Easy Love Songs On Guitar – The Essential Guide

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This list of easy love songs on guitar will have your loved ones swooning in no time!

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In this free lesson you will learn…

• 10 Easy love songs to play on guitar
• Some chords you may not know yet!
• Tips for making these songs sound amazing
• History on these beautiful love songs

Your List of Essential Easy Love Songs on Guitar

Love is complicated, but there are plenty of easy love songs on guitar to help you along the way.

Below you’ll find a collection of easy love songs on guitar that were hand-picked with beginning musician in mind so that you can begin playing and singing them for your loved ones right away.

Let’s just get started, shall we?

Easy Love Songs on Guitar: Perfect, Ed Sheeran

A pretty and mellow opener to your set of easy love songs on guitar, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran is a wonderful tune to sing.

This 2017 smash hit came from a flash of inspiration Sheeran had while visiting James Blunt; he wrote it in the studio with one line of lyrics.

One line, people! You can do this!

• The recording of this song is in the key of Ab – a notoriously terrible key to play in for guitarists.
• It is however, just one fret away from the key of G – a notoriously wonderful key to play guitar in!
• So if you’d like to play and sing with the recording, put your capo on the first fret and you’re ready to go.

Absolute beginners to guitar can use these chords to play this song; they are two-finger variants of full chords, except for E minor, which is already a two-finger chord.

 

If you are ready to move on to the full version of those chords, here they are!

The song is in 6/8 time, meaning each chord symbol gets six counts.

The verse chord progression goes like this:

G G Em Em

C C D D

G G Em Em

C C D D

The chorus chord progression is similar:

G G Em Em

C C G D

G G Em Em

C C D D

We follow with the bridge, immediately following the chorus, and this is the chord progression:

Em C G D

Em C G D

Em C G D

Em C G D

G G C D

To strum this song, you can just strum down six times for each chord. It helps you to keep track of the beat if you strum a little bit louder on counts one and four – ONE two three FOUR five six.

Easy Love Songs on Guitar: Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers

Not only is this one of the all-time great easy love songs on guitar; it is also quite the vocal workout.

The song was first recorded as part of a soundtrack for a prison movie (hence the title) in 1955.

• The Righteous Brothers recorded what has become the definitive version in 1965, and it has been covered by Heart, Cyndi Lauper, U2, and Barry Manilow.
• The recording is in the key of C, and there are some unusual chords every once in a while, but there are lovely easy versions of all of them for you.

Check them out below:

That E flat is not a super friendly guitar chord, but it’s easy to play this version. It’s just a D shape moved up the neck one fret! It only happens twice in the song.

The verse progression goes like this:

C Am Fmaj7 G

C Am G G

C Am Fmaj7 G

C Am G G

C G Am Em

Fmaj7 G C C

There’s a bridge in the song, and the chord progression goes like this:

Fmaj7 G Fmaj7 Eb

Fmaj7 G C C

Fmaj7 G Fmaj7 Eb

Fmaj7 G C C

This song is in a very slow 4/4 meter. You can count it ONE and a TWO and a THREE and a FOUR and a.

This makes it wonderfully easy to strum and get used to the chord changes. When you’ve gotten comfortable with that, you can change up the strumming pattern to help the song move along a little better.

Pro-Tip: Singing and playing easy love songs on guitar at the same time, even if you are not a singing guitarist, helps you develop your rhythmic skills and musicianship much more quickly than just playing guitar.

 

This is because singing and strumming happen in different rhythms.

 

Even just speaking the rhythm of the lyrics helps your inner metronome to get more sophisticated.

Easy Love Songs on Guitar: Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton

The next in your collection of easy love songs on guitar is a classic rock ballad for the ages.

Clapton is revered as a blues master of his generation, but he is also responsible for some lovely pop songs like this one.

Pro-Tip: The song is in the key of G major, and you’ll use the same chords as in “Perfect.”

The intro chord progression goes like this:

G D C D

G D C D

The verse chord progression goes like this:

G D C D

G D C D

C D G Em

C D G G

Then there’s the bridge progression:

C D G Em

C D C D

The instrumental melody in the intro is pretty iconic, and it’s also easy to play!

Try this one-string version:

Easy Love Songs on Guitar: Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson

Not all easy love songs on guitar are ballads! Here’s a lovely uptempo song that everyone should know.

“Higher and Higher” was written by Chess Records’ songwriters Carl Smith and Gary Jackson, and it was initially recorded by The Dells, but not released.

Jackie Wilson and the Funk Brothers recorded it in Chicago in 1967, and although that is the classic version of the song, Rita Coolidge had a somewhat less bouncy hit with it 10 years later.

This song is also so simple! It only has three chords throughout.

The chord progression is four bars:

D Em G D

Such a simple chord progression can withstand a lot of different rhythms.

• You can try a down, down, down-up, down-up rhythm to keep the beat while you sing.
• This is one of those easy love songs on guitar that everyone can sing along with!

Easy Love Songs on Guitar: Silly Love Songs – Wings

Another of the happiest easy love songs on guitar from a guy who’s pretty good at writing happy songs.

This 1976 hit was written in response to the idea that good songs have to be troubled in some way.

Whoever would have given Paul McCartney that idea?

