Artists
Beginner-friendly artist guides
Easy songs, capo and key info, the gear they're known for, and the style notes that matter for new players.
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America
1970-present · United Kingdom / United States
Three voices, two acoustic guitars, and a knack for songs that fit a beginner's hands. America's 1970s catalog is the definition of approachable folk-rock.
1 song ready to play →
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Ben E. King
1958-2015 · United States
Soul royalty. Stand by Me is the song every guitarist eventually learns, and the rest of King's catalog rewards the same beginner-friendly approach: simple chords, big voice, big space.
1 song ready to play →
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Bob Dylan
1961-present · United States
Folk's most-covered songwriter. Dylan's early acoustic catalog runs on open chords, capos high up the neck, and a steady strum that anyone can learn in an afternoon.
1 song ready to play →
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Bob Marley & The Wailers
1960s-1981 · Jamaica
Reggae's gateway artist. Bob Marley songs use small chord sets and one rhythmic move (the offbeat skank) that, once you have it, opens up a whole genre.
1 song ready to play →
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Ed Sheeran
2010s-present · England
Ed Sheeran built his sound on a small-body acoustic, a loop pedal, and capos clamped high up the neck. The same setup gets a beginner most of the way to playing his catalog.
1 song ready to play →
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Johnny Cash
1954-2003 · United States
The Man in Black. Country's most-recorded artist built almost everything on three chords and a boom-chick rhythm, which is exactly the territory a beginner already lives in.
1 song ready to play →
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Lynyrd Skynyrd
1964-present · United States
Southern rock pioneers. Skynyrd's biggest songs sit on three or four open chords in friendly keys, which is why they keep showing up on every beginner guitar playlist.
1 song ready to play →
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Noah Kahan
2017-present · United States
Vermont's biggest folk-pop export. Kahan records in flat keys but most of his songs reduce to standard four-chord loops with a capo, which is why his catalog has become beginner-guitar gold.
1 song ready to play →
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Oasis
1991-2009, reunited 2025 · United Kingdom
Britpop's biggest band built almost their entire catalog on ringing open chords and descending bass lines. Beginner-friendly by design, even when the songs feel huge.
1 song ready to play →
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Old Crow Medicine Show
1998-present · United States
Nashville-via-Virginia string band. Old Crow's catalog is built on three-chord I-IV-V loops in G, A, and D, which is why Wagon Wheel became one of the most-played beginner songs of the 21st century.
1 song ready to play →
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Passenger
2003-present · United Kingdom
Mike Rosenberg's solo project. Passenger records high in his vocal register, so most of his catalog gets tabbed with a capo at fret 5-7 to put it in beginner-friendly C-G-Am-F shapes.
1 song ready to play →
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Vance Joy
2013-present · Australia
Australian folk-pop built on ukulele and capo'd acoustic. Riptide gave the world a four-chord template that Vance Joy has been writing variations of ever since.
1 song ready to play →