An Interview with David Ellefson and Jay, of Johnny Wore Black

As we continue to expand the music center and take on more students at the beginning level, it helps to find a couple of good “go-to” songs to work on.

In this post we’ll take a look at two of those songs: Norwegian Wood and You Are My Sunshine, and why they’re great for beginners to learn to play.

Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood is a modern classic by The Beatles, and is a song that is well-known worldwide.

While the originally recording is slightly psychedelic, the main part of the song has a lot of good musical elements that are both interesting and challenging to the novice guitarist.

The first reason we like to teach this song is because of the melody. Most of the melodic progression is scalar in nature. Because it doesn’t have a lot of wide leaps, it is fairly easy for a beginner to play.

In addition, the align with our philosophy of beginning progressions to learn.

Though there are a few slight variations, students that have completed the Level 1 course will find almost every single chord in the piece is one they have already learned! That makes this song a great building block to work from.

You Are My Sunshine

Another great song for students of all ages is You Are My Sunshine. Whereas Norwegian Wood is primarily targeted towards older players (teens and adult students), pretty much every student of any age knows this popular song, originally written by .

Like Norwegian Wood, the song’s melody is scalar, which means it’s easier to play, and in fact occurs within a tight range, so students don’t need to worry about moving their fingers across the entire instrument.

Likewise, the used are great for beginners, and ones students should have already learned. In addition, the changes between the chords are slow, allowing students time to get their fingers around the new chord and master the transitions between them.

For more tips and inspiration on learning your instrument, see this nugget of wisdom in an interview with acoustic legend Ed Sheeran!