The school year ends the same way every time: slowly, then all at once.

You look up and it’s June, and you need something to do with all that unstructured time.

For me, that something became guitar.

My introduction came in November of 2023 when one of my best friends dadsoffered me an old guitar he wasn’t using anymore.

I took it home and started strumming.

I’m still far from a great guitarist.

But I am putting in the practice.

The end of the school year is the perfect time to pick up a hobby, the perfect time to be bad at something for a while. And keep going anyway.

These are the five songs that helped me when I was starting out. If you’re thinking about picking up a guitar this summer, this is where to start.

5. “Riptide” by Vance Joy

“Riptide” launched Vance Joy’s career when it came out in 2013, and it’s stayed popular long enough that most people have heard it three times in a coffee shop without trying.

It also happens to be a textbook beginner song.

A lot of people know it as a ukulele song first—because it was originally recorded that way.

On guitar it translates just as well.

What makes “Riptide” sit at No. 5 isn’t the chord shapes, which are manageable from the start.

It’s the strumming pattern. Locking in the rhythm and keeping it steady through the whole song takes longer than it looks like it should.

The chords will come fast; the groove takes longer.

But once it finally clicks, the whole song opens up.

That’s the takeway here: simple chords don’t guarantee easy rhythm.

Rhythm is a skill by itseld, and this song forces you to take it seriously early.

Beginner tutorial | Chords & tabs

4. “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan

Noah Kahan has said “Stick Season” is one of the most important songs he’s ever written in multiple interviews. After it’s 2022 release, it slowly became one of the defining acoustic tracks of the last few years, it’s easy to hear why.

There’s a bittersweet quality to it—the kind that makes you want to sit with a song rather than skip to the next one.

The lyrics hit hard, and the acoustic guitar gives it a raw, personal sound that doesn’t feel like it’s trying.

This one I learned later, and the ranking reflects that.

The chord changes come faster than you’d think, but thats a skill if you’ll need to grasp.

Strumming through the verses can get messy if you rush with the transitions demanding more precision than “Riptide” does.

It’s a step up for a learn—but a managable one.

It is that gap between challenging and impossible where learning live

Beginner tutorial  |  Chords & tabs

3. “i haunt ur dreams” by hey, nothing

Hey, nothing released “i haunt ur dreams” in 2022, as song with a stripped-down, slightly eerie quality (duh, the title).

That mood is what makes it genuinely fun to sit and struggle with.

The song feels like romance, memory and sadness mixed together in equal parts—the kind of combination that makes you keep coming back to it.

And while some songs are fun to learn because they’re loud or fast or famous, this isn’t one of them. This one earns its spot on my list entirely through feeling. It keeps you picking up the guitar as you realize how powerful an instrument it can actually be.

It lands at No. 3 because the chord shapes are manageable, allowing you to focus on something else—pacing, consistency, matching the song’s tone…

Sure, the chorus and bridge ask for speed and cleaner movement, but it’s achievable with work.

This is exactly the kind of song that makes you, and your friends, notice that you’re getting better.

Chords | Tabs

2. “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners

“Evergreen,” which came out in 2017 on the band’s album “RMCM,” is No. 2 for one simple reason: it’s the most immediately forgiving song on this list. 

The strumming pattern is short. The changes and tempo are unhurried. 

But best of all it starts to sounds good before you can fully play it cleanly.

That matters more than beginners expect—this is a song that lets you start to hear the progress in the process before the final product is clean and polished.. 

Confidence is key, and progress makes the struggle worth it. This is a song that rewards early effort and makes practicing feel worth the time. 

And if you ever dream of writing your own songs, this song teaches an important lesson: not every good guitar song needs to be complicated.

Beginner tutorial | Chords & tabs

1. “505” by Arctic Monkeys

“505” closes out Arctic Monkeys’ 2007 album “Favourite Worst Nightmare,” and it’s become one of their most recognizable songs—commercials, soundtracks, the radio, you’ve definitely heard this somewhere.

“505” lands as my No. 1 because it was one of the first songs that made me feel like I actually could do this.

Nothing about it is flashy, a lessons that proves you don’t need a complicated chord progression or an impossible solo to sound like something worth hearing.

Sometimes you just need the right chords, the right tone and the patience to let a song build slowly. 

“505” strikes that balance—one absent in most songs for beginning players—it sounds dramatic and impressive while staying completely realistic to learn.

It keeps you motivated without making you feel lost.

 And when you start to get it, it sounds like you’ve already got it. 

If you’re just starting out and want to know where to put your hands first: start here.

Beginner tutorial | Chords & tabs

By the end of the school year, most students are ready for something new. 

After sleeping for a week straight and a deep binge watch marathon, why not pick up a productive hobby? 

Pick up a guitar—you’re not going to sound amazing overnight (or probably even by August). 

And yeah, your fingers are going to hurt. Your family might get sick of you strumming off-key and off-tempo. Your chord changes are going to be rough for a while.

But that’s part of it. The right beginner song makes the rough part worth pushing through.

These five did that for me—and one of them will probably do it for you.