Easy Songs For Stage 6

OK. Now sit down... there comes a time in every young (or not so young) guitar players life where they have to stand up and face THE F CHORD - and they didn't call it that for nothin'!. And now is that time for you!

Don't just avoid it like I did when I was learning. I used to look through songbooks as a kid and learn all the song I could that didn't have F or G in them (I found G too stretchy and avoided that for years too!). Bad idea. The sooner you face it, the sooner you'll nail it - it's nearly all about practice, so stick at it.

Best to pick a few songs that have just some F chord in it, not that hammer it all the time... House Of The Rising Sun is probably the best place to start and one of those songs that every audience expects a guitarist to be able to play. Nice one for exploring some fingerstyle on later on as well... but choose songs you like, the above is just a suggestion for people like me that are rubbish at decision making!

If F chord is really killing you then do explore using thinner strings and or getting your guitar professionally "set up" because it makes a HUGE difference.

For most people it's just about developing the strength in that muscle between thumb and first finger (which is why I recommend keeping thumb behind the neck for beginners!) so don't be too fast to blame your guitar, but it may be a contributing factor.

Play Along With Original Recordings!

Playing along with the original recordings is great fun and will help you with your rhythm feel and force you to make the chord changes faster (to keep up!) but to do this you will sometimes need to Use A Capo, a Stage 6 lesson that will be moved to Stage 1 when I next remake this course! Using a Capo means the frets will be closer together and so make it harder to cram your fingers in (especially for the A Chord) which although harder at first can also be great practice! :) I recommend getting and using a capo and playing along with the original recordings as soon as you can!

The JustinGuitar Beginner Song Course

As well as playing along with the original recordings, it can be awesome fun to play along with backing tracks... and my app does just that! There are hundreds of songs that are graded by difficulty to play along with, as well as a One Minute Changes tracker, Chord Change Songs and exclusive video lessons! It's a pretty awesome tool for beginners, getting rave reviews and it's free to try out, so go have a look! Available for Apple iOS and Android!

Stage 6 Songs

You can always check out all the songs for each stage on the All Songs page and use the Stage 6 filter Tag, but here they are for you anyways!

Songs From The JustinGuitar Beginner Songbook Volume 1:

Please Forgive Me - David Gray
I'm A Believer - The Monkees
Dakota - Stereophonics
I Can't Help Falling In Love With You - Elvis
Pink Bullets - The Shins
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve
House Of The Rising Sun - Traditional 
Hurt - Johnny Cash (no longer in the book!)

Songs From The JustinGuitar Beginner Songbook Volume 2:

Little Talks - Of Monsters And Men
That's Entertainment - The Jam
Moonlight Shadow - Mike Oldfield
I'm Not The Only One - Sam Smith
Hotel California - The Eagles
Let Her Go - Passenger
Wake Me Up - Avicii

More Beginner Songs

Photograph - Ed Sheeran (Easy)