Two-Chord Songs
The two-chord song — the simplest possible way to start playing real music. Every entry here is public-domain or traditional, and uses exactly two chords. Open any song for its full chord-over-lyric chart with fretboard diagrams, key, tempo, and source.
Learn two shapes — G and D7, or C and G7 — and you can play most of the tunes below. Each song opens on guitar; the chords work on any chording instrument.
Songs you can play with two chords
What two chords can carry
Most of these songs pair a home chord, the tonic, with the dominant seventh built on the fifth note of its scale, which is G7 in the key of C and D7 in the key of G. Frère Jacques, Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Row Row Row Your Boat share C and G7; Down in the Valley, London Bridge Is Falling Down and Skip to My Lou share G and D7. The dominant seventh is built to resolve to the home chord, which is why each return to it feels like arriving.
Drunken Sailor is the exception. It is in the Dorian mode and moves between Dm and C, two chords a whole step apart, with no dominant seventh at all.
Learn the pair before the song: fret the first chord, strum it four times, change, strum four more, and repeat until the change lands on time without a pause.
Why these songs are free to play
Every entry is strictly public-domain or traditional, source-attributed, and charted as chords — so you can learn, play, and share without any copyright worry.