50 Best Acoustic Songs for Beginners (With Chords and Tabs)

Written by Corbin Buff in Education,Learn A Song,Top Lists

acoustic songs for beginners

If you’re a beginner on the acoustic guitar, you may be wondering what songs to learn first, and what the best songs are for beginner acoustic guitar players specifically. To help you out, I wanted to put my Top 50 Best Acoustic Songs for Beginners all in one place.

But rather than just listing the songs out and leaving it up to you to find out how to play them, I also decided to link to my favorite chord and tab sources for each song. This way you not only know the best acoustic songs for beginners, but the best places to learn them as well.

If you want to take it to the next level, I also provide a link wherever I can for “Expert Chords” – these links will bring you to that artist’s official songbook on Amazon.

And I even took things one step further just because I wanted to make the ultimate resource for you guys. That’s why wherever possible, I also included my favorite video lesson on YouTube of each song. This way you get an experienced teacher teaching the song to you, one-on-one, for free!

How to Listen to These Songs for FREE

If you’re unfamiliar with any of these songs and want to listen to them in their entirety, I really recommend doing so with Amazon Music Unlimited. If you simply sign up for their free trial, you get access to over 60 million songs completely free – and you can listen anytime, anywhere. It’s a great way to enjoy some awesome acoustic music. You can check out the free trial here.

Do You Need an Acoustic Guitar to Play These 50 Best Beginner Songs?

Before we get started, I want to answer a common question about the following songs. Can you learn these songs if you have an electric or classical guitar, instead of an acoustic? The answer is yes. While the songs themselves feature an acoustic guitar, you can play the tabs and chords for each song on an electric or classical guitar.

However, if you want to sound most like the original song, it’s probably best to play the song on an acoustic guitar. If you’re new to the guitar, or are an electric guitarist looking to transition to acoustic, then I recommend checking out my 10 favorite acoustic guitars for beginners on a budget.

Or if you want a resource-packed acoustic guitar buyer’s guide, where I walk you through every step of the process, from deciding what kind of wood you want, what the best guitar strings are, and how to maintain your guitar for years to come, you might want to grab my ultimate acoustic buyer’s guide (now available on Amazon).

But now that we’ve got the guitar details figured out, let’s jump into the Top 50 Best Acoustic Songs for Beginners.

50 Best Acoustic Guitar Songs for Beginners

  1. Paperback Writer – The Beatles – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  2. Yellow Submarine – The Beatles – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  3. If You Want to Sing Out – Cat Stevens – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  4. No Rain – Blind Melon – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  5. That’s the Way the World Goes Round – John Prine – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  6. Ripple – The Grateful Dead – Chords+Tabs – Video Lesson
  7. Take It Easy – The Eagles – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  8. The Race is On – George Jones – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  9. Heart of Gold – Neil Young – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  10. Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright – Bob Dylan – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  11. Horse with No Name – America – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  12. Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  13. Knocking on Heaven’s Door – Bob Dylan – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  14. Wild World – Cat Stevens – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  15. Yellow – Cold Play – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  16. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  17. Love Me Do – The Beatles – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  18. Have You Ever Seen the Rain? – Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  19. Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  20. Love Story – Taylor Swift – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  21. Stand By Me – Ben E. King – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  22. Ho Hey – The Lumineers – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  23. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  24. Eleanor Rigby – The Beatles – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  25. Feelin’ Alright – Joe Cocker – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  26. Give Peace a Chance – John Lennon – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  27. What I Got – Sublime – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  28. Two Tickets to Paradise – Eddie Money – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  29. High & Dry – Radiohead – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  30. Stir it Up – Bob Marley – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  31. Can’t You See – Marshall Tucker Band – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  32. Leaving on a Jet Plane – John Denver – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  33. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2 – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  34. For What It’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  35. Dead Flowers – The Rolling Stones – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  36. Wild Horses – The Rolling Stones – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  37. Franklin’s Tower – The Grateful Dead – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  38. Old Man – Neil Young – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  39. Three Little Birds – Bob Marley – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  40. Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  41. Free Fallin – Tom Petty – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  42. More than Words – Extreme – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  43. Everlong – Foo Fighters – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  44. Big Me – Foo Fighters – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  45. Hey There Delilah – Plane White T’s – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  46. The House of the Rising Sun – The Animals – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  47. I’m Yours – Jason Mraz – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  48. Every Rose has It’s Thorn – Poison – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  49. Not Fade Away – Buddy Holly – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson
  50. Waiting In Vain – Bob Marley – Chords + Tabs – Video Lesson

Need More Help Getting Started?

If you’re still looking for more free guitar lesson resources, I’d recommend subscribing to some of the awesome acoustic guitar YouTube channels. The only trouble is – it can be hard to find the right channels, and to know who’s really putting out good information.

That’s why I wrote up a whole guide post on my 8 favorite YouTube channels for learning acoustic guitar.

If you really want to take things to the next level, though, you’ll get a lot more out of a paid guitar course / lesson platform than you will out of YouTube. That’s because these platform and lesson programs put everything you need in one place, and tell you exactly what order to learn things in.

To find the best guitar courses, with experts walking you through each step of the learning process, check out my recommended lessons, courses & teachers.

Corbin Buff

Corbin has played guitar for over a decade, and started writing about it on Acoustic World in an effort to help others. He lives and writes in western Montana.

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