Guitar Music for Beginners
Ode to Joy

Guitar music for beginners that will hone their note-reading... Ode to Joy in two arrangements.

This familiar piece is always welcome to beginning musicians, and they learn to play it quickly!  But check it out... no tablature!  At least, not at first...

Ode to Joy for guitar

Please scroll down the page for the download links.

These sheets are intended to force my tablature-dependent students to get familiar with standard notation.  I have to say that this scheme is working fairly well. 

Here is the next logical step: adding a bass note bit of harmony.  

I tried to make it a separate voice, a whole note, but for some reason my Finale software wouldn't let me do it.  I'm baffled, but resigned to using quarter notes for now.

Ode to Joy with harmony for guitar

Please scroll down the page for the download links.

This arrangement sneaks into the classical style of playing guitar... your students will have to put their picks down and use their thumb and finger to pinch the initial notes of each measure.

Is this EASY?   

No, I won't kid you about this.  For a young guitarist, this arrangement with harmony can be a HUGE step. 

But it is satisfying and important.  Good luck!





The download links for the guitar PDFs:


Download guitar music for beginners with note-reading guide Ode to Joy


Download Ode to Joy with simple harmony

Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!

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Interested in songs from the Bible for your students or church?  Check out my other website, SingTheBibleStory.com!

SingTheBibleStory.com clickable logo link

Songs Old & Songs New

All the first-year material I give my beginner students. 

Piano keyboard sheets, scales, chords, note-reading exercises, and over 256 pages of music!

The Story of Esther - a Bible opera!

Queen Esther in the Bible

This beautiful song book for piano & voice "Esther, For Such a Time as This",  available as a digital downloadtells the riveting story of the time when  Jews in ancient Persia faced a foe named Haman, and how a  brave young queen risked her life to save her people.

A good choice for a singing story-teller, an operatic group, a short theater production, or a class of children!

This book is also available from Amazon as a paperback.


Just the Black Keys, a piano song book for young beginners.

Just the Black Keys

This book is available as a digital download  from this site.  Visit this page to see some free examples from the book.

It is also available from Amazon as a paperback!

This is the perfect easy start for little pianists.

And when they start reading white-key notes on the staff, this is a fun easy resource to say each week, "Choose a new black-key song at home this week and figure it out to show me next lesson!"  They will be spending more time at the piano.

The Adventures of Tonsta, Volume 1, is a book about a young boy travelling over mountains and fjords from village to village, encountering trolls and helping folk in distress.

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The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.  

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Comments

Do you have a story or a question about teaching guitar? Do you think it is a hard instrument for beginners, or easy? What have been your challenges?
Please note that all comments are moderated, and will not appear until I have approved them. Also, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR MUSIC THAT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED. That's pretty much any music written in the last 75 years...

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lewis vincent Not rated yet
These guitar papers really help and i advise other people to use them

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About the Author

Dana Thynes

Hi, I'm Dana!  (Say that like "Anna".)  I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.

Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.

You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.