Get your guitar or ukulele (or even piano) in your hands and take a look at some of the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn.
Jack Johnson was born and grew up in Hawaii, where he spent his youth surfing and playing guitar since he was 14, so that lead him to start a music career. He had launched his first album in 2001, the “Brushfire Fairytales,” which holds platinum certification for over 1 million sold copies. Until now he has released six more albums. Apart from these albums he has also written songs and soundtrack for several movies. Since he has studied film, he also had an appearance in several TV series and movies and had directed and written music for several documentary movies, some of them being The September Sessions and Thicker Than Water.
The music of Jack Johnson can be characterized as soft acoustic rock influenced by folk, reggae and surf music. Anyway, it is a chill down music perfect for the hot summertime. According to his own words, the greatest musical influence on his work is by the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Tribe Called Quest, and Neil Young among others.
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Not only Jack Johnson is a popular musician. He is very active in raising awareness about ecological problems and especially ocean oriented ones. There are several non-profit foundations and social networks launched by him and his wife. The first foundation started by Jack was Kokua Hawaii Foundation in 2003. It is oriented towards schools and education of children about ecology and problems our planet is facing with pollution. The second foundation was raised in 2008 by Jack and his wife Kim, the Johnson Ohana Foundation for promoting and “supporting organizations that focus on environmental, art, and music education.” In the same year he launched a social network called All At Once, just to name some of his social web activities (which are not foundations), where people interested in environmental issues can easily connect and do some action in supporting plastic reduction in their communities, or growing organic food and promoting Farm to School movement.
Since he is mostly interested and involved in oceanic ecological problems, he is of course very much aware of the dangers of pollution and tons of garbage and plastic which end up in oceans about which he is very concerned. One of the best mediums to send a message to a large group of people is the music. That is why one of his latest videos from the last album “All The Light Above It Too,” for the song “You Can’t Control It” features him being covered in plastic. Song lyrics are also talking about the rising pollution in the oceans.
But let’s get back to music now since we’re here to see some of the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn. For some warm-ups first, go to the 15 Easiest Acoustic Guitar Songs to Play for Beginners. There you will find songs which will introduce you to some easy guitar songs for beginners chords.
Surely level of your musical knowledge and time you want to spend learning something new will highly influence your opinion on what easy is. Anyway, we have tried to get your job for learning Jack Johnson’s song as easy as possible, so we have first searched for some opinions which songs are suitable for beginners. We have gotten some of the answers on Guitar World, National Guitar Academy, Live Ukulele and forums like Acoustic Guitar Forum, Yahoo Answers and Ultimate Guitar. Since many people were curious how to play Jack Johnson Upside Down on guitar, we have also checked if that is one of the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn, but we will get on this further down on the list. For the song chords that we have included on our list, we have used E-Chords as the main source.
We hope we have covered some of your favorite Jack Johnson song here (and, yes, let’s say now that you will see here how to play Jack Johnson banana pancakes on guitar, as one of his most popular songs), but we have surely included some easy Jack Johnson songs guitar chords. We have here included both ukulele and guitar as an option for playing, and if you have a good ear, you can sing along as well, or whistle. So, let’s see the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn further down on our list:
10. Better Together
Song chords: F, Dm, Bb, C, Gm
Better Together is the first song from the album In Between Dreams and was later released as a single record for gaining much popularity. It was also nominated for the World’s Best Song and World’s Best Video by World Music Awards in 2014, so it seems that the simpler, the better rule applies here as well.
9. It’s All Understood
Song chords: G, D, F#, Bm
This is the one song we have mentioned piano in the introductory part of our text. It is completely written for leading piano, but, of course, there are always possibilities of playing it on ukulele and guitar. But to play original, we have found piano sheets for those who are here because of the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn on piano. And in the video below you will also see how to play this song on keyboard/piano.
8. At Or With Me
Song chords: B E F#m
Apart from being among the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn, this song seems to draw attention because of the music video. To summarize it – Jack is fighting Andy Samberg during the performance in a pub. And back to learning, here we have one song you can play on electric guitar (and of course, ukulele tab, which is like an unwritten rule for Jack Johnson songs).
7. I Got You
Song chords: E, B, F#, G#m
As one of the most popular songs from the 2013 album From Here To Now To You, I Got You was released as a single in the same year. This song has a rather personal background, as the whole album, and it was dedicated to his wife, Kim. It is a tremulous relaxing song, where you can practice your whistling while playing since it is one of the easiest jack Johnson songs to learn. This is a perfect choice if you are looking for an easy love song to play and probably one of the best Jack Johnson’s songs to play on guitar.
6. Flake
Song chords: Dm, F, Bb, F, C, A
This song comes from the Bushfire Fairytales, the first Jack Johnson album which was sold in over a million copies, and it was later taken as a single since it gained huge popularity. As for all Jack Johnson songs, there are always both ukulele and guitar lessons. So, here are some suggestions: tabs for the guitar, and ukulele tabs.
5. Banana Pancakes
Song chords: G, C, A, D, D7, Am, C7
Finally, one of the favorites, the Banana Pancakes. As for being one of the most searched, it is luckily also among the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn. This song also comes from the third Jack Johnson album In Between Dreams which was sold in over 15 million copies.
4. Taylor
Song chords: C, B, Am, F
Taylor comes from the 2002 album On and on and the extended music video is featured by Ben Stiller. This song is good for learning both on guitar and ukulele, and as some people would recommend, it would sound very good if you had a ukulele with a strong G, but on the video below you will see how to play Taylor on guitar.
3. Country Road
Song chords: C, Dm, Am
Country Road is a great choice if you want to practice ukulele, but guitar as well and is also one of the easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn. This song is featuring Paula Fuga, an outstanding performer and a beautiful voice, both on ukulele and vocals. For an example of lessons for learning this song we have found one for ukulele on Live Ukulele, so give it a try.
2. Upside Down
Song chords: E, F#m, A, B
Upside Down is one of the most popular songs by Jack Johnson. It was written for the movie Curious George, and it is a single taken from the album Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George when it got the platinum certificate for being sold in over a million copies. Since it is so popular, there are numerous tutorials for how to play this song, so it was a tough choice which one to choose for our list. Anyway, apart from the YouTube, if you prefer tabs, you can pick some of the Ultimate Guitar tabs for example.
1. Gone
Song chords: E, C#m, G#, A, F#m, B
And finally, we have reached the top of our list of easiest Jack Johnson songs to learn. Gone is yet another of Jack’s songs where he turns attention to some important things once again. This time it is an observation of American (and Western) society in modern times, with people being preoccupied with material things, material status, and greed, and by removing this from their lives, there is only an empty shell left. Concerning learning to play this song, there are several good tutorials and lessons (as the video below as well), depending on which one you prefer – video lessons or written chords, there is a good choice for both.
