40 easy nursery rhymes to start playing guitar (TAB)

Here you can find a compilation of 40(!) fun nursery rhymes and well-known melodies to start learning music for guitar. Perfect if you have kids or students who want to play songs that they already know. All of the songs in my digital download (PDF) are notated in guitar tablature, so it’s not necessary to know how to read music!

Many of these songs are popular choices when teaching music children, but students of any age can use this list. I’ve found that a lot of my younger students really enjoy learning nursery rhymes since they’ve heard these tunes before, and the music is often very simple and beginner-friendly. Even some of my adult students enjoy the opportunity to play something easy and familiar.

The 40 songs in my PDF file are a mix of the most common nursery rhymes, folk songs and popular music. So you’re sure to find songs you know and once loved, that bring a certain sense of childhood nostalgia.✨

Here are the songs that are included:

1. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

2. Hot Cross Buns

3. The Wheels on the Bus

4. Itsy Bitsy Spider

5. Mary Had a Little Lamb

6. Skip to My Lou

7. Rain, Rain Go Away

8. London Bridge

9. Alouette

10. The Farmer in the Dell

11. It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

12. Lavender’s Blue

13. Aura Lee

14. Camptown Races

15. Lightly Row

16. Minuet in G

17. When the Saints Go Marching In

18. Greensleeves

19. Yellow Submarine - the Beatles

20. Bingo

21. He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

22. I’ve Been Working On the Railroad

23. Happy Birthday

24. Yankee Doodle

25. For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow

26. Amazing Grace

27. Take Me Out to the Ballgame

28. Home On the Range

29. Old McDonald

30. Frere Jacques

31. Do Your Ears Hang Low?

32. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt

33. Row, Row, Row Your Boat

34. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

35. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

36. Down In The Valley

37. If You’re Happy and You Know It

38. Humpty Dumpty

39. She’ll Be Coming ‘Round

40. On Top of Old Smokey

The songs in the PDF are arranged by string number (melodies confined to a certain range of strings—ordered from highest to lowest), include lyrics and are no more than two lines long.

Below is a FREE sample of my digital download! You’ll get the first 10 songs in the list!

FREE SAMPLE - 40 easy nursery rhymes to start playing guitar

To purchase the whole digital download with all 40 nursery rhymes, visit my Etsy shop here.

Extra resources:

The A to Z Guide to Understanding Guitar Tab Symbols (website)

How to Read Guitar Tab (video)

How to Read Guitar Tab (video)