What was your first song you played?

RobAntDen

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Needing some inspiration I recently got a ukulele, didn’t get one that was majorly expensive just a basic one to practice with.

But really needing some inspiration on what songs are easy to play for beginners.
 
I learned "My Bonnie" from my Dad, about a gazillion years ago
 
On the ukulele it was Mercedes-Benz by Janis Joplin. It is still the first song on my play list because I can sing it and play it cold, so I use it for a warmup.
 
My first song was a fairly obscure song, “Sideways” by Citizen Cope. I had given an ukulele to my hubby for his bday long ago and it was mostly left unplayed for 10 years. I wanted to motivate him to play it, and he had been listening to that song and said he really liked it, so I googled it and found the lyrics and chords on Ultimate Guitar. Long, story short, he never played it, so I thought “what the heck, maybe I could do this” and so my ukulele journey started.

Rather than play songs that others suggest, learn to play songs YOU love. There are so many sites now for getting chord sheets (they don’t have to be uke specific sites; a chord is a chord). Just google “song title” and the word “chords”. Some will be too complex (I think Ultimate Guitar has a button to “simplify”) so just move to another, but you will find many, many with just 3 or 4 chords. Most sites, including UG, have a transpose button too, so if the song was done in an unusual key that you’re not ready to learn, you can move it to an easy key like C or G. I remember Jake Shimabukuro say in an interview that his one tip would be to learn to play songs you LOVE. It will motivate you more than anything else, to keep practicing. Good luck and enjoy your musical journey.
 
Lime in the coconut.
It only has one chord, so focusing on strumming techniques is easy.
Then I moved on to bananaboat song to switch a bit between chords.
Then I moved on to songs I wanted to learn.

My wife still hates lime in the coconut...
 
RobAntDem,

I could tell you what I did at the beginning and it all would be light, fluffy, and fun. But it isn't going to help you any. If you're going to stick with this wonderful hobby, you need a personal plan with immediate goals. So tell us what you want to do, and someone will surely be able to give you some steps to take to achieve your goal. Without that, it will be more of a chore and you'll just drop it when it becomes inconvenient.
 
Hard to remember what I had for breakfast five hours ago, let alone songs I played fifteen years ago.

But,
Stand By Me
C. Am. F. G7. C.

Simple chords, riff on the strum or play it straight
 
Let It Be for me. The four chords C, G, Am, F are work for hundreds of songs, so it seemed like the right amount for me to bite off (first timer at 60, haven't touched a musical instrument since the Carter administration before last month, and even back then, I was not at all proficient at anything), while also being useful for later songs. I especially like the version of Let It Be in this tutorial at Ukulele Cheats, which has a nice 3-string finger-picked transition from F to C that made it feel like I'm playing the actual song. A lot of simplified tutorials shave off the bits that are most distinctive, but this guy Vasko really tries to recover and rearrange them.

One bit that tripped me up, though. This song is loooong. I really slowed myself down by insisting on playing it all the way through. The good news is that it was simple to learn and felt really satisfying to have my wife spontaneously start singing as I was getting the hang of it...but I don't have an organ or electric guitar solo or Ringo or a voice like Paul's that made it so compelling to hear the whole thing all the way through.

Then I remembered all those Sunday mornings in church as a boy (in the lowest of the low Protestant churches) where we only sang the first and fourth verses of Amazing Grace and all the other hymns, and all of a sudden, I got my life back. LOL All I REALLY need to get what I personally need out of Let It Be is first verse, chorus, one more verse (sometimes second, sometimes last), do the chorus twice, then on with my day. LOL

But it feels crazy good to have started with a song that has meant a lot to me for 50 years, and to have it immediately recognized by someone randomly walking into the room, even without me singing it. Which in the scheme of things, probably made it easier to recognize. LOL

Second song was Knockin' On Heaven's Door, four chords again, not only short, but NICE AND SLOW, and an excuse to learn the G and D chords. Another nice tutorial from Ukulele Cheats.

Same thing in both cases. It sounds like a real song, real fast, lays the foundation for lots of other songs, and I don't need to worry about lyrics while I'm also learning chords and strum patterns and such.
 
For the guitar it was the Peter Gunn theme back in 1958. On the uke was probably Sloop John B. There are thousands of 2 chord songs. Kansas City is a two chord song I think.
 
On the uke it was probably 'Five Foot Two' as I always wanted to play that!
 
At the beginners' table at the ukulele club. I got my introduction to the uke using their loaner instruments. (I found I really liked the tenor size.) They showed us how to hold it. How to strum it using either index finger or thumb, and 4/4 and 3/4 time.

The first song they taught us was Frere Jacques using only a C-chord for the entire song.
Then it was Singing in the Rain using F & C7 chords.
Followed by My Darlin' Clementine, The More We Get Together, and You Are My Sunshine using C, C7, F & G7 chords.

I did the beginner table 3 times before I ventured out into the group of 50 or so members using my brand new Fender tenor ukulele. They were quite welcoming and helpful to the newbies.
 
First song I learned to play on ukulele was 'Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho'. It was the first song on the learn-to-play-ukulele-today DVD that came with my first uke.

The song has two chords: C minor, and G7.
 
You Are My Sunshine. I found myself watching Andy Guitar’s 10 day beginner uke course on YouTube late at night. After a week of doing this, I thought playing the uke was something I could do, so I bought one. I just rewatched the day 1 video. It’s fun to see how far I have progressed in a short time. It helped me remember when G major was “hard”. The good news, you’ll master it; the bad news, there are many more challenging chords! It took months to master some. Still, the challenge is part of the fun.
 
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Jambalaya (2 chords) and then Lion Sleeps Tonight (also 2 chords)

It's good to pick something you know!

Bill
 
This Land Is Your Land several years ago. Nice easy "down-up" strum.
 
I think it was Love me Do which has 2 chords in the verse. Or it might be Horse with no Name. My version had Am and A7 only.
 
First song I ever played (strumming chords and singing) was "Little Brown Jug - the first song in my tutor book, about thirty years ago.

First 'grown up' song I memorized was "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea".

Most challenging song I've memorized is "I'm Through With Love".

John Colter
 
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