What's the hardest acoustic guitar song?

Lol I said Jack Butler Trio it's John Butler Trio been watching too much Crossroads 😛

When I first learned Blackbird, I would finger pick the song using three fingers as most people do, but I did a bit of a deep dive a few years ago and learned that Paul McCartney plays the entire song by just using his thumb and one other finger on his picking hand. I guess he didn't have a ton of confidence in his fingerpicking so he employed this sort of quick, percussive, single-finger strumming technique. It is actually a simpler technique than Travis Picking, but I found it challenging to emulate after so many years of playing the song incorrectly.

Classical Gas is the most challenging song across the entire spectrum. Rhythm, chord voicing, thumb dexterity, single note arpeggio accuracy and swing. You could spend a lifetime practicing it.

I love that Roundabout, Crazy On You, and Hole Hearted, three of my favorite songs, were on this list. Not because they're hard, but because they're hard to play and GREAT. The beginning of all three songs are just simply beautiful, while setting the motif for the entire song. Roundabout has so many crazy changes that work. Crazy On You is so wildly intricate (as you demonstrated) because Nancy Wilson is a beast. Nuno's groove in Hole Hearted is fantastic, and I'm still trying to get it. Thanks for this.

Love the channel and all the work you do. Stay strong guitar brother. 🤘🎸🤘

Some of the most technically impressive acoustic playing I've personally heard is from Al DiMeola, Paco DeLucia and John McLaughlin on Friday Night in San Francisco. My dad loves that album and it's part of what got me into playing the guitar.

I am very pleased to see 'Crazy On You' on the list. As someone with tiny fingers, I was also pleased to see Tyler-big-hands have trouble with the finger movements at the beginning of the song, especially as that's the *only* bit of the intro I can play. 😉Nancy Wilson is very underrated as a guitarist. Not acoustic, but the amount of guitar strings I've snapped playing along to 'Barracuda' over the years is, erm, rather high shall we say...

I wish you had taken the time to mention Maury Muehleisen who played with Jim Croce on every great song. The interplay between those two fine guitarists was a vital part of Croce's sound. Tragically, they died together in the same plane crash

Woa so seeing Tyler stuggle with the Crazy on you intro made me feel pretty good about my playing. Thats one I can actually play : ) Love your videos Tyler!

Sort of splitting hairs with incredible fingerstyle but if you're in that realm then Mark Knopfler requires honorable mention. His immaculate fingerpicking and mastery of acoustic is amazing.

I think Never Going Back Again deserves to be on the list. It is so fun to play and has a pretty difficult fingerpicking pattern. But man when you nail it, you feel awesome. I’m a big LB fan though so maybe I’m biased. Neon definitely should have been #1!

“The Claw” Jerry Reed-a picker who utilized unique tunings, fingerpicking, and harmonization, with freaky speed and taste.

This list isn't 10 Tommy Emmanuel songs. IT'S WRONG.

“One Word” by Baby Animals has one of the best and most challenging acoustic introductions I’ve ever tried. There’s plenty of difficult ones out there, but this one’s up there for being a challenge while also being an awesome riff.

I feel like The Clap by Yes really deserves a spot here. Really hard to master the whole thing.

I love your page and content bro, and honestly watching you figure out that crazy on you song gave me hope and showed me that even the master has to learn new stuff and practice! Awesome video!

Richard Thompson. Vincent Black Lightning is probably the most visible, but throw a hat at his acoustic catalog and you’ll land on a crazy hard song. Same is true for Kelly Joe Phelps, slide or finger style.

Classical Gas needs a mention

Watching you struggle with "Crazy on You" fills my heart with joy! Its nice to see that really skilled guitarists struggle with basic songs we all learned when we first picked up our guitars lol

I'm a big fan of Rodrigo y Gabriela. Especially, Gabriela's percussion and strumming.

How would Dave Mathews NOT be on this list? AND he plays while singing!

Tony rice- Church Street blues is the hardest and he sings while playing too. Just insane.

I'd like to plug Babe I'm Gonna Leave You for my Led Zeppelin rec - while it's not overly technical, the stamina required gets me every time

This list should be called "70's popular rock songs with acoustic guitar intros, except for one random jazz tune". 🤷 I grew up listening to a lot of bluegrass and I'm still blown away by Doc Watson. Get Ya some of THAT WATCHMOJO!

Jon Gomm - Passionflower Honestly, if you haven't heard it before, it's incredible. Also insanely difficult. Also absolutely beautiful. Dude spends a good 50 percent of the song tuning and detuning his guitar, all while playing a melody, percussion, and singing. It's genuinely the most brilliant composition I've ever seen.

