Ask the Experts | November 1, 2023
Q: What is the first song you learned on the guitar and why?
John Bohlinger
My mom loved this handsome hippie guy that played guitar at church when I was a kid. I suspect she wanted me to do that as well, so she signed me up for group guitar lessons through the park service in my hometown (Billings, MT). A bunch of kids gathered in a circle as a young instructor taught us a few chords. The first song we played was “On Top of Old Smokey.” It was a disappointing start.
Elle Cordova
I think the first song I learned on guitar was actually a simple three-chord accompaniment in the key of E for some lyrics I had written. My goal in learning guitar then was to be able to turn a cappella song ideas into "actual songs" with accompaniment, so that was the first thing I requested to learn how to do from my instructor back then. After that, it was probably "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by The Beatles – I was going through a White Album phase at 15 years old.
Sean Daniel
I remember being in a high school speech class and the stoner kid at school gave an impassioned lecture on Jimi Hendrix. To this point, I didn’t even know this kid could talk, let alone read, but he seemed to be very wise despite his questionable hygiene and reputation. He played a clip of “Purple Haze,” and I went out and got a guitar and fumbled my way through it.
Steve Howe
“Tea For Two” because it was easy.
Jimmy Leslie
The very first thing I remember learning was the riff for “Satisfaction” on a ukulele we had around the home. Once I got a guitar and proved I was serious about learning, my mom got a student from the all-girl school she taught at to come give me private lessons. She taught me to strum through “Let It Be” and I was eager to please because she would sing with the voice of an angel and was super cute!
Brooke Ligertwood
I can’t remember exactly, but it probably would have been a song by one of my New Zealand singer-songwriter favorites – probably Dave Dobbyn or Bic Runga.
Zach Meyers
Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”… mostly because I started playing guitar when I was 13 years old and I could play lead before I could play chords thanks to my hands being so small. I learned to solo before I ever could play cowboy chords.
Steve Miller
The gospel tune “Way Beyond the Sea.” Les Paul taught this song to me.
Paul Riario
Not so much a song but a riff. My first guitar teacher had me practice some picking exercise and told me if I learned that, I'd be able to play this, and she knocked out the riff to "Rock Lobster" from the B-52's. I was so struck by her playing that riff that when I returned for my next lesson she had asked whether I learned the exercise, and I replied, "No, but I did figure this out..." And I proceeded to play the riff to "Rock Lobster.”
Samuraiguitarist
I learned "Smells Like Teen Spirit.” My buddy and I started playing guitar at the same time, he figured out how to play a simplified version of the main riff using single notes on the E string. He showed it to me, and I played that one-note version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to death.
Mary Spender
I’m going to give you two answers. The first proper song was the Wheatus classic “Teenage Dirtbag.” A school friend who’d just got his own electric guitar showed me the chords and I ran home and played it for myself.
But I also count the James Bond theme tune. I learned it on an old Spanish guitar that was lying around my family home. That was a really important moment for me, to learn to play something by ear, just enjoying working it out for myself.