The people clearly haven’t had enough of easy love songs on guitar.

This one is in the key of C and for the most part, has just three chords.

Most of the song has this chord progression:

C Em Fmaj7 Fmaj7

The bridge, “Love doesn’t come in a minute,” goes like this:

Em Am Dm C

Em Am Dm Dm Dm G G

It’s so good!

You can use a straight eighth note strum on this one: down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up.

Play these easy love songs on guitar for your loved ones and make them happy (or win them over).

Pro-Tip: Check out everything you’re doing for yourself by learning to play the guitar!

‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ – Roberta Flack

Back to ballad land!

This is not only a marvelous addition to your collection of easy songs on guitar, it is also one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was written in 1957 by Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who was his mistress at the time. It worked, and she became his wife. Roberta Flack recorded it in 1972, and that became the definitive version of the song.

• The song is in the key of C, but we are going to do it in the key of G, in order to avoid some guitar-chordal unpleasantness.
• If you would like to sing along with Roberta, you can put your capo on the fifth fret.

Here are the chords.

The chord progression goes like this:

Am D G G

Em Em Bm C

G G D G

F F G G

You can use any mellow strumming pattern you like on this song! You can play the chords in an arpeggio, one string at a time, to break the chord up a bit and keep the slow song moving.

‘I’ll Be’ – Edwin McCain

This is a powerful song in your set of easy love songs on guitar – It’s pretty near irresistible, and the lyrics are amazing.

“I’ll Be” was released in 1997, the first single from McCain’s album Misguided Roses, and although it has been used as a wedding song, it really has the desperation of lost love coursing through it.

Anyway, the song is in the key of B, but everybody plays it in the key of A with the capo on the second fret. Here are the chords:

 

The verse chord progression goes like this:

A D A |E D|

A D A |E D|

|A E|D E|A E|D E|

|A E|D E|A E|D E|

The chorus chord progression goes like this:

A D A |E D|

A D A |E D|

A D A |E D|

The bridge chord progression goes like this:

F#m E D D 

F#m E D D

G E

This song is in 6/8 time – perhaps the official time signature for easy love songs on guitar.

You can strum it like this: DOWN, down-up, down-up, DOWN, down-up, down-up.

‘Time After Time’ – Cyndi Lauper

Before she was writing the music for “Kinky Boots: The Musical,” Cyndi Lauper was giving us this little heartbreaker.

“Time After Time” was Lauper’s second single from her 1984 debut album, She’s So Unusual. It has been covered by Eva Cassidy, Tuck & Patti, and even Miles Davis.

Easy love songs on guitar with Miles Davis! Who’d have thought.

The song is in the key of C. Here are the chords.

The verse chord progression is mostly C, like this:

C  C C  C

C  C C  C

|Fmaj7 G|Em Fmaj7|Fmaj7 G| Em

|Fmaj7 G|Em Fmaj7|

Here is the chorus chord progression:

G Am |Fmaj7 G| C

G Am |Fmaj7 G| C

One nice rhythm to use in strumming this song is a slow calypso strum.

That’s down, down-up, -up, down-up.

‘Cruisin’ – Smokey Robinson

You didn’t think you’d get a set of easy love songs on guitar without any Smokey Robinson in it, did you?

Robinson wrote, sang, and produced this cool song for his 1979 album Where There’s Smoke….

D’Angelo recorded it on his 1995 album Brown Sugar.

Robinson recorded “Cruisin’” in the key of E, but it is an extremely easy song in the key of D. If you’d like to sing along with Smokey, put your capo on the second fret. Here are the chords.

The verse is this beautifully simple alternation between the D and Em7 chords that is common in soul and R&B music.

The chorus chord progression goes like this.

D G |C A| D

D G |C A| D

The best way to strum this song is with syncopated accents.

Try this: Strum down eight times per measure, and accent the strums like this:

ONE two three FOUR five six SEVEN eight.

This is called a 3-3-2 syncopation – it’s totally worth learning, and it might be easier for you to count ONE two three ONE two three ONE two instead.

You’ll get the same result!

‘I Will Always Love You’ – Whitney Houston

The final number in your collection of easy love songs on guitar is one of the most famous love songs of all time.

Dolly Parton wrote and recorded this song in 1974 for her longtime musical collaborator, Porter Wagoner, when Wagoner decided to pursue a solo career.

Porter who? Exactly..

Whitney’s version is in the key of A, but you can play it in the key of G.

Here are the chords:

Here is the chord progression for the verse:

G D G G

Em D C D

G D G G

Em D C D

The chorus chord progression is the classic “ice cream changes:”

G Em C D

G Em C D

C Bm Am G

Whether you like Dolly Parton’s version or Houston’s version from the movie “The Bodyguard,” this will be one of your favorite easy love songs on guitar. Everyone loves to sing it!

Practicing Your Easy Love Songs on Guitar

With a collection of easy love songs on guitar like this one, you’ll want to be sure to practice singing and playing at the same time.

One great way to get started doing this is to get used to the chord changes by strumming each chord once per measure, or once per chord, while you sing.

You’ll be able to see where in the lyrics the chord is supposed to change.

Have fun playing these songs, heartbreakers!

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