First song you learned on Guitar

[desertbluesman]

Electric, Cream; Sunshine Of Your Love (just the riff in single notes that day)(then a few weeks later, the song with riff/full chords).

Acoustic, Animals; House Of the Rising Sun.

I learned them both the same day waaaaaaaay back in the day.(maybe 1968 or so)

[hurricane hugo]

Remember Stefan Grossman's column in Guitar Player? A couple of songs he featured that year (1979) would've been the first two. I don't remember their names.

[RABid]

Acoustic - Stairway to Heaven. Had the piano music and picked it out.

Electric - Probably something from Lynyrd Skynyrd. In my first band I played second lead and 6 of our first 11 songs were Lynyrd.

[Larryz]

It's a tossup between Honky Tonk and That's Alright Mama for me...😎👍

 

I like to recommend Jambalaya to any new guitar players out there.  Just two chords (C & G) to learn, along with the lyrics, and away you go! 🤠

[Ivan May]

One of the first songs I ever taught myself to play was probably a Paul Simon or Billy Joel song.

[surfergirl]

Little Room by Norah Jones.

 

[Docbop]

Pipeline - The Chantays   my guitar teacher was in a Surf band so first stuff was all Surf tunes.

[Sharkman]

Happy Birthday To You.  Sorry if I disappointed anyone, but I'm just being honest.

[Anderton]

Greensleeves. The reason I learned guitar was because I wanted to be able to play Greensleeves any time I wanted. I realize that's kind of weird.

[hurricane hugo]

20 hours ago, Anderton said:

Greensleeves. The reason I learned guitar was because I wanted to be able to play Greensleeves any time I wanted. I realize that's kind of weird.

If I didn't learn that on day one, it was at most a couple of days later. Had the Frederick Noad classical guitar book, and it was in there. Glad I'd been playing trumpet for 6 years at that point so I could read music. Still love it.

[KTSs]

California Motel !!!  It's one of those tunes that I can sink my teeth into in contemporary times, and that's what I learned to play guitar for at the time.

[ksoper]

Bad Moon Rising

[CEB]

Not sure but it was probably a Johnny Cash song.
 

Pipeline was my first big instrumental song.   
 

Damn, I’m old. 

[Scott Fraser]

The Last Time. I think it was on the first or second Stones album. Would have been around 1965.

[BMD]

One of my own, probably. I was never that interested in playing other people's stuff

[p90jr]

I found the complete Beatles Songbook at the Library, and my pianist Mother had these "Biggest Hits of (insert Year)" songbooks she would play through, and those all had the first position chords notated (along with fingering diagrams!) and that was the first stuff outside of the Mel Bay books I played along with... and I started to realize there were "formulas" for songs and chord progressions and my brain started to file them together in groups... but none of it sounded "right!" I could tell it wasn't what they were actually playing on the records, though it was close enough to sing along and resemble the song. Anyway, impressed enough that I could sit with the radio with the Global cheesegrater action acoustic that was around the house and crudely strum along in the right key (in first-position chords) with any song that came on, my dad (a music teacher and saxophonist) came home one day with a Memphis Les Paul Custom copy and a Holmes Minipicker 12 amp. I had played trumpet for a few years and could play by ear so soloing actually came easy once I had that thing... I knew scales, and this was easier having a visual connection than trumpet. Still... I couldn't understand what was going on with chords on records? I guess I had a monophonic brain... I could pick out the progressions but I was stuck in first-position chord land, which seems weird, right? Around that same time I got drafted by some classmates to sing in their garage (er, one of their dad's painting and art studio) band, and I noticed the guitarists (who were taking lessons from a local hotshot who owned a guitar store) were playing barre chords, and my brain connected "oh, wow... that's just an E shape but his first finger is the nut moving up and down the fretboard!!!" And the secrets of the universe were revealed and I probably did not sleep for 4 months and played constantly, playing along with records, the radio, whatever music turned up on TV... separating out the different parts, even playing along with basslines on the guitar to understand what that was all about. I was 12 so I had the luxury of no distractions other than the pool or whatever neighbor kids I felt like bothering with... unplugged guitar and TV were a good combination. When school rolled back around I had major Social Capital from being able to play Pat Benatar songs, Cars songs, the entire "Back In Black" record note for note, play enough of "Eruption" to impress kids before the tapping part that I couldn't figure out yet came up...

the first Rock songs I remember getting down completely are "More Than A Feeling" by Boston, "My Sharona" by The Knack, and "I Want To Hold Your Hand," which I immediately recognized Ric Ocasek had brilliantly re-written as The Cars' "Just What I Needed," which I got down next...

forgive me if I've shared all this before... I drop in on a lot of boards and can't remember when I'm repeating myself...

 

[whitefang]

Seems I replied to a thread like this some years back, but seemingly not all that long ago.  So here goes again.

 

The first song I learned to play when my step sister started showing me around the fret board was Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser".  Then she showed me "Wildwood Flower".  But the first "song" I learned to play from start to finish and sing along to was Hank William's "Move It On Over" from an old Hank Williams 78 she had. Sometime in the near mid '60's.

Whitefang

[AnotherScott]

I think it was Heart of Gold (Neil Young).

[jazzpiano88]

Camptown Races.

[Dave Bryce]

Nights In White Satin.

 

dB