Ed Sheeran is one of the world’s best-known singers, known for writing music about miscarriage, addiction, relationships and overcoming life obstacles. His lyrics cover an array of subjects including miscarriage, addiction and relationship difficulties as well as personal triumph.
Here are a few easy Ed Sheeran songs you can play on an acoustic guitar, perfect for beginner guitarists. One in particular is an elegant ballad that includes simple chord progressions and strumming patterns – simply beautiful!
Basic chords
As with anything new, when beginning guitar it is essential to begin from scratch. Ed Sheeran songs provide an ideal starting point, being easy to play and featuring simple chord progression. A capo can help facilitate playing each song in its correct key more quickly.
Sheeran wrote and co-wrote this acoustic tune with Pharrell Williams for release on his 2014 album x, where it can be found. Consisting of just two chords that form its entire tune and featuring an engaging strumming pattern, it makes this tune one of Sheeran’s easiest songs to learn on an acoustic guitar.
Perfect, from Ed Sheeran’s Divide album, is a straightforward song to learn on guitar. Using basic open shapes and an unassuming strumming pattern, Sheeran adds his trademark octave lower melody for an interesting touch to his music.
Major chords
The A major chord is one of the first that guitarists learn and is found across a variety of genres. Beginning guitarists may find it challenging, but with practice it will become easier over time.
Chords are composed of multiple notes combined into one richer sound. Chords are usually played using the left hand’s fingers placed on specific frets on a guitar’s fretboard; depending on which guitar model it may contain one or more octaves in its chord structure. While chords may be represented with sheet music notation, most guitarists prefer fretboard diagrams for expression purposes.
Ed Sheeran’s songs tend to be emotive and thoughtful, perfectly complementing an acoustic guitar’s tonality. His tunes are also easy to learn for beginners – for instance Thinking Out Loud can be played using just a capo on the first fret, while Afterflow and All Of The Stars from his debut movie The Fault In Our Stars also make this easy listening.
Minor chords
Ed Sheeran is one of the premier artists in music today. Known for his emotive lyrics and beautiful melodies, he also makes complex songs easy to play on guitar. Many of his songs follow a verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure; others even feature pre-choruses before choruses to increase buildup of intensity in his songs.
Sheeran often doubles his melody an octave higher or lower to set his music apart from contemporary pop songs and gain attention from contemporary audiences. This creates a distinctive sound influenced by medieval choral songs while creating unique harmonies using octaves.
This Sheeran song is ideal for beginner guitarists to learn. Play it with a capo on the second fret and in F#m key; just four chords make up this tune with an acoustic strumming pattern throughout its entirety.
Scales
Thinking Out Loud from Ed Sheeran’s X album provides an easy and accessible guitar song to practice, offering great opportunities to develop chord progressions and strumming patterns.
One of Sheeran’s hallmark techniques is his use of octaves in his melodies; this makes his songs sound more musical while recalling medieval choral music from which he would have been exposed as a young singer.
Sheeran employs an array of guitar strings, picks, and pedals to achieve different sounds for his songs. He even had custom Dunlop picks made featuring artwork from his latest albums! Fingerpicking is his preferred style but sometimes plectra may be needed; his preferred medium thickness acoustic string are Elixir Acoustic Nanoweb Light 12-53 Guitar Strings which offer both tone and durability in equal measures – they make up Sheeran’s signature sound perfectly!