First Song

[dgraham]

What is the first song you learned how to play that you would actually play for somebody (or everybody)? Give some history too - why that song?, how long did it take you to learn it?....

[timfitz63]

This is going back a couple of decades, but the first song I learned to play in it's entirety was "Sweet Talkin' Woman" by Electric Light Orchestra.  I chose the song because I was teaching myself how to play by using a song book of ELO's Greatest Hits that I'd picked up at a local music store in Morgantown, WV where I was attending college.  Although comparatively not my favorite ELO song, "Sweet Talkin' Woman" simply had the easiest chord progression and song rhythm for a self-instructing novice.

[donlyn]

the 60s are kind of too far back to exactly remember (yes there's an old joke about that),  but a few things do stand out.  started out playing chords to accompany folk songs strumming with a flat pick.  in answer to your question, the hard part is to define a specific and recognizable set of chords that only fit one song.  many folk songs use simple and transferable chord progressions which are used on many songs, e.g. cfcg cfgc kind of thing.  same thing with 12 bar blues progressions and doo-wop c-am-f-g thing.  so something like 'abeline' sticks out because of it's more unusual eg#ae f#b7e verse sequence.  another one is a lead belly ragtime piece, 'keep your hands off her' which i played (and still play) on both 6 and 12 string, progressing from strumming to flat-picking to finger picking as i got better.  anybody else do 'walk right in'?  i stopped playing with picks decades ago, and have played almost entirely finger style since.

on the rock side, one of the guys learned 'house of the rising sun' in all its arpeggiated glory (didn't even know what an arpeggio was back then), and that got even better when i started finger picking.  now most of the folk and rock stuff was done with friends, so again i don't really have an exact answer to 'first song', mostly just milestones.  for example, when i was teaching myself fingerpicking, i used the stones' 'factory girl' to learn claw picking and the beatles 'in my life' to arrange and feature what i knew at the time. both of these were done as instrumentals only.  i still play a lot of old rock instrumentals like 'riders i the sky', 'apache', and 'pipeline'.  based on an exchange with jersey tuning in this forum, i have begun 'walk don't run', but still don't have it all down.  i recently got a compilation cd of old rock instrumental classics, and so i've been working on that one.  or as jersey suggested, "venturing".  if anyone wants to hear about my odyssey with 'sleepwalk', pm me.  probably my most complicated arrangement is for 'maria elena'.

one last milestone.  while searching for a 12 string back in the mid 70s, i was trying one out at a local music shop ('e.u. wurlitzer' when it was on bedford street (or was it west street?).  i played 'stairway to heaven' as a test song.  couple of guys in the shop clapped when i was done and asked if i wanted to join their band (i didn't; no regrets).

sorry for the longish and not so complete answer.  much of the learning time is far in the past and i constantly revise the way i do things, so nothing is ever truly finished.

[dgraham]

First song I learned to play was "Wildwood Flower". Rather simple melody, and it was a good song to learn the basics of pick/strum. This led to a simple version of "Under the Double Eagle". Those of us who don't sing have to learn how to pick the melody and strum inbetween. Or fingerpick, which is where I landed. Anyway, after I learned the Wildwood Flower in C, I transposed it in F and G also, so I could play it through a few times in different keys, which helped break the monotany of playing the same melody over and over.

[Earl]

Since my first guitar playing was at age nine sometime in the late 60's, it was probably a bluegrass song like Wabash Cannonball, Blue Moon of Kentucky, or  something similar.  It might have been a Johnny Cash song too.  (Dad liked BOTH kinds of music - bluegrass and country - so that is all I ever heard until high school).

I do remember first learning the D chord.  I would watch for it, then strum along madly until the song moved to something else.  Then I had to wait for D to come around again.  Eventually I learned more than that single chord though.....   

[donlyn]

d chord ....mmmmm... bet you didn't stop at an a chord either. 

i learned a c chord first, then f and g.  however, there is something special and different about a d chord on guitar.  possibly about having the most treble of all standard chords, but i like the sounds of the notes in and around the d chord. 

i mentioned using 'factory girl' as a learning tool, a 2 chord song played in d major.  i end up fingering at least one note in the d chord throughout the song, counting my index finger on a during the a chord.  striking never less than 2 notes at a time, i get to use a lot of hammer-ons and a few slides along the way.

johnny cash...mmmmmmmmmm...

[Jersey tuning]

First song: 1967.  Learned 5 basic cowboy chords and figured out "House of the Rising Sun", Animals version, in A minor.  First guitar was a Stella Harmony, cherry red back and sides, made from some form of plywood.  Cost about the same as the tolls for two trips over the George Washington Bridge(circa 2015).  Ultimately best for julienning vegetables.

[John]

My earliest memory of playing for the public, other than in my living room was in the 5th grade at the Soquel Elementary School talent show in my hjome town of Soquel, CA. I played "House of the Rising Sun". I remember playing the chords through and then picking out the melody line.

