Easy Guitar Chords For Kids - 5 Songs To Play With 3 Chords

We've teamed up with Leigh from MGR Music who shows us 5 easy guitar chords that kids and complete beginners will be able to learn easily. We also show you 5 easy songs to play using just 3 chords.

Learning guitar and playing along to great songs doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal. There are a few simple songs you can do with some very easy to play chords. Even if you’re brand new to guitar, you can start to form some chords into some great songs.

The title of this lesson says 'Easy Chords for Kids', but don’t worry if you aren’t a kid! This is for all guitar players to enjoy!

For this lesson, you will need a capo to play along with some of these songs. All songs can be played without a capo if you don’t have one, but the pitch won’t match up with the record. You can watch the lesson below and follow along with the chords further down the page.

In this lesson, we will be using 5 basic chords: G Major, C Major, D Major, E Minor and A Major. Here's a handy diagram on how to play them.

The numbers represent which finger is used on that particular string. Number 1 being your index finger and 4 is your pinky etc. These chords will be the foundation for you playing along with some popular songs and really impressing people very early on in your playing career!

First up, this is how to play 'Knocking On Heavens Door' by Bob Dylan. This is a great song to start playing along with, it's an easy song for children to learn on guitar and it’s a guaranteed singalong at any party when the time is right, everyone knows this one! It’s been one of the most covered songs of all time, but this transcription is based off the Bob Dylan version as that is the most structurally simple version of the song.

The song is made up of a four-bar loop that uses G, D and C. The rhythm is the same for each bar with a quarter note strum on the first, second and third beats and a pair of eighth note strums on the fourth beat.

Next, we'll show you how to play Free Fallin' by Tom Petty.

For this track, you will need to put your capo on the 3rd fret. This is a very simple song to play because there is not a great deal of strumming, but this song has a rhythm that takes a few attempts to get used to and a fast change from a G to a D chord in the second bar.

The first bar is a dotted quarter note followed by a half note. The dotted quarter is a beat and a half in length. The second bar starts with a quick change from the G back to the D. The G falling on the first beat and the D falling on the "&" of the first beat. The loop ends with a rung out A chord on the "&" of the second beat before repeating.

Through the Tom Petty version, he applies various additional strums to this rhythm, but you can have some fun with this. It can work as simply as this, or you can add a few extra hits here and there to suit your mood.

For this lesson on how to play 'Marry You' by Bruno Mars, you will also need the capo on the 3rd fret.

This Bruno Mars track is guaranteed to be a hit when you’re serenading someone and showing off your tender side and it's a great song for kids and young adults to learn to play on guitar. Yes, I know… you're a rocker at heart but it’s ok, enjoy it! This track uses three chords in an 8-bar loop. D, Em and G. Each bar as the same rhythmic pattern applied. The rhythm is counted as 1 2 & - & 4 &. The third beat isn’t strummed in this case. The "&" of the second beat is played as a quarter note which takes it through to the "&" of the third beat.

For our next lesson, which is  how to play the chords for Ed Sheeran - 'Lego House' , the capo will be placed on the 4th fret.

This Ed Sheeran track is guaranteed to get the room singing and is one of the best songs for kids to learn as it is quite simple, but full of melody. It’s played as a two-bar loop of straight sixteenth notes (four notes per beat) and will be strictly alternate strummed. The first bar contains three full beats of the G chord (This means you’ll be strumming it 12 times) before moving to the D for a beat (four strums). The second bar follows the same form, but the G chord is now replaced with an E Minor. Watch along with the video as it's easier than it sounds. 

Finally, we show you how to play the 'Songbird' by Oasis chords.

We need to learn two extra chords for this Oasis track but don’t worry, they are very easy to play, and variations of our previous chords.

One of the new chords is just a variation of the E Minor we already know, which we've added below.

Noel Gallagher’s playing style is quite unique. He is often seen anchoring his ring and pinky fingers on the third fret of the B and E strings as he moves between various other chord roots with this first and middle finger. That is what we are doing in this track. For the entire loop, your third and fourth fingers will remain in place on the 3rd fret of the B and E strings. We will be using a G chord along with these two new chords Em7 and G/F#.

Here's how to play Em7 and G/F#.

While their names might seem scary, you can see from looking at the diagram that the first is just an E Minor chord with the higher fingers kept in place and the G/F# chord is just a G chord with the root note dropped to an F# and the A string muted by the underside of that finger.

The rhythm for this track remains the same throughout. Each bar contains quarter note strums on the "1" and "2" and eighth note strums on the "3 & 4 &". The track starts with the G chord repeated for three full bars, on the fourth bar, the G chord is played on the "1" and "2" beats before moving to the G/F# on the "3 & 4 &". The back half then shifts to Em7 for three bars before the fourth bar moving from Em7 on the "1" and "2" and back to G/F# on the "3 & 4 &".

About The Author:

This lesson was brought to you by MusicTeacher.com, written by experienced guitar teacher Leigh Fuge. Leigh works as part of a community of guitar teachers based across the UK. We are excited to let guitar students based in Oxfordshire know that we have launched a Guitar Lessons Oxford hub, offering in-person lessons to students of all learning abilities in Oxford city centre. To find guitar teachers local to you, as well as online guitar lessons, simply visit the MusicTeacher.com platform.

If you enjoyed this article and video, don’t forget to check out PMTVUK on Youtube for more guitar lesson videos.