Easy songs to sing for beginners: pop, classical, musical

What is an 'easy' song is often misunderstood. Many lists with easy songs have a range of well over an octave and/or big jumps. These songs might still be easy to remember - but they can be hard on your vocal cords, especially for beginners.

With my students I often use the following five songs with a short range: less than an octave. So if you're a beginner, or if you have vocal issues like a cold - which I had when I recorded below video - you don't have to worry about high or low notes. You can simply focus on the technique you want to practice.

Useful for learning new vocal technique

Easy songs are the best when you are learning a new skill. For example, if you are working on closing your vocal cords properly (which is later essential for belting), you want to take something super easy, where you don't have to focus on big jumps in the melody or super complicated riffs or high notes. Then you can focus on the skill you need, not on how hard the song is. 

A fantastic way to learn to sing in tune

If you have any issues with singing in tune - either on an occasional note here and there, or it's a core problem - here's what you do:

Go to my article on how to sing in tune, learn what you have to do to work on it, and when it comes to working on a song - definitely choose an easy song. Don't sing difficult songs in the beginning, just don't go there. Again, you are building a skill, in this case, singing in tune. So focus. 

My favourite five easy pop songs

The five easy songs I use most often in my singing lessons are:

• Wind of change by The Scorpions: 7 note range
• Hotel California by The Eagles: 7 notes
• Michel by Anouk: 6 notes
• Take my breath away by Berlin: 6 notes
• I want love by Elton John: 5 notes

A list of easy pop/rock songs

All the below songs are under an octave, some have only three notes!

Curious for more short range songs of under an octave? Check out my course Make Singing Click

Easy karaoke songs (men and women)

It can be tricky to sing a karaoke song that is orginally sung by a woman if you are a man - and vice versa. Even if you have the same gender, it can be tricky to sing it if the singer has a different vocal range. For example, if you're a bariton and they're tenor.

That doesn't mean you can't sing the songs. You can make it easy. Two hacks:

1. Go on YouTube and type: '[name of the song] + karaoke + female/male version'. Or '[name of song] + karaoke lower / higher key'.
2. Use software that changes the key of a song. Karafun and MagicSing do that (see my review of karaoke apps). Second option: x-minus.pro. A website that is free.

Which key is best for you? Check with your teacher.

Easy classical songs

Below classical songs are sometimes not easy to remember - but the range is short. Curious for more short range classical songs of under an octave? Check out my course.

Easy musical songs

Below musical songs are within the range of one octave. Curious for more short range musical songs of under an octave? Check out my course. I also have a list of jazz/soul songs.

Learning the easy song

After picking an easy song, the next step might be to learn the song. I made a formula to learn a song. It partly depends on which type of learner you are.