[donlyn]

so far there have been 6 real replies to the original posted question, not counting my second reply which was really my comments to earl's post.

i find it very significant that 3 of the 6 mentioned 'house of the rising sun'.  i think this points to both the widespread popularity of the song and also to the unique appeal the song has to beginning guitarists.  there is something there that catches your ear and just won't let go.  i will also mention that when a lot of my playing was on electric guitar, i added stuff from the 'frijid pink' version.  and as far as playing for somebody / everybody, it certainly has instant recognition.  simply put, it's a crowd pleaser.

edit> another thought. i figure jersey and i are about the same physical age and guitar age.  for reference, i am 68 and have been playing for just shy of 50 years.  john, no pressure to answer if you don't wish to, but are you in that ballpark too?  either way, it would be interesting to hear a little more of your history with the song.

[cc407]

My 3RD-hand Kay archtop Christmas present came with a Mel Bay book. The song "Jack of Diamonds" had a C chord and a cheater G7.
I couldn't read music and I had never heard the song, just sang a C note with the C chord and a G note with the G7!
Not long after, I picked up "Glen Campbell's GRRRROOOOVY Guitar Solo's" book.
(In my memory it seemed to just have words, melody, and chords with no solo's)
"Gentle on my Mind" featured easy chords and I could handle that! Plus I knew the melody!

[terrypl]

"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" written by Bob Dylan and recorded by The Byrds. Perfect starter song because it has only three chords in a circular progression, and they are the same for both verse and chorus. So for a beginner, you can get into a repetitive flow. Funny thing is I didn't know anything about transposing the chords to a different key or using a capo, so I learned it as D-Em-G-D, which was hard for me to sing! Nowadays if I play that song, I use G-Am-C-G. I don't play it a lot anymore, but when I do, it reminds me of that wonderful feeling of discovering that I CAN play guitar!

When my daughter started learning guitar, I noticed that today's "Wagon Wheel" has that same appeal — four chords instead of three, but the progression remains the same for both the verse and chorus, so a beginner can focus on that repetitive, circular flow of G-D-Em-C/G-D-C over and over.

[azslacker]

Took lessons starting around '82. Had to sing too. Or at least DA, DA, DA to the melody. The first song I could do correctly without mistakes was "Freight Train". Continued along for about 3 years of lessons, doing mostly '60's folk songs. About that same time I was quite the "Parrot Head". Outside of lesson music I picked up Jimmy Buffet's songbook. Within a year I could do most of the songs in the book. First song I could do, and play for people was " Pirates Look At 40".

[Guitar Cowboy]

The first song I ever played in front of people was Neil Young's  Old Man. I first  learned it ( kind of anyway) as a teenager in the early eighties  then it was the first song I re-learned and the played in front of actual people during my second guitar life after not playing for about 20 years. I think I'll play it at this Friday's music night.

PS  to azslacker: both Freight Train and Pirate Looks at Forty are on my play list too ...a couple of my favorite songs,  one slow one  and one up-tempo, gotta mix it up.

[Guitarsan]

It was 1976 I think. I was in college. My roommate played a 12 string and offered to teach me a few songs/chords. Other than a short-lived, failed attempt to learn guitar in the 6th grade, (with an acoustic whose action seemed to be measured in inches bought by my parents), I didn't play guitar.

I went home over the summer that college year and bought a Yamaha FG-150 acoustic. First song was Take It Easy by the Eagles. Simple song, but I learned to finger a "reverse" G so that moving to the C/G and Am7/G second and third intro chords was an easy transition. A brilliant first lesson that was, that often there are multiple ways to do things on guitar, but many times a "most efficient" way. (By the way, for you beginners out there, learn alternate picking as soon as you possibly can, before you know it, your right hand will be telling your left hand "I'm waiting on you now"  ) But I digress....

Second song was "Needle and the Damage Done" by Neil Young. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2XCsPKlY8 A slow fingerstyle/strumming song that taught me runs and some introductory fingerstyle.

With those two songs well in hand, I was ecstatic. And hooked. The rest, as they say, is history. 

[John]

edit> another thought. i figure jersey and i are about the same physical age and guitar age.  for reference, i am 68 and have been playing for just shy of 50 years.  john, no pressure to answer if you don't wish to, but are you in that ballpark too?  either way, it would be interesting to hear a little more of your history with the song.
[/quote]
Interesting point Donlyn, I believe it was 1968 when I was in the talent show. I was in the 5th grade. I had started playing guitar at 10 years old so was a couple years in at my debut public performance. I have now been playing for 49 years. (really just a beginner). I think the song was so powerful and straignt forward. As you mentioned, the arpeggio grabs your attention and won't let go. I can't say much about the process of learing the song but when I think about it, there was a rough aspect about the song that I liked. I wasn't interested in learning the typical songs that one usually is taught when learning to play.