[criddell]

I know some chords: A, Am, C, C7, D, D7, E, Em, G, G7

I can switch between those fairly fluidly.

Even Wild Thing has a solo part in the middle. A, D, and E really aren't enough, are they?

Can you name a few other real songs that you think are early beginner level?

[mattmanser]

That's the kids secret, they don't learn it all in one big bang. Kids don't play the solo or play it perfectly to begin with. They play along with the song on the stereo, then you don't have to do the solo any way! There's also a rhythm guitar going on under a solo, if not you can fill that bit with the same chords as the solo is playing (usually the verse or chorus chords) based on those chords. Then they learn solos later.

Also, if you learn the barre chord, you learn most of modern rock's rhythm guitar.

Polly - Nirvana (E, G, D, C / D, C, G, A# barre), see https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/n/nirvana/polly_crd.htm

Pennyroyal Tea - Nirvana (E, G + some barre chords) simple chords and an incredibly simple solo too)

Karma Police - Radiohead (this has a B in it though and like on piano, Bs are a bit awkward)

House of the Rising Sun

Help - Beatles

Everybody hurts - R.E.M. (very basic plucking, D/G), see https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/r/r_e_m_/everybody_hurts_cr...

I learnt in the 90s as you might be able to tell. Most songs I know I've no clue what the solos are. Here's some other ideas:

http://www.guitarnoise.com/blog/first-songs-to-learn-on-guit...

http://www.guitarhabits.com/top-30-easy-guitar-chord-songs-b...

It's also really easy to find basic arrangements. Just search "[song name] tab". What I used to do is search for a song I liked, if the tab looked difficult, search for another song, until I found one I could handle.

Right now, I'm doing the inverse of you, learning piano when I know guitar. I'm doing a course which teaches you very basic song arrangements while it develops you chords and fingering skills, and I personally find it easier to pick up the techniques by practising along to arrangements I vaguely know, even if it's just a verse or chorus.

[criddell]

Thanks for taking the time to write this out. It's very helpful.

How are you finding the piano? At one point I thought that might be a better fit for me because I can type quickly and accurately. But now I watch my daughter play and seeing her read read and play different left and right hand sequences makes me think that would have been more difficult.

After spending quite a bit of time playing Rocksmith, I can't help but think that it should be way better than it is. I think their strategy of ramping up the difficulty is excellent, but the imprecision of the DAC is frustrating. I want it to tell me when I'm accidentally muting or playing a string. I want it to be way more strict in timing of notes and sustains and bends. I suspect that would require custom electronics with a DAC on each string, but I'd be happy to buy that.

[mattmanser]

Piano's quite fun but not got to the bit yet where you need to play different rhythms with different hands. I'm weeks into it. It's surprisingly easier than I thought it was going to be at the moment. The new methods of teaching seem to be much better.

If you're find rocksmith a good progression, I'd maybe think about sticking with that. String muffling is something you get better at with practice and as your fingers get better muscle memory, but if you watch any live performance you'll see even the pros do it sometimes. Also bends and sustains, you get better at very quickly. It's more just learning the whole sequence and then refining the sequence later. A lot of people don't have the "ear" for hearing those mistakes anyway and won't even notice you make them so it might be that it's deliberately imprecise for beginners, I've no idea when I picked up the skill. Fore example, most non-musicians won't notice a bass guitar or the difference between a bass guitar and a guitar, although generally speaking people seem to be a bit more musically literate these days than in the 90s because of the internet.

One great trick which you probably know about is to play a progression incredibly slowly, so slowly you get every note perfect (just a tiny snippet of a few notes, at most like 10 seconds of a song). Then repeat it a bit faster, but still very slow, making every note perfect. If you fail a note, restart it again at that speed. Increase speed a little bit every time you get it right until you're playing it faster than it's normally played.

EDIT: Also, there's a certain amount of your finger tips getting a bit harder as you play more which makes it easier to play.

[criddell]

> A lot of people don't have the "ear" for hearing those mistakes

That's me. It's why I wish Rocksmith could be much more strict than it is.

> play a progression incredibly slowly

Rocksmith does that too. One thing that bugs me about it is that after you get 100% on some piece in slo-motion, I wish it would automatically ramp up the speed 10% and start over and continue doing this until I'm playing the section perfectly at normal speed (or maybe even faster than normal). Instead, I have to pick up the control, navigate through some menus that aren't terribly well laid out, then restart the exercise.

[scallycat]

Knocking On Heaven's Door was the first 'real' song I could make sound halfway decent.

[criddell]

Bob Dylan's version?

Any other suggestions?

[scallycat]

Yes, Dylan's version, you can do it with only about four chords.

Others I have enjoyed learning are REM's Country Feedback (not the slide bit, the chords) and Bowie's cover of Jacques Brel's Amsterdam - this has an F but you can get away with Fmaj7, which is much easier.

I'm very much a beginner too - coming towards the end of the Justin Guitar beginner's course. The song book that goes along with it has some good tunes.

[mattmanser]

That reminds me, Blowing in the wind's an incredibly easy to learn song too, four chords, easy progressions, only one quick change to an easy Em (I believe).

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/b/bob_dylan/blowin_in_the_w...

You can also do it without the Em, but it doesn't sound as good.

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/b/bob_dylan/blowin_in_the_w...