Easy but cool songs for beginners needed?

UncleGoatLips

Hey.

I've been teaching guitar for a while now and i've noticed how kids perspectives and knowledge of music changes with the times. Kids at beginner level don't know the tunes I teach them, the ye olde "house of the rising sun", "Knocking on heavens door, No woman no cry, Blowin in the wind etc.

Recently I have been adding some Black Eyed peas and stuff. Could anyone recommend some tunes to teach that kids nowadays would know?

Remember, i'm talking uber beginners, easy chords, strumming patterns etc. Beyond the basic levels I have no problem keeping them occupied for years regarding theory, technique and stuff, it's just for the beginning, to keep the interested I like to teach them stuff to play that they would like from the get go.

Squonk

I taught my 9 year old son "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes. It's quite a cool lick, and there is only really two sections to the song.

guitarboy2828

For girls, nearly every taylor swift song is a winner for them and it usually involves 4 chords.

UncleGoatLips

Cool, specify which songs, cause i'm an old geezer, i don't know which ones are her hits. :-[

VellaJ

I've always found most of Green Day's songs to be fairly easy, the parts that aren't power chords are fairly basic chords. I dono, maybe some of the changes are a bit advanced (or fast) but they're fairly easy to learn and memorize, and pretty decent rock type stuff ?

Warren

VellaJ wrote: I've always found most of Green Day's songs to be fairly easy, the parts that aren't power chords are fairly basic chords. I dono, maybe some of the changes are a bit advanced (or fast) but they're fairly easy to learn and memorize, and pretty decent rock type stuff ?

Wanna know what's sad? Most Green Day fans ain't so young no more ?

guitarboy2828

UncleGoatLips wrote: Cool, specify which songs, cause i'm an old geezer, i don't know which ones are her hits. :-[

Love story. Teardrops on my guitar. You belong with me.

Those are the 3 I would teach girls, they're easy, known and they love em.

dee

Paul E wrote: For girls, nearly every taylor swift song is a winner for them and it usually involves 4 chords.

I was about to suggest the exact thing!

VellaJ

Warren wrote:
VellaJ wrote: I've always found most of Green Day's songs to be fairly easy, the parts that aren't power chords are fairly basic chords. I dono, maybe some of the changes are a bit advanced (or fast) but they're fairly easy to learn and memorize, and pretty decent rock type stuff ?
Wanna know what's sad? Most Green Day fans ain't so young no more ?

In that case, I reject your reality and substitute my own ? I still think 19 isn't that old... is it? ???

Squonk

Warren, my 9 year old loves Greenday, Boulevard of broken dreams should be easy to do, 21 Guns etc

costafonix

How about The Lazy Song - Bruno Mars??

Bob-Dubery

UncleGoatLips wrote: Hey.

I've been teaching guitar for a while now and i've noticed how kids perspectives and knowledge of music changes with the times. Kids at beginner level don't know the tunes I teach them, the ye olde "house of the rising sun", "Knocking on heavens door, No woman no cry, Blowin in the wind etc.

Recently I have been adding some Black Eyed peas and stuff. Could anyone recommend some tunes to teach that kids nowadays would know?

Remember, i'm talking uber beginners, easy chords, strumming patterns etc. Beyond the basic levels I have no problem keeping them occupied for years regarding theory, technique and stuff, it's just for the beginning, to keep the interested I like to teach them stuff to play that they would like from the get go.

Why not turn that situation on it's head? Let them tell you.

A while back I was having lessons. The teacher had specific pieces that he would teach in order to address specific technical areas (EG Alice's Restaurant for ragtime) but he'd trade that off with "OK... let's do something that you like." These were sometimes pieces he'd never heard before. Part of the bargain for him was that he was getting exposed to different things that he otherwise might not have heard.

guitarboy2828

X-rated Bob wrote:
UncleGoatLips wrote: Hey.

