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What do strings cost you? A few bucks a piece? Small price to pay for artistic expression! Hehe.

If you don't already, buy a few extra high E's next time you buy strings and carry them with you. It's saved my night a couple times.

The first song like this for me was Times Like These by Jack Johnson. The chords were easy, but the strum timing was very tricky, especially once you tried to sing it as well. Once I figured out a strum that worked, it was smooth sailing!

Then, Save Tonight, by Eagle Eye Cherry is one of my favorite songs and again, it's easy to sing, or easy to play, but throw them both together and I just couldn't do it. I went away from it for awhile and one day I went back and tried it again and got through the whole song (there were definitely shaky parts, lol), but I was able to get through it half-decently. It's a good gauge to see how far you've come just by playing and playing and playing.

Banana Pancakes by Jack Johnson was the first song I learned to play that wasn't just a strum (with the mini-riffs in the chorus, lol). It is fairly simple and a fun song to play. Rodeo Clowns is another that's just four chords and has a cool little intro too.

Dashboard plays a little bit tougher stuff, but Hands Down is a good easy song to learn, as is The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most and Vindicated.

Hero by Enrique Iglesias has a simple, but sweet fingerpicking pattern to it and that's always fun to sing with a passionful spanish accent. Haha.

She plays for the other team....lol.

She always tells me that if she didn't (and was younger) that she'd marry me, though.

What can brown do for YOU?!

This is true, and as with any barre chord, it's a little easier on your hands if you squeeze it when you strum and then kinda of relax your left hand (or right, if you switch) between strums.

I play the X24442 B and while at first it was tricky, it gets easier with practice, just like anything.

Maybe this will help simplify it. There are two groups of people that might hear you play.

The first group is people who don't play guitar. They will likely be so impressed that you can get good sound out of that thing and probably can't discern any minor errors or slight offities (it's not a word, I just made it up).

The secound group is people who do play guitar and have been (or will be) in your exact position. They'll understand exactly where you're coming from.

You may run into a couple of jerks who feel the need to say something if you're not Eric Clapton, but in reality they're too scared to go up and try it themselves, so who cares what they think?

Basically, what I'm saying is go for it! If you play in front of 20 people on a regular basis, you're most likely good enough for an open mic night!

Kick some butt!

I like Ball and Chain by Social Distortion. It's D A G D the whole song. Nice even strum, nothing tricky and it's easy to sing, too.

Good luck!

I like Ball and Chain by Social D.

D, A, G, D

Repeat.

Look for a song you're pretty familiar with, search it on Chordie and find one that only has a couple chords. There's a ton that are "easy", but the better you know the song, the easier it'll be for you to pick up and play.

Good luck!