How hard are traditional songs on guitar?
Scored with the Fretwork Chord Difficulty Index, the 87 traditional songs in the library range from 23 to 50 out of 100, with a median of 33. 29 are easy, 49 moderate and 9 hard. The chord that most often sets a song’s difficulty is C (59 songs), then F (16).
Updated · Written by the Fretwork team · How we check
How the songs spread across the difficulty bands
The easiest and the hardest songs
| Easiest songs | Score | Hardest chord |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Gals | 23 | D |
| Row, Row, Row Your Boat | 23 | C |
| Tom Dooley | 23 | D |
| Hush, Little Baby | 24 | C |
| Skip to My Lou | 24 | C |
| Blow the Man Down | 25 | C |
| Hardest songs | Score | Hardest chord | Chord changes a minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| What Child Is This | 50 | B7 | 30 |
| Barbara Allen | 50 | F | 26 |
| The Parting Glass | 47 | F | 23.4 |
| Michael, Row the Boat Ashore | 47 | F | 21.9 |
| House of the Rising Sun | 47 | F | 22.2 |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | 45 | F | 20.3 |
Which chord makes a song hard
| Hardest chord in the song | Songs (of 87) |
|---|---|
| C | 59 |
| F | 16 |
| D | 5 |
| Dm | 4 |
| B7 | 2 |
| Am | 1 |
What stands out
- No song in the library is “very hard”. The hardest score is 50, so every song can be played with open chords and the small F.
- Familiar does not mean easy. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” scores 45 (hard) because it needs F and changes chord about 20 times a minute.
- Speed matters as much as shapes. The median song changes chord 15.6 times a minute; the hardest songs change 20–30 times a minute.
How the score works
A song’s score is 50% its hardest chord (using that chord’s easiest shape), 25% the bar-weighted average of its chords, and 25% how many chord changes it needs a minute at its tempo (30 a minute counts as 100). Bands: under 15 very easy, 15–29 easy, 30–44 moderate, 45–59 hard, 60 and over very hard. The full method, weights and sensitivity test are on the chord difficulty index page.
Data and reuse
Every score: fretwork-song-difficulty.csv. You may reuse these figures with credit and a link to this page.
Questions
What is the easiest song to play on guitar?
In Fretwork's library, Buffalo Gals, Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Tom Dooley score lowest (23 out of 100). They use two or three easy open chords and change slowly.
Why is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star hard on guitar?
In the key of C, as arranged in Fretwork's library, it needs an F chord and changes chord about 20 times a minute, so it scores 45 out of 100 even though the tune is simple.
What makes a song hard to play on guitar?
Mostly its hardest chord, especially F or B7, and how often the chords change. A song with easy shapes can still be hard if it changes chord every beat.