I've been a Croce fan for decades. Man was a genius R.I.P.😢

With all the crazy stuff I’ve seen you do, it surprises me a lot that you struggled with the crazy on you triplet pulloff. Made me feel better about myself. Thank you for a change of pace. Normally you make me feel very inadequate comparatively. Then you hit the Django pretty quick and made me feel bad again. 😂

If we're going Lynsey Buckingham, then I'd call his acoustic rendering of Big Love. Utterly awesome stuff.

There should be a steel string list and a nylon string one There are some incredibly difficult classical guitar songs out there

Don't know if this counts but seeing Roy Clark play Malaguena on acoustic still blows my mind. And he did it on the tv show The Odd Couple too.

It's so refreshing to see an accomplished player having trouble with a lick and also having fun with that. That's what makes your channel so much fun to watch for us fumble-fingered wannabes. Also, personally, I think Roy Clark should be on the list.

For Zep I'd go with Bron Y Aur. As for putting Over The Hills and Far Away as hardest to play, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is easily harder to get right.

“The Clap” by Yes, Steve Howe, is way more intricate and difficult then “Roundabout”

Never Going Back again is my goal. If I ever get good enough to play it I will finally feel like I made it on my guitar journey.

It's crazy that Sand Monster by Nick Johnston or literally anything by Rodrigo y Gabriela isn't on that list. But anyway, thanks for making this video, Tyler. I found some songs I really like here.

I remember learning classical gas, tommy emanuel version, it was very difficult also tall fiddler or guitar boogie. what about billy strings. I play a lot of fingerstyle so I know how hard it can be lol

Billy strings pieces are pretty insane technical wise, would love you see you react and play that!

The Clap from The Yes Album (1970) is the hardest acoustic guitar song, played by Steve Howe. I could play it years ago, but I am kind of rusty on that song now, lol.

Hi my name is Bode and I’m a student of one of your friends Jesse Trepiak I’m 10 and i love your videos I discovered your channel from him and i love the videos ! ❤

"Classical Gas," "Blackbird" and "Operator" were the songs that inspired me to learn guitar. It's not that they're really that difficult, but they're difficult to play CORRECTLY. Another that should be mentioned is Bruce Cockburn's "Wondering Where the Lions Are."

I think Rik Emmett of Triumph is probably one of the more underrated guitarist out there. One of my favorite acoustic guitar songs, and yes it is just an instrumental is “Midsummer’s Daydream” off of Thunder Seven

I really enjoyed this one, thank you Ty ❤❤❤❤

for me Mediterranean Sundance/Río Ancho performed by Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía . Masterpiece!

Steve Howe's the clap , very hard to play chords and runs. And crazy rhythms.

IDK if this is one of the hardest acoustic songs or not, but a slam-dunk inclusion on this list would without a doubt be Diary of a Madman by Ozzy Osbourne, given that it shows Randy Rhoads at his absolute peak in terms acoustic/classical playing. Also, the song is, IMO, the best Ozzy Osbourne song ever.

I was so proud when I finally learned the crazy on you intro, although rather sloppily. Such a tasty piece.

Tyler you should make a top 10 hardest acoustic/rock songs list to show watch mojo how's it done, also to give us great songs we should learn ( which is the only reason i watch these types of videos in the first place)

Id love to hear you try to learn Big Love (live acoustic) by ear, like you did with Neon

John Butler Trio by the way, not Jack. He was nice enough to come to my high school in 2011 and teach the music students some things and play a couple songs. Got to see him perform Ocean in a classroom of maybe 40 people consisting of students and it is still to this day one of the best live performances I've ever seen.

Thanks for a great video, and I love the harp guitar! To get close to sounding like James Taylor, you must become your own bass player. He is purposeful in creating a bassline; he builds all of his Jamesisms on top of the bassline. Ask Lee Sklar: mirror James' bassline, or play something that isn't a bassline. My top two hardest acoustic guitar songs are 'Aerial Boundaries' by Michael Hedges and 'Helms Place' by Billy McLaughlin. Thanks again.

Blackbird is a song that looks soooo unbelievably hard to play but actually isnt so hard to pull of in the end

Blackbird isn't Travis picked

Hello, I've been subscribed to you forever and appreciate your videos! I vote song for George as hardest acoustic by Eric Johnson. That one nearly broke my fingers!

The Clap by Steve Howe from Yes is the hardest acoustic song imo

Angie by Davey graham (popularised by Bert janch) is pretty tough. It’s basically very similar to that tricky A minor riff you where struggling with but with a walking baseline underneath.

Greg Lake (ELP) has some fantastic acoustic Prog-Rock stuff (From The Beginning) I agree with you about the Metallica misstep (Nothing Else Matters - not terribly difficult, just cool sounding) I recently added the intro to Crazy On You to my list of show-off stuff.

