Compendium of Beginner VK songs for guitarists

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As someone who went through all the beginner’s woes and searching through forums on the internet for easy VK/Jrock songs to play, I think it’d be a cool idea to do my due diligence and compile some that I’ve found as well as ones I’ve personally found to be easy enough for a beginner! As I get more comments, I’ll update this post accordingly. I’ll sort it in alphabetical order and by tuning.

Eventually I’ll add song links to each one, too.

I FINALLY REMEMBERED THIS THREAD

E standard/Standard Tuning

D’espairsray - Horizon
DIR EN GREY - Wake, Byou Shin (Missa), 羅刹国 (Macabre, if you’re looking for a workout in power chords)
the GazettE - Cassis, Shiawase na Hibi (2003)
Hide - Goodbye
HYDE - Jesus Christ
Janne Da Arc - Shining Ray, Maria no Tsumeato
Luna Sea - Hurt
MALICE MIZER - Beast of Blood
Pierrot - Hill~Genkaku no Yuki, MYCLOUD, Psychedelic Lover, HOME SICK

Half-step down/D# standard

Nightmare - Believe, Akane, Over

Drop D

Most of D’ESPAIRSRAY
12012 - shower
hide with spread beaver - Pink Spider

Drop C#

DIR EN GREY - Merciless Cult
girugamesh - Kosaki Uta
SADIE - Mad-Roid
UnsraW - Dust to Dust

Drop C

the GazettE - Filth in the Beauty
the GazettE - Inside Beast
girugamesh - Owari to Mirai

Drop B
lynch. - Quarter Life

the GazettE - Burial Applicant
the GazettE - HEADACHE MAN
the GazettE - Maggots
the GazettE - Taion
girugamesh - Dekiai

B standard (7 string)

Drop A#

girugamesh - Break Down
girugamesh - MELODY
girugamesh - Asking Why

Drop A(6 or 7 string)

the GazettE - DOGMA

Drop G#(7 string)

To be updated

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DIR EN GREY’s Merciless Cult is a pretty easy Drop C# song.

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One of the easiest songs to learn is Luna Sea’s Hurt.

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Headache man by The GazettE isn’t hard to learn. This song would be pretty chopping and keeping rhythm training. I’m pretty sure it is played in B drop

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Goodbye by hide is a great one for beginner’s on acoustic since it’s just a handful of chords.

Beast of Blood by MALICE MIZER only uses a couple of power chords

GazettE has plenty of approachable tracks for beginners as well that span their discography so if you’re interested in a particular era, there is something for you:
Maggots
Inside Beast
Filth in the beauty
Burial Applicant
DOGMA

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Back from the dead. Just wanted to say that Home Sick by PIERROT is an amazingly easy song to play as a beginner.

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Adding Sadie’s Silent Eve and CHILDREN OF DESPAIR to the list.

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Got any tabs or did you figure it out by ear? Dust to dust by UnsraW is super easy to play.

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I got a bass for Christmas! Don’t know where to start
Any threads like this for bass?

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It’s exactly the same as guitar. You’re in the right place.

Something useful to remember for later is that a six-string guitar is tuned E A D G B E. I’m assuming your bass is tuned E A D G. So whenever you’re reading six-string tabs, and there’s no bass part, you can play the melody one octave lower as long as you restrict yourself to the top four strings of the guitar. If you encounter chords (multiple notes pressed at once), focus on the root note (lowest one). There’s no rule saying that bass guitar has to play the same notes as guitar, but it helps me to get started.

A lot of visual kei doesn’t play in E A D G B E. Lowest I’ve seen so far is Drop A. If you wanna play some of those songs, you’ll have to tune your bass down. It’s the same process as guitar, just easier because you have two less strings to adjust. So for example, some bands tune the E down to D for a chunkier sound and to align notes to make playing easier. Six-string guitar neck changes from E A D G B E to D A D G B E. That’s called Drop D. The bass equivalent would be tuned D A D G. That could open up the neck for you down the line when you get a bit more comfortable.

However, I suggest staying in E A D G for now and learning your fundamentals that way. Also, if you don’t have a neck tuner I would get one.

I also think Songsterr will be your best friend. It still is mine. Deity is a fun and pretty easy song to play, and on bass you barely have to get off the E string! It’s also one of those songs where the bass line radically differs from the guitar line, so you can have fun practicing both.

I also firmly believe you won’t stick with learning an instrument if it doesn’t sound good. It’s serviceable acoustic, but bass guitars really shine when plugged into a nice amp. If you don’t have one, watch out for the gear acquisition wormhole. I don’t know of any good amps for basses, but it’s well worth getting one! I do know my friend got one of these portable amps with a lot of noise, so I wouldn’t suggest that.

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Okay! Thanks so much

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Figured it out by ear! I don’t really like using tabs, but I’m trying my best to list songs that are easy for Beginner-Intermediate guitarists to pick up.

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Isnt most VK pretty easy to play?? I grew up playing extreme metal mainly which can be fairly technical… but is rare I listen to VK and think it sounds difficult to play. Maybe a couple of bands like Jiluka and Nocturnal Bloodlust would be a bit tricky but thinking of bands like Dir en Grey, The Gazette, The Raid, Mamireta, Shellmy, Razor just to give a few examples from a never ending list, is not hard stuff to play generally.

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Got any to recommend from those bands?

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I learned the bassline to SILLY GOD DISCO pretty fast, so that’s a fun one! Just beware it’s in D.

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I’d say that most VK is easy to play if you’re on an intermediate level. Like compared to other genres it’s not very hard, but for people who are still starting out I think a lot of VK can be pretty intimidating. So it’s good to find all of the ones that are like really easy to play.

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Updated with a few songs