10 Songs To Learn On Guitar That Everyone Will Know For Once....
I kept running into the same problem over and over again when teaching at guitar center…..
They didn’t know Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.
They were fans of Taylor Swift but only had chord diagrams to help play her songs.
Or I didn’t have time to make arrangements of songs they did know from artists like Kendrick Lamar or Morgan Wallen.
It’s a huge problem for the guitar world that we haven’t kept up with what music people are interested in.
And yes I can hear some of you now….
“We don’t care about the mainstream” or “Those artists suck” or “They don’t know these artists because they’re dumb.”
IMO this is a cop out. No you don’t have to like Dream Theater to be a legit guitar player….
But one of my goals of Play It Loud is to make the guitar as accessible to everyone as possible.
So in this article, I’m going to show some exciting ways to play many of the most popular songs ever…..
How You Remind Me Tab by Nickelback
I’ve always wanted to make an arrangement for this song and I hope you’re going to have as much fun playing it as I did making it.
The first thing to notice about this song is that it’s basically four chords: C5, Eb5, Bb5, and F5 in different orders or slightly different voicings.
To make this arrangement, I used a concept called voice leading as well as passing and neighboring chords.
To do this, I needed to have a solid repertoire of chord shapes as well as an understanding of key signatures and chord construction.
This article though, I’m only focused on how to play it, and to do so I’d do use these tips:
Use hybrid picking throughout in order to easily go from using a pick on chords to playing single notes on higher strings
Figure out the best places to mute the strings and let chord tones ring out. The tab is quite meticulous in where the best places to do this are
Practice some of the chord voicings you may not be familiar with like 43111X, XX356X, XX3366, and the sus2 shape of XX1341.
I’ll be blunt. This isn’t easy, but there’s a way to make this much easier to play.
You can just skip most of these chord shapes, and focus only on playing the core harmony chords and the top notes.
In my halloween guitar music lesson, this is what I suggested for many songs.
Friends In Low Places Chorus by Garth Brooks
This arrangement is much easier and I believe it’s within the grasp of many intermediate guitar players.
In many of my arrangements, and others, letting the top line sustain is key to making it work in your playing.
So when playing the various chords, don’t just strum an A then a Bm etc and call it a day. Make sure you’re picking all the way through to those top notes.
At the end, I added what I call “alternate” chords of 476XXX and X897XX to build up the return to A major.
Bohemian Rhapsody Verse by Queen
This is a challenging one to do because it’s hard not to do the entire song.
What I did was I focused on a repeatable section that I believe will catch many Queen fan’s ears.
If you’ve been reading the previous sections, my same advice will hold here. The only thing I would change is to use “travis picking” to play some of these voicings, like the Cm in the 3rd bar.
If you just want the piano part and not the melody together, here’s something I made for a student of mine:
The way that I play the 6th fret on the B string and the 10th fret on the E string is to use right handed tapping ala Ichika Nito and Charles Berthoud….
Super Mario Brothers Theme Guitar Tab
This is something that I plan to use to teach C and G chords from here on out. That’s because it makes them so much more fun to play than simply strumming them.
When making this arrangement, I wanted to keep that lofi bit crushed kind of sound by using double stops only instead of full chords, starting on the 3rd bar.
This also makes the song much easier to play.
Like the other arrangements, it’ll help immensely to use hybrid picking.
Mr. Brightside by The Killers Solo Arrangement
This is another one I’ve been wanting to do for awhile but I restrained myself to just the chorus.
The great thing about this song is all the amazing hooks, but it’s also the tough part of arranging this.
You want to do them all but you have to pick and choose in order to avoid making a whole lesson just on this song.
Thankfully, it only uses a few chords and there’s no crazy position changes either.
The trick to playing this song as written will be to keep your 2nd or 3rd fingers ready to play what I put on the low E and A strings.
Don’t Stop Believing by Journey Guitar Tab
This may be the easiest arrangement I have for you in this article.
I do have one with the bass line as well, but I made this for a beginner who really wanted to learn the song.
The whole thing is only on the G and B strings, and you can use either your fingers or your pick.
The important thing is to let the notes ring together, and to be ready for the slight position shifts.
Santeria by Sublime Solo Guitar Arrangement
I did not plan to use a traditional travis picking style bass pattern for this song, but that’s how it came out.
Maybe this will be appealing to some of you who aren’t as into Chet Atkins as I am.
The key to travis picking is to keep your thumb playing the low E, A, and D strings, while your other fingers play the G, B, and high E strings.
Remember, if you’re not into learning this arrangement, you can just play the top notes.
Poker Face by Lady Gaga Main Riff for Guitar Tab
This is another arrangement I’m hoping will be a little easier than some others….
You may already know the Am and G chords, but the F/A is not hard. Just play the XX321X and let the open A strum/play along with it.
The chords just play a different top line when you get to the 3rd bar.
(ignore the 5 3 numbers in that last bar as it’s part of the next song)
Shake It Off by Taylor Swift Chorus Guitar Tab
This is a very busy arrangement too, but I’m hoping it’ll be accessible to intermediate players.
Look closely and you’ll see that I’m using parts of C, D, and G throughout.
When I make arrangements like this, it reminds me of why I hate the idea of strumming when you’re just playing by yourself.
The guitar is capable of making all sorts of sounds, and when you’ve got a grasp of how to harmonize all the very notes around the chords, then your creativity will skyrocket when it comes to doing your own songs.
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd Chorus Guitar Arrangement
For this one, I wanted something you could play instead of the famous guitar riffs. You can play all the same fills and whatnot, but I’d definitely throw this one into the mix.
Sorry though, I didn’t take the time to put the various fills in with the arrangement I made. You’ll have to go to YouTube or Ultimate Guitar for that.
Notice that I’m using some basic chords to harmonize the melody: Dm7, C, D major, and G.
Many of the same tips I’ve shared before will work here too so please make sure you read all of this article.
