Easy Guitar Songs Archives - Riff Ninja

Category Archives for "Easy Guitar Songs"

Blue on Black Chords (Guitar Lesson)

Hey there! Today we're learning how to play "Blue on Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, on guitar. It's an awesome tune, and Kenny wrote it when he was just a young fella, showcasing his amazing guitar skills. If you haven't heard of him, definitely check him out!

Blue on Black Guitar Chords

The chords used in "Blue on Black" are D, C, G, and A.

The song's chord progression goes from D to C. Now, there are some cool tricks you can do to make it sound more interesting. For example, with the D chord, you can do a hammer-off on the third string, which creates a D major sus4. Then, just move to the A chord.

For the C chord, you can do a little run up. Another way to approach it is to keep your third finger down from the D chord and play a C arpeggio. After that, hit the G chord and drop your pinky down to create a Gsus4.

That sweet riff is the backbone of the verses. Play it four times, then move on to the chorus, which follows a D-C-G-A progression. Just strum it a little more and you're good to go!

Now that you know the chords and riffs, it's up to you to listen to the song and figure out the arrangement. It's a fun and easy task, I promise! Have a great time playing "Blue on Black," and remember to give props to Kenny Wayne Shepherd for this cool tune.

Blue on Black Guitar Solo

Blue on Black is a really cool tune to solo over, but we've addressed that issue in a separate lesson. Start with your D pentatonic minor scale though - make sure you're not in diatonic minor for this one, because it's gonna clash! 

When you're ready, here's the lesson on learning how to play the Blue on Black Guitar Solo.

Simple Man Chords

Here is a look at a few versions of Simple Man. Chord shapes for this song can be found in the open positions of C, G and Am, so it won’t be too hard to follow.

The strumming pattern for these Simple Man chords can be adapted to suit whatever style you feel comfortable with – strumming the whole chords with a pick, playing the single notes or using a combination of the pick and your fingers (‘hybrid’ picking).

These open guitar chords will form the main part of the song, but it is also worth introducing power-chord versions for the guitar solo, as these voicings will sound more convincing.

This is a pretty easy, but really fun guitar song to play – you can keep varying the chords and picking style to add more interest to the chord progression.

Simple Man Chords:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmXJz_r4_8

Watch on Youtube

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Knocking on Heavens Door Guitar Chords

Knocking on Heavens Door is a great song for beginners to start out with, because the chords are very simple, and it is in the key of G major. If you’ve already got a hang of the 6 basic guitar chords lesson, then this song is a good way to apply those guitar chords.

The Knocking on Heaven’s Door guitar chords are G, D, Am then G, D, C.

In the lesson, you’ll learn a little riff that you can put in between the chord changes too.

Knocking on Heavens Door was one of Bob Dylan’s big hits, and since then, many other artists have covered it as well. It really is one of the best easy guitar songs to get started with.

Knocking on Heavens Door Guitar Chords:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e1FyJwn0t0

Watch on Youtube

Dear Mr Fantasy Chords

Today’s lesson is on the guitar chords for Dear Mr Fantasy. This song is a fairly easy one, so beginners should be able to pickup something here, and it also has a fair bit of room in it for some riffing, if you’re more advanced already.

Dear Mr Fantasy was originally done by Steve Winwood with Traffic, but it was also done by Big Sugar, among others. It is one of those easy guitar songs that are pretty simple, and yet sound great (and have a guitar riff that others will recognize) at the same time.

The main part of the song is three chords, A major, G major, D major, then A major.

There’s also a cool little bass riff that goes in there too, which is fun to play, and will give you a good way to practice throwing riffs in between chords.

The Dear Mr Fantasy chords also sound great (especially with the riff) with a generous application of the “talent button” ie crunch, so once you get the basic structure of the song down, have some fun with it!

The chorus is F#m, G#m, A major, three times. The fourth time do the F#m again, then to a G major, then an E major.

And there you have the chords for Dear Mr Fantasy. That’s pretty much the whole song!

If you like this lesson, checkout our Easy Strumming Classics collection.