Whether you’re playing the guitar at home for friends or playing a gig in a pub or another small venue, there’s nothing better than the feeling of everyone in the room singing along to what you’re playing. If you love playing guitar, the only problem you may have is that people aren’t going to know your own stuff until you have a few million YouTube hits or are at least famous in the local area. This means you need to be able to play some classic songs that everyone knows in order to get them singing along with you.

Here are some of the top guitar tracks that sound good electronically or acoustically that can inspire a sing-along.

Wonderwall

This is one of the easiest songs in the whole world to play on the guitar and is one that 99% of people know the words to. That means it’s a must for your guitar repertoire, although don’t let the familiarity of the track stop you from experimenting with speeding it up or adding in your own solos if you’re an accomplished guitarist.

Under the Bridge

Under the Bridge has been covered enough times that even those who aren’t familiar with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ original version would have heard it somewhere, although we’re not going to get into the merits of cover versions and how good they are (or otherwise).

The great thing about this track from a sing-along perspective is that it starts slowly, is almost morbid, before growing to a mighty crescendo and ending on a real high. If you’re lucky enough to get an encore at your small gig, use this track.

Summer of 69

Even people who consider themselves so cool that they’d deny knowledge of who Bryan Adams is would have to admit loving Summer of 69. We’re not exactly sure what it is, but there’s just something about this track that makes you want to sing, dance, and forget where you are. A great song to have available if you’re playing any venue and the whole evening is feeling like it is falling flat.

Like a Rolling Stone

You can’t have a guitar songs sing-along list without featuring someone like Bob Dylan. The reality is you could probably pick a number of his songs, or choose an Eric Clapton song instead, and get everyone on their feet singing and dancing. We’ve gone for this as it’s easy to play and is simply a great song.

Keep these sing-along tracks in mind whenever you play a gig or have friends round, and you’ll always be able to create an engaged, involved atmosphere that will life the whole occasion and the mood of everyone there.

When it comes to brands for electric guitar strings, everyone is going to have their favourite. We see questions being asked about the brands that are the “best” all the time. However, as some people will always prefer a Fender to a Gibson guitar, for example, we also become conditioned to playing with certain brands or types of electric guitar strings and grow to prefer these brands.

While someone who plays the guitar casually from time to time wouldn’t be able to tell the difference too much, experienced guitarists would instantly be able to tell if strings were different, to the point where they’d probably feel it was going to influence how their instrument sounds and wouldn’t want to use them. Most guitar string brands don’t sound noticeably different, but if you go for the cheap and cheerful option, you’ll certainly notice that they don’t sound as great as they should do.

Here are some of the top brands you ought to be considering. Bear in mind that they all offer a range of strings themselves, from cheaper packs to the more expensive.

Fender/Gibson

The point here is that all guitars have strings when you buy them, and probably 99% of the time they’ll have the maker’s strings fitted. We’ve named Fender and Gibson because they’re the two most popular and iconic guitar manufacturers, but if you’ve gone for a different brand and are loving the sound you create, consider sticking with what you know and buying the same strings.

Be sure to double check before leaving the shop when buying a guitar what strings it has on it already.

Elixir

Elixir strings are highly regarded, with many people preferring to use these above any other guitar string brand due to the presence of coating that keeps the strings lasting for longer. Elixir themselves champion this feature, and their strings are ideal for anyone who plays on a regular basis and enjoys long guitar sessions. If your instrument strings get a pounding, Elixir is the brand for you!

DR Strings

DR strings are another popular brand, calling themselves “The Handmade String.” What brings many people to DR strings initially is the long list of popular musicians who use DR strings or have endorsed their quality through the years. The list includes U2’s Adam Clayton and Prince. Most who use DR strings thanks to a famous endorsement find that they never use another brand again!

