When first learning to play the guitar, it is essential that motivation is kept high by starting off learning easy guitar songs. Dont confuse easy with boring though. Some of the biggest selling songs in history only have a few chords and simple structure, but this doesn't stop people buying them, singing them and playing them.
Here are a few songs that most people will be very familiar with, but which are relatively easy to play, and which use the most common open position chords.



Wild Thing-The Troggs





This tune is a great one to learn when first taking up the guitar. The chords used are A Major D Major and E Major, with a little G5 thrown in for good measure.
Its a great crowd pleasing song.



Get A Haircut-George Thorogood





This is a song that is played using a 12 bar blues progression in G Major. The chords are G Major, C Major and D Major. It is a fairly easy song to sing too, and has a great lyric. Its all about being told by your parents its best to be sensible and not to pin your hopes on being a rockstar when starting out on guitar. It all works out in the end though. Lets be thankful George didn't listen to his parents!
Its played in an open G tuning on the original recording, but sounds just as effective using traditional chords.



The House Of The Rising Sun-The Animals





This tune stands out as an all time classic beginners tune. Its such a good song to learn because all of the chords that it contains, are the ones that beginners learn from the very start. A minor, C Major, D Major, F Major and E7.
Dont worry too much about being able to play the tune just as the Animals do to start with. Get used to changing the chords smoothly. Strumming them will be fine to begin with. The picked part can be learnt later.