What was the first song you learned how to play?

Probably some songs off Cosmos Factory...

oh, and some NY songs...

acoustic days...

 

Knocking on heaven's door. (Guns n' Roses version).

 

Not sure if mine counts, as I learned to play it wrongly. Then again, if beginners are learning from YouTube 'lessons' these days, they'll be learning to play songs wrongly too in many cases.

I learned guitar with a copy of the Beatles Complete; the one with "Chords used in this song" and chord boxes at the top of every page. I remember going through it looking for songs I aleady knew all the chords for, and I thought Help! fitted into that category. They had it in G, so the second chord of the verse was Bm. However, what I thought I knew as Bm was actually a Bb (I wasn't looking at the chord boxes, just the chord names above the lyrics).

With the somewhat improved ear for music I susbsequently developed over the years, it always amazes me that neither I nor my pals who were singing along noticed anything wrong.

 

Can't remember the first full song, but my first song part was the intro to Metallica's Welcome Home (Sanitarium).

 

Mine was Midnight Rider and my Sweet Lord i learnt them together, i thought was great at the time as was all new to me as well.

Uriah Heep was a hard one to start on and Iron Man also we must have good players on here.

 

Something like this - we three school pals used to play this in Harry's front room, while he bashed at some self-assembled equivalent of a drum kit... Pete played upright piano and I learnt the chords from him to play on my Hofner Congress (with the hi-tec sliding DeArmond bolt on pickup)...

 

Birthday by the Beatles

 

Where Have All The Flowers Gone followed by Bad Moon Rising. 1st solo lines were in Wild Horses.

 

Like many others Gloria!

 

Not the entire song but the first licks I ever learned were from Fantasy by Aldo Nova.

 

I started playing when I was 15 after finding my grandpa’s classical guitar in his closet and asking him if I could take it home and learn. He didn’t play anymore so he said it was fine. For whatever reason, the first thing I wanted to learn was “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd. I learned the main figure and the solo (which sounds beautiful on nylon strings by the way). I had no idea that it really was the perfect song to start on—no barre chords required, easy solo, learned picking within a chord, slides, even figure out bends on nylon strings. I was attending a music clinic that summer and each participant was asked to share a piece. Despite having played piano about 8 years by that point, I decided to play my one man rendition of Wish You Were Here after only working on it for the previous month. “How long have you played?” “About a month.” I didn’t know that was impressive because I had zero outside opinions or input on my guitar playing or learning to that point. It was a good day! And here I am 25 years later—the most impressive song I can play is still Wish You Were Here The only difference is that NOW I belong to these forums and I get to say to myself “which guitar do I want to play Wish You Were Here on today??”

 

Everyday...Buddy Holly

 

I was sixteen and Had just bought a guitar (never played one before) I wanted to learn:

the drugs dont work - the verve.
C - Am - Em - F - G - C..
not the best newbie song but it worked (it took many hours)

Im 35 now. It was pure magic to learn new songs.. still is

 

I misunderstood...I apologize!

So I guess the proper answer for me is “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Little Red Rooster” (with a slide)...shortly thereafter, “Mannish Boy” was the in the repertoire, as well as a bastardized version of “Can’t You See” (more akin to Waylon’s version than the Marshall Tucker Band).

The first songs I learned on harp/harmonica was the live “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” version of “Midnight Rambler” and Muddy Waters’ “The Blues Had A Baby and Named It Rock and Roll”

One of the things I’m glad you mentioned was learning “the whole song...” It always drove me nuts to play with an “Intro King”—the person who could play the opening riff or melody but couldn’t complete the song.

From Day 1, if I wanted to learn a new song, I was determined to play the whole song—including the chorus and bridge and outtro, and some semblance of a solo, as opposed to just learning the open riff and then blanking out the rest of the song...the latter practice just completely takes the wind out of my sails.

 

If we're talking beyond the basic I-IV-V chord progression in the key of G that 98% of the hymns we played in church used...House of the Rising Sun.

The VERY first recognizable thing I learned to play on the guitar was a snippet of the opening riff from Metallica's One. Still only know that part lol.

 

Play with Fire: Rolling Stones

 

My dad showed me Wildwood Flower and Under The Double Eagle 58 years ago, it's been a long journey listening and playing so many tunes and now I've gone full circle and starting back over where I began with a much shorter journey...