D’Addario

Italian born but now New York based D’Addario are famous for being the first string company to move from gut to nylon strings, while today they use a variety of materials and a number of technological approaches to get the best sound every time. Lenny Kravitz and Aerosmith’s Tom Hamilton are among the big names that love D’Addario strings.

Modern life is such that we have an app for everything – even the things we probably don’t need them for!  However, there is no question that apps can come in useful from time to time, and if you’re a guitarist, there’s a whole world of apps waiting for you to take advantage of them.

Here are some of the best apps you’ll find to help you pursue your passion, all of them available on the iOS platform.

GuitarToolkit

Many guitar and music related apps do one thing or another.  GuitarToolkit is the app you want and need for all of your musical assistance in one place.  Inside this app you get a tuner for your guitar, that you can pre-set to whatever tuning tone you want to use, interactive, detailed chord charts that can act as a training guide or handy reminder, and a metronome feature that acts as the drummer in your band if you’re practising solo.

If you have a seven or 12-string guitar, it can be set up for those instruments, as well as any other string instrument that you play by picking or plucking.

TabToolkit

As the name kind of gives away, this app is from the same developers (Agile Partners) as GuitarToolkit.  This isn’t just your regular collection of guitar tablature or a converter for music into tab and vice versa.  The biggest redeeming feature of this app is that it helps you tailor your music for any vocal limitations you or a bandmate has.  For example, if your vocalist can’t go really high or beyond a certain range, you can use this to adapt your tablature to fit the vocal range.  Gone are the days when your small gigs look like amateur hour because the vocal isn’t in tune with the instruments!

Ultimate Guitar Tabs

Okay, so while we’ve just said an app was great because it wasn’t your regular collection of guitar tablature, this one doesn’t fit that description, either.  The word “ultimate” is easy to misuse, but it is definitely appropriate in this case.

Download this app and get instant access to an incredible 600,000+ guitar tabs.  If you unlock Tab Pro you get 150,000 of the backing tracks, too, so you can play along in perfect time.  If you’re playing tabs yourself and need to look at your phone or tablet, there’s a tuner, metronome, and chord library included, too.

Download these apps today and transform your guitar experience, whatever level you are currently playing at!

There is nothing like being able to play a guitar solo. Even if it is the only thing you know how to play, you always have it as a party trick and can at least do something if you ever get a guitar put in your hand.

At the same time, just picking up a guitar and learning a solo with a snap of the fingers isn’t as easy as it might sound. That said, there are a number of songs that you might think have impossible to learn guitar solos but that are actually quite straightforward and easy to learn. Here are some that you should think about learning.

Californication

One of the songs that propelled the Red Hot Chilli Peppers more towards the mainstream at the end of the 20^th century, the guitar solo featured in Californication is relatively straightforward, and the gentle pace of the track means that learners can pick up their instrument and get it committed to memory fairly quickly.

As an extension of learning the solo, it is probably one of the easiest contemporary songs to learn on the guitar in full, so why not give that a shot, too?

Don’t Stop Me Now

This Queen classic is fast and furious, and while the solo definitely fits this description, it is fairly repetitive and short, and therefore easy to play a few times and remember. Your friends will love you for being able to play this track, but unlike Californication, the rest of the song might be a little too much for a beginner.

Need Your Love So Bad

Fleetwood Mac are a common reference point when it comes to learning guitar, so it is only right that they feature on this list. There is a number of Fleetwood Mac tracks you could pick out, but Need Your Love So Bad is slow, simple, and soulful, and a great track to play if you’re only just starting to get familiar with your instrument.

If you’re a fan of Fleetwood Mac and their style, Go Your Own Way is a well-known song by the group that also features a relatively easy guitar solo.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Growing up, this is one of the tracks that we all wish we were able to play. Nirvana made it sound amazing, but the biggest thing about the song is how simple it is to play, with the guitar solo in particular not offering many great challenges, although it does provide a stunning foundation for going away and creating your own improvisations, and will inspire you to go away and become a more versatile player.