Orange Amps Forum

Hey folks!

A couple of my son's pals (11-13 age range) have recently (Xmas-time) acquired acoustic guitars, and a couple of parents have asked me about lessons.

I'm no wunder-kid, but I get by and have fun.

However, I play songs from a relatively narrow musical spectrum (Free, Bad Co, Thin Lizzy, Maiden, etc - with a bit of RnB and blues thrown in).

I worked through a technique / teach yourself book for about one year before attempting to learn any songs (I know that wouldn't work for most people), and this meant I felt confident to start to learn to play songs which I really liked (You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC was my first song). It was important to me that this meant the "whole" song - rhythm and solo.

So, I missed out on the 3 / 4 chord quick-win songs. I suspect that these would be really useful for children starting out on the guitar, and I'd really welcome any suggestions.

Also, as I'm not really "hanging with the kids" when it comes to latest musical tastes / fads / popularity, a mix of old-school and new-school suggestions would be most welcome.

From browsing around today, it looks like the Green Day song "Good Riddance . . ." could be exactly the sort of thing that I'm after. Any more ideas would be most welcome.

Even a few riffs / melodies that are catchy and new would be great (someone suggested a Black-eyed peas song - tonight's going to be a good night? - which I'd have never considered).

Of course, I'm holding out hope that one of them says - "Can you teach me Dave Murray's first solo from Powerslave? I just love the legato thing that he's got going on there!"

Thanks in advance

Oh man, I've finally (18 months!) gone from New Member to Tiny Terror!

It will be a day long remembered!

Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy!

If they all have acoustics, Green Day should be a good place to start. I'd also consider having them tune down to Drop-D to make things easier, though you have to choose songs accordingly.

And 'You Shook Me All Night Long' isn't a quick win 3 chord song?

Powerchord songs to get them interested.

When I was learning I got peed off trying to switch chords and lost interest then my mate said about power chords!

New interest.

5 mins later, teen spirit, 7 nation army, riffs from classics like iron man, smoke on the water ect.

Full chord songs like acdc stuff is good, back in black, shook me ect.

Blainy wrote:And 'You Shook Me All Night Long' isn't a quick win 3 chord song?

Point taken, but I was thinking more along the lines of "strum along" songs.

Absolutely valid point about AC/DC songs / power chords and classic riffs in general. However, I was slightly concerned that a young starter might learn to play the riff to (say) Iron Man on his 30 quid acoustic (and play it well) but be slightly disillusioned that it doesn't really sound anything like the original (electric guitar, over-driven amp, etc). With the "strum along" classics, they're in a similar tonal ball-park - which might, to some youngsters, make a difference.

Thanks for the comments so far - please, keep 'em coming!

Ta!

What era of songs are you looking for?
Just off the top of my head there are about a dozen songs by the Eagles that are great strum along ie. Tequila Sunrise, Already Gone (just don't worry about the second guitar part doing the riff)
You could get into CCR with Bad moon rising and a few others
Poison Every Rose Has it's Thorn (granted 80s Hair metal but still on the radio daily)
Green Day's Good Riddance is a great one
Marhsall Tucker Band - Can't You See
Tom Petty - You wreck me baby
Georgia Satellites Keep your hands to youself
Kenny Wayne Sheppard - Blue on Black
Hide your love away is another great song, more than three chords but just repeats

Wish You Were Here... well, the verses anyway.

I found Layla was a good track to learn barre chords too once there ready.

just show them this if you're going for "strum along"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt3p5lCA ... re=related

Well, no offense, but most of you guys are a taaaad out of touch with what a bunch of kids would want to play on their guitars nowadays!

Here are my suggestions:

Weezer!!!
- Sweater Song This one is so easy, the chords are strange but they can be changed to straight GCD and still sound fine.
- Buddy Holly
-Island in the Sun
- EVERY WEEZER SONG EVER. See which ones they know. This stuff is GREAT for strumming along. You could also learn the shreddy glam-rock-rip-off solos to the tunes and play along with the kids. I think Weezer would be a great middle ground for you guys, assuming they know the band.

Cee Lo Green - Forget You should be four chords if I remember correctly. There's a big ol' minor chord in the chorus that could be good for a semi-advanced look at song arrangement.
Train - Hey Soul Sister, everyone knows this one and I think it can be condensed to four chords.
Bruno Mars - Lazy Song, if they can do upbeat stacatto stuff, might be a bit advanced rhythm wise but you could simplify the strumming. Besides, what 11 to 13 year old kid doesn't love that line about sticking his hand down his pants?

Are there girls? If so - Taylor Swift all the way. Love Story, Mine, etc.

There's also this group called the Beatles, and assuming the kids know who they are, there are a few songs that can be boiled down to 3-4 chords. Ob La Di Ob La Da is catchy as hell, if the kids haven't heard it they'll probably dig it. Hey Jude can be done with four chords if I recall correctly (could be totally wrong, don't crucify me if I am, I know how Beatles fans can be!).

Also, try this for some ideas:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/top/top100_chords.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (current hits mostly)
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/top/top100_rating.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (more classics)

And the best overall idea...ASK THEM WHAT SONGS THEY WANT TO LEARN! Have them make a big list, and find the easier ones from the list on your own time then show them the charts. They can probably also handle more than 3-4 chords if it's one of their favorite songs, they'll know it by heart and have an easier time doing more advanced stuff with it.

4-chord wonder songs? Do you mean half the songs on the AC/DC Back in Black album?

Seriously, learn to play A, D, C, and G (while finger-muting the A string) and you can play almost all the songs on Back in Black.

Guys

Got to say it again, thanks - and keep 'em coming if you please.

Some really good ideas here.

Absolutely right about AC/DC and the like, and I'd have loved to have had someone show me those songs when I first started learning. It would, on reflection, been a good thing to punctuate my learning with some songs / riffs / etc.

Sadly, some kids just won't be interested (and even some of the parents would turn their noses up - crazy fools) which is where suggestions like Weezer (who I wouldn't know if I fell over) could be like gold dust.

All that aside, just look at the list of songs and bands that this thread has generated - that's simply a lot of great ideas, and I very much appreciate it.

If this friends / children part-time tuition goes well, who knows - I might even extend it. I've literally just been made redundant, and I'm having to think about how to bring home the pennies whilst searching for a permanent job.

Cheers!

FFXIhealer wrote:4-chord wonder songs? Do you mean half the songs on the AC/DC Back in Black album?

Seriously, learn to play A, D, C, and G (while finger-muting the A string) and you can play almost all the songs on Back in Black.

You do them an injustice! The title track makes significant use of E as well! Don't get me wrong I love this album. When you break it down Zeppelin II is just about all E pentatonic, and that's a great album too.

OK, more constructively, American Pie is the classic strum-along, and there's lots of Beatles numbers. If the kids don't know the Beatles, then they should