10 Easy Beginner Electric Guitar Songs

Beginner electric guitar songs need to be easy to play and fun to practice. Here’s a list of our favourites!

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In this free guitar lesson you will learn:

• Our 10 favourite beginner electric guitar songs
• 3 quick & easy tips that make you sound amazing
• How to play cleaner and crisper electric guitar
• 5 essential secrets for electric guitar beginners

Learning electric guitar songs can be tough

Besides the callouses, string buzzing and constant need to tune the guitar, it can be discouraging to play elementary level songs in order to build your initial chops.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though.

• Learning the electric guitar doesn’t have to be all “Do – Re – Mi” and “Mary Had A Little Lamb”.
• A lot of your favourite rock songs can double as amazing beginner electric guitar songs, and can easily spice up your practice regimen with some attitude.

Here’s some awesome and easy-to-play beginner electric guitar songs that will help you develop specific areas of your playing and set you up for success on your guitar journey.

Beginner Electric Guitar Songs: Led Zeppelin – ‘Immigrant Song’

Jimmy Page helped pioneer the electric guitar for many generations after him and Immigrant Song is a great example of how to use simplicity in songwriting to create a groove that just doesn’t quit.

This tune features a driving guitar riff that is fun to play and easy to groove to, no matter what speed you play it at.

The big takeaway from this song is the string-skip from the low E string to the D string. This can seem like a scary jump at first, but patience wins every time in this song.

Skill Tip:

If you’re just starting out, begin by playing the riff using downstrokes to get a feel for the notes, string spacing and groove, and then switch to alternate picking once you’re comfortable in order to smooth things out!

Beginner Electric Guitar Songs: AC/DC – ‘Back In Black’

A classic song from a classic band, this riff is made up equally of power chords in the low strings and individual note-riffs in both the high and low strings, so it’s especially good practice for switching between those two styles of playing.

• Each section should be played slowly and carefully when starting out – take the time to learn how to “choke” each chord as heard in the song.
• This can be achieved by applying your pick hand to the strings after playing each chord.

Take your time and play slow, no need to rush this one!

Skill Tip:

You can practice the second and fourth sections two ways – Start by picking each note individually, then switch to using pull-offs for added dynamic feel.

The fourth section might seem like a bit of a spread for your hands at first, but your hands will “warm up” to the movements through slow and steady practice.

‘Back in Black’ is a great beginner electric guitar song with riffs that can be easily broken down into small sections for practice.

Download our lead guitar cheat-sheet to make things easier

It can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys.

With this in mind, we created a cheat-sheet; a key and scale-finder that you can use again and again.

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Beginner Electric Guitar Songs: Motorhead – ‘Ace of Spades’

When it comes to hard-hitting guitar riffs, Motorhead ranks high in the “Legendary” category. 

• Ace of Spades is an excellent beginner electric guitar song that comes through your speakers fast and heavy, and doesn’t slow down until the song is over.
• Lemmy Kilmister’s most infamous song opens up with a quick bit of back-and-forth action between the 7th and 5th frets on the A string before launching into the main riff.
• The advantage that this song gives us is that the main riff after the intro takes place in one position, so we don’t have to commit to too much movement in order to make it sound amazing.

Try keeping your index finger planted firmly on the A and D strings at the 7th fret, and use your ring and middle fingers to take care of the 9th and 8th frets!

Skill Tip:

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. Try it out!

You can play it in standard tuning if you wish (it just won’t sound exactly like the original).

Beginner Electric Guitar Songs: Black Sabbath – ‘Iron Man’

The band that continues to influence generation after generation of metal guitarists has some killer beginner electric guitar songs that are a welcome addition to any new player’s riff library.

The opening lick from their classic “Iron Man” cuts straight to the heavy with a memorable riff on the A string.

Tracks like these are essential beginner electric guitar songs, as they give us an opportunity to explore the fretboard on a single string without the pressure and difficulty of constant movement.

This song was never meant to be played fast, so take this as an opportunity to slow down and enjoy the ride.

Skill Tip

: For a more advanced run of this song, you can try sliding between frets instead of simply moving your hand.

This song is best enjoyed with a good amount of distortion while slowly headbanging, so crank that ‘Gain’ knob to 11 and enjoy!

Beginner Electric Guitar Songs: The Strokes – Reptilia

A feel-good rock band through and through, The Strokes are infamous for infectious guitar hooks and melodies that get stuck in your head. 

