My Best Friend’s Girl" - The Cars

The Cars mixed easy-to-learn hard rock guitar and new wave synth-pop to massive success, especially with “My Best Friend’s Girl.” This song walks you through the easy three-chord progression to take you back to the 1980s in this video.

18. "Low" - Cracker

It takes only four chords (D, C, E and G) to get through “Low,” the 1993 hit from rockers Cracker. This song helps you dive into basic chord switching with a consistent strum pattern in this video.

19. "Smoking Gun" - Robert Cray

Stratocaster master Robert Cray had a pop radio hit on his hands with “Smoking Gun,” which reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Using the chords E minor and A minor, this song shows you how to work through a few basic techniques with this classic blues jam.

20. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - The Rolling Stones

With arguably the most recognizable Keith Richards guitar riff ever, “Satisfaction” is a fine example of why the Rolling Stones' rock-meets-soul strut got them dubbed the “greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world.”

21. "Oh! The Arkells" - The Arkells

The chorus section gives us a super steady rhythm that is easy to play along to and helps us to develop a better sense of timing. This song can sound more challenging than it is because the guitarist has a very ‘wild’ strumming style on the record, but keeping a count of “1-2-3-4” either out loud or by tapping our foot will help us stay in time with the song.

22. "Ace of Spades" - Motorhead

Motorhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’ uses guitars that are tuned to Eb Standard instead of E Standard. All this means is that we need to tune our guitar down one half step. While our “Standard” tuning is E - A - D - G - B - E, our tuning for this song will be Eb - Ab - Db - Gb - Bb - Eb. Focus on the back-and-forth movement between the D & G strings when you play this fantastic beginner electric guitar song. Now is a great time to try and start making use of your pinky finger! Though it can seem like it has a mind of its own, your pinky finger is very useful for those longer fret stretches that you will encounter as a guitarist.

Other simple songs

"Wild Horses" - The Rolling Stones
"Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door" - Bob Dylan/Guns N’ Roses
"The Joker" - Steve Miller Band
"Wildest Dreams" - Taylor Swift
"All The Small Things" - Blink 182
"Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol
"Learning To Fly" - Tom Petty
"Rockin’ In The Free World" - Neil Young
"Ho Hey" - The Lumineers
"Good Riddance (Time of Your Life” - Green Day)
"Mother" - Pink Floyd
"No Rain" - Blind Melon
"Summer of ’69" - Bryan Adams
"Mr. Jones" - Counting Crows
"Stand By Me" - Ben E. King
"A Horse With No Name" - America
"Thinking Out Loud” - Ed Sheeran
"Wonderwall" - Oasis
"Buddy Holly" - Weezer
"Small Town" - John Mellencamp
"Every Rose Has its Thorn" - Poison
"About a Girl" - Nirvana
"Disarm" - The Smashing Pumpkins
"Closing Time" - Semisonic
"I Ran" - Flock of Seagulls
"I Walk The Line" - Johnny Cash
"Ain’t No Sunshine" - Bill Withers
"Stay With Me" - Sam Smith
"Creep" - Radiohead
"Free Fallin" - Tom Petty
"Comfortably Numb" - Pink Floyd
"Seven Turns" - The Allman Brothers
"I’m Gonne Be (500 Miles)" - The Proclaimers
"3 AM" - Matchbox Twenty
"Simple Man" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Wild Thing" - The Troggs
"Sympathy for the Devil" - The Rolling Stones
"What I Got" - Sublime
"Fire on the Mountain" - Grateful Dead
"Landslide" - Fleetwood Mac
"With or Without You" - U2

Tips for Learning

Start Slow: Don't rush. Focus on clean chord changes and accurate rhythm.
Practice Regularly: Even short, consistent practice sessions are more effective than infrequent long ones. Make music practice addictive. Practice that feels like play.
Use Online Resources: There are countless tutorials and tabs available online.
Listen Carefully: Pay attention to the original song to get a feel for the timing and nuances.
Be Patient: Learning guitar takes time and effort. Don't get discouraged by mistakes.

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