MUSIC - Learning to play guitar and songs in the key of G

I have had several friends express interest in learning how to play the guitar over the past year or so, and my advice whenever this happens is the same. Practice a lot, and learn all the different ways to play the D, C, and G chords. This will allow you to play a ton of songs right off. I started thinking of what songs you could play with just the variations of these chords and came up with the following songs immediately.

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd

The Joker – The Steve Miller Band

(Lovin’ is) What I Got – Sublime

Feel Like Makin’ Love – Bad Company

The High Road – Broken Bells (actually a D minor, not major, but it's not difficult to go on anyway)

Brown-Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

Can’t You See – Marshall Tucker Band

Time of Your Life – Green Day

Semi-Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind

Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry

and probably some bullshit Nickelback songs too, but if you're reading this blog, then you probably hate them as much as I do (see previous post)

These are just the tip of the iceberg. If you add the E minor and F chords, the list actually approaches infinity. I remember from my days as a physics major being told that there is not actually a googol (the number, not the website that misspells the representation of 1 followed by a hundred zeroes) of anything in the universe. I beg to differ. There are actually 2 googol songs that can be played using only the C, D, G, Em, and F chords, including every song by Pearl Jam, Metallica, Bob Dylan, and Lynyrd Skynyrd (even Freebird).

I was about to start explaining how to play the guitar, but I think that would be boring to anyone who happened to just be browsing through and not thinking about playing themselves. So my last bit of advice on the subject is to practice those chords until you can play them in your sleep (seriously), and you'll be well on your way to being a total badass like me.

This song is also in the key of G.