• Reptilia is a great beginner electric guitar song with a bouncy riff that feels as great to play through an amp as it does to hear through your favourite speakers.
• It also lets us dive into playing on the D & G strings, granting us access to some potentially uncharted territory!

Even though the intro is a single note played on bass, it can also be played on your guitar’s low E string at the 7th fret (or the 2nd fret on your A string if you’d like some variety)

When the guitar comes in, we don’t need to worry too much about shifting hand positions, as we’ll be playing around the 6th to 9th frets entirely.

Skill Tip:

Focus on the back-and-forth movement between the D & G strings when you play this fantastic beginner electric guitar song. This is a great way to help us develop a feeling of momentum in our picking hand!

Black Sabbath – ‘Crazy Train’

Crazy Train is a cool beginner electric guitar song because of all that the opening riff teaches us.

Hand positioning is key when playing Crazy Train, and we’ll be doing a bit of finger-stretching to get our fret hand into a comfortable position.

Practice makes perfect with this classic metal tune.

Skill Tip:

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. Take this one slowly and make use of alternate picking to get back and forth between the E and A strings.

Cranberries – ‘Zombie’

This Irish rock band will always be remembered for this beautiful yet tragic protest balled about the 1993 IRA Bombing that took place in Warrington, England.

A simple and easy beginner electric guitar song that uses only four chords, Zombie doesn’t require the use of fancy jazz chords or flashy guitar riffs to get its melodic point across.

Chords: Em  |  C  |  G  |  D/F#

The beat is extremely steady and the chords remain the same throughout, which makes it a fantastic beginner electric guitar song to practice rhythm to.

As an added bonus, there is a nice little mini guitar solo that takes place on the high E and B strings at the beginning of each verse, teaching us how to “walk backwards” down a string.

Skill Tip:

Zombie is a song that can be played well with different styles of guitar.

If you have an acoustic guitar lying around, try practicing this song on that as well using open-position chords and see which style you like best!

The Strokes – ‘Last Nite’

Another great beginner electric guitar song by the Strokes. ‘Last Nite’ is an upbeat rock tune that keeps your toes tapping and your hips shaking, starting out with a single, driving chord that sets the stage for the rest of the song.

The greatest takeaway from this song is that it introduces us to alternate versions of chords we may already be familiar with (C major, F major, G major and E minor) further up the neck – and the best part is, you don’t have to play any barre chords!

Skill Tip:

When strumming the chords during the verse, try counting in 8th notes

(“1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”) to get a better sense of the rhythm – only play on the “&” of every beat and you’ll find yourself locking into the song in no time!

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Otherside’

The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante wrote countless funky and melodic guitar riffs that continue to inspire budding guitarists of all ages, genres and skill levels. 

“Otherside” is another very steady tune in the rhythm department, making it great for beginner electric guitarists that are looking to focus extra-hard on their timing.

The main riff consists of only five notes, which is excellent practice for memorization and gives us a beginner electric guitar song that we can play repeatedly without tiring out too quickly or feeling “bored.”

The best way to play this song while remaining in one hand position is to play the riff between the A and D strings (pictured below). Remember to practice your alternate picking to add some smoothness to your playing!

Skill Tip:

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. This is great practice for getting used to moving around the fretboard, and provides us with a larger stretch to navigate.

The Arkells – ‘Oh! The Boss Is Coming!’

We’ve mostly focused on beginner electric guitar songs from the Classic Rock genre in this post, but we’d regret it if we didn’t mention at least one modern Rock band that delivers in the riff department. 

The Arkells are a Canadian rock band that have mastered the art of creating huge sounds with next to no complexity.

Their breakout single “Oh! The Boss is Coming!” features only two chords in the verse and four in the chorus, making it a great tune to learn with and jam to!

The best part about this tune is that the power chords in the verse are both played on the 7th fret (pictured above).

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. Try not to rush through this one, relax and take your time!

Skill Tip:

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. Be patient and stay focused!

Wondering what to do next?

In this free lesson we shared some of our favourite beginner electric guitar songs. Want to build on what you’ve learned? Here’s some great next steps:

If you’re looking for additional ways to improve upon what you learned in this free lesson on beginner electric guitar songs, here are some great next steps:

• Pick up a copy of “The First 100 Chords for Guitar” by Joseph Alexander and expand your chord vocabulary!
• Go see a band perform live and pay attention to the guitarist’s hands.
• Check out more easy guitar songs here.
• Practice these songs with your friends and help each other learn.
• Listen to these songs often to further understand the musical patterns being played.
• Check out this amazing article on Ultimate Guitar about alternatives to playing power chords.

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