I've been teaching guitar for a while now and i've noticed how kids perspectives and knowledge of music changes with the times. Kids at beginner level don't know the tunes I teach them, the ye olde "house of the rising sun", "Knocking on heavens door, No woman no cry, Blowin in the wind etc.

Recently I have been adding some Black Eyed peas and stuff. Could anyone recommend some tunes to teach that kids nowadays would know?

Remember, i'm talking uber beginners, easy chords, strumming patterns etc. Beyond the basic levels I have no problem keeping them occupied for years regarding theory, technique and stuff, it's just for the beginning, to keep the interested I like to teach them stuff to play that they would like from the get go.
Why not turn that situation on it's head? Let them tell you.

A while back I was having lessons. The teacher had specific pieces that he would teach in order to address specific technical areas (EG Alice's Restaurant for ragtime) but he'd trade that off with "OK... let's do something that you like." These were sometimes pieces he'd never heard before. Part of the bargain for him was that he was getting exposed to different things that he otherwise might not have heard.

This is great advice Bob, however, with younger kids it doesn't really work. They don't know what they like or what they want to learn. I tried with so many kids and none of them knew what music they liked, I found that very odd, however, not one out of the 15-20 that I taught could tell me a single song they wanted to learn.

UncleGoatLips

Paul E: Exactly, that's why I asked this question, if a shy 12 year old girl comes to me wanting lessons and i'll ask: "what music do you like?", "I don't know" is always the response, so I wanna say, do you now X? or Y?, something she'd like and know. I'll check out all these suggestions to see how well they work.

On the other hand you get like a 15 year old kid who likes Metal and he brings me a CD of some band and i'm like "dude, you've got to learn the basics and quite a bit of silly things like chords, theory and technique before you get to this stuff". So for that guy I would teach the white stripes tune or anything he might know that's easy.

BY the way... I've had kids come to me wearing metal looking shirts and hairstyles but they don't know Metallica. Man, the world is getting weird.

singemonkey

Paul E wrote: This is great advice Bob, however, with younger kids it doesn't really work. They don't know what they like or what they want to learn. I tried with so many kids and none of them knew what music they liked, I found that very odd, however, not one out of the 15-20 that I taught could tell me a single song they wanted to learn.

Tell them very sweetly, as you escort them to the door, that guitars are for people who like music. WTF!? When I started playing at 14 there were tons of things I liked and wanted to learn to play. Not because of my generation - but because I liked music. >☹
[/rant]

G-Man

Dunno what they think of Nirvana but "Come As You Are" was the first song I learnt to play all the way through and as an absolute beginner had it down in about a month. But it's tough trying to find current stuff that has solid guitar parts because you have to wade through all the pop cr@p to find anything.

UncleGoatLips wrote:
BY the way... I've had kids come to me wearing metal looking shirts and hairstyles but they don't know Metallica. Man, the world is getting weird.

Cue "The Twilight Zone" theme music...

UncleGoatLips

Singemonkey: Me too but this is about making money so I don't worry too much if the kids don't know jack, i'm here to help them so whatever.

If I could teach them stuff they like and guide them they will develop taste and influence others, at least they might grow up and not buy a Kurt Darren album because their ears would have become more sophisticated. So in my mind it's win/win.

DonovanB

There's a whole host of local stuff as well like Prime Circle and Just Jinger if they remember them?

Bob-Dubery

G-Man wrote: Dunno what they think of Nirvana but "Come As You Are" was the first song I learnt to play all the way through and as an absolute beginner had it down in about a month. But it's tough trying to find current stuff that has solid guitar parts because you have to wade through all the pop cr@p to find anything.

A lot of it CAN be played on a guitar. I've performed "Oops! I Did It Again" at TJ's

DaFiz

Teach the youngster a "new" song by a "new" artist... not some old ditty from the last century :-\

http://www.guitartutee.com/j/jason-mraz-j/jason-mraz-summer-breeze/