Top 10 Easy Praise & Worship Songs for Guitar

Introduction to Easy Praise Songs

The acoustic guitar is a natural instrument for leading praise and worship. It's portable, allows you to drive both chords and rhythm together, and useful in both band and solo settings. Additionally, once you understand the fundamentals of acoustic guitar, you can quickly grow your song repertoire.

One of the greatest challenges for aspiring worship leaders is to have a firm enough grasp of that repertoire to stop thinking about chords and strumming and engage fully in worship. The best way to do this is to master and memorize a few easy praise songs to start. The easier the song, the faster you'll master it.

What Makes a Song Easy to Play?

Easy is a relative term. Maybe you're only comfortable in a certain key. Maybe you only know a couple strum patterns. For this list I've chosen songs that only use a few chords, have limited strum patterns and are somewhat repetitive. The good news is that even if you aren't comfortable with a particular chord or strum pattern, they are simple enough that you will be after some focused practice. Of course, I also chose songs that are popular enough you and whoever you're leading should already be familiar with them. Worship is always better when we're singing together.

List of Top 10 Easy Praise Songs

1. How Great is Our God - Chris Tomlin

What makes it easy: While the song is in the key of Db, the lesson and chord chart has you capo on the first fret and play with C shapes. It only has 4 chords (C G Am and F) and while F can scare away some beginners, it actually uses and Fmaj7 and C/G which are nearly identical. Finally the verses and chorus are nearly the same exact progression so once you get going you don't have to think too much.

2. 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) - Matt Redman

What makes it easy: When it comes to simple worship songs 10,000 Reasons is one of my go-to's. It uses the same easy strum pattern the whole song, uses chord shapes that keep your ring and pinky in the same place almost the whole time and expands your chord vocabulary by adding a few suspended chords. Don't let them scare you though, you can always just play the root chord (G instead of a G suspended) if you want.

3. Worthy Of It All - CeCe Winans

What makes it easy: This has a few more chords but you don't move your ring finger and the song is slow enough to make your transitions easy. The verse and chorus and repetitive and you even get an easy alternative to the pesky Bm chord beginners hate.

4. Way Maker - Leeland

What makes it easy: This is one of the best basic worship songs for guitar. It's the same 4-chord (F C Am G) progression throughout while you can do the finger picking pattern you can always just do a straight down strum pattern throughout.

5. O Come To The Altar - Elevation Worship

What makes it easy: The chord changes are slow and actually happen between the words on the chorus keeping you from having to sing a change at the same time. Capo on the 4th fret lets you plant your pinky on the high E and change your chords around it.

6. You Are My King - Christy Nockles

What makes it easy: Cowboy chords, cowboy strum and a cowboy melody that everybody loves to sing make this a great song to pull out on any occasion.

7. Build My Life - Brett Younker

What makes it easy: A sing-song melody over repetitive, slowly strummed chords lets you just sit back in the groove and let the singing take you away.

8. Trust In God - Elevation Worship

What makes it easy: With a slow 6/8 strum, 4 chords (C Dm F C/E) that keep your pinky in place and progression that is nearly the same the entire song, this is the definition of easy guitar worship music.

9. Great Are You Lord - All Sons And Daughters

What makes it easy: No contemporary Christian worship song can pull a room together like this one. Nice and slow 6/8 feel with the same 3-chord progression (C Em D) for both verse and chorus. Don't forget that capo!

10. The Goodness Of God - Bethel Music

What makes it easy: There are only 5 chords and the whole song is guitar driven making it easy to hear and learn. Watch out for those half bar changes. They can sneak up quickly but they follow the melody so if you know how to sing it the chords fall neatly into place.

Conclusion

As a guitar teacher I'm contractually obligated to remind you to practice. Easy songs get easier and harder songs become easy. It really does make a difference. If you are looking to expand your worship song repertoire, there is no better online worship resource than Worship Artistry. With over 700 praise and worship song tutorials that including chord charts, detailed teaching, play along videos and solo acoustic chapters to go above and beyond, it's the tool every aspiring worship musician can grow with. Get your free 21 day trial. If these songs even feel to difficult, check out our Fundamentals of Acoustic Guitar course. There is not a better course out there for building a strong foundation for your playing.

Jason Houtsma is the co-founder and guitar teacher at Worship Artistry, where he is helping musicians of every level answer the call to worship with passion and confidence. Jason has been leading worship and writing music since he was 15 years old and currently serves as Worship Pastor for Mosaic Church in Bellingham, WA. He is husband to Alli and father to Bjorn and Asher.

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