Would love to see you play Spanish Fly. I never really see much VH love. No EVH gear demos or nods to all that he accomplished! Love your playing! Keep up the great work!

I remember when I was a kid I had decided almost anything by Jim Croce was hard! At the time he used chords and voicings I'd never seen before. He was awesome.

I think the WatchMojo list is just whatever the person making the list can remember. There is a WORLD of acoustic guitarists that absolutely blow my mind. Trace Bundy, Andy McKee, Andrew York, Michael Hedges, Tommy Emmanuel, hey even google ol' Luca Stricagnoli who has been doing some amazing covers lately on Insta and YT. In modern culture though I think they did OK. The ones you mentioned at the end did pop to mind, especially Ocean by the John Butler Trio. People know them well enough.

Maybe not the hardest, but Michael Hedges' deserves some love. Let's go with "Ritual Dance."

Love Over Gold- Dire Straits. The outro to this song is incredible. Knopfler's playing is so intricate and yet so clean.

Mike Dawes is absolutely AWESOME. He's touring with Justin Hayward in the Justin Hayward/Christopher Cross show. We saw him a few months ago in Worcester MA. Mike came out first and absolutely floored us!!! OMG he is SO good! He used every part of the guitar in his compositions. The man is a genius. After his show he joined in with Justin Hayward for his part of the show, and, of course, was fantastic. Then Christopher Cross had his part. It was such an amazing show, with Mike Dawes certainly being the highlight of the evening. It was one of the best shows I've seen in a very long time.

Definitely surprised Neon wasn't on there given that it's a very common example of a very hard acoustic song. I also thought of "Ocean" right away, though I'm not as surprised it was overlooked given it's not as popular (though has a ton of views on KZfaq). Though the correct answer to this list is literally anything Marcin has ever composed. Though they did disqualify classical pieces at the beginning of the vid, but he still plays more than that.

As far as Fleetwood Mac is concerned, my pick would be Big Love acoustic live version. Not the hardest song, but bearing in mind that Lindsey Buckingham is doing the lead vocals at the same time. Some Michael Hedges songs also might make the list, but not from a populair standpoint perhaps.

Maybe not the most difficult but Little Martha from The Allman Brothers would rank in this list

“Never Going Back Again” is sneaky hard to play with that modified Travis picking, plus singing on top of that. I’m cool with it at two.

Glad to see Jim Croce mentioned. The guy was incredible and died far too young.

For the record, Django Reinhardt had 2 and a half fingers. He could slide and bar the high strings with his stump half finger that couldn't bend. It allowed him to still do 5th chords.

I assume WatchMojo is an American channel. Any British one would have had by Richard Thompson. Aside from him, the glaring omission and the song I would consider the hardest acoustic number would be Jorma Kaukonen's playing on Jefferson Airplane's 'Embryonic Journey'. Woah.

5:45 "Get out of the way, ring finger!!" cracked my up.

I would say you could make a case for a lot of Jethro Tull songs to be on this list. Ian Anderson is an amazing acoustic guitar player.

Nancy Wilson is a massive guitarist. In other news, Landslide by Fleetwood Mac may be a good song to try

Jim Croce was indeed a fantastic guitar player. My pick from him would be "Time In A Bottle." It took me years, but I finally learned how to play the main guitar part. I've never tried the second guitar part.

Glad to see Nancy Wilson getting respect! I've played all of these with the exception of Spanish Fly and Django. As a good Canadian I would be remiss if I didn't mention Bruce Cockburn. "If I had a Rocket Luncher", "Wondering where the Lions Are" are much harder to pull off than most of the songs on the list. "Shape of My Heart" (Sting), "Romeo and Juliet" (Knopfler) are also demanding... feels like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon should be in the frame as well.

As far as Zeppelin goes, I would disagree with Going to California and say Bron-Yr-Aur. Once you get the travis picking down, Going to California is really pretty easy to play (much like Blackbird). Bron-Yr-Aur is not only a beautiful song, it is incredibly satisfying to learn and play.

Great video. Worth mentioning that Paul doesn’t play Blackbird using Travis Picking though. He does his own little technique with thumb and index which is a bit more difficult, but still doesn’t belong on this list.

Neon, Classical Gas, definitely Crazy On You intro... By the way, Tyler what's up with the music @ the end? Sounds like "Last Christmas" by Wham!!! 😂

I’m sort of an intermediate guitar player, I never learned theory properly or atleast in the chronological order. Is guitar super system for me? Do we also get live sessions? How does one get feedback on their playing? Please answer these questions, I’m this close to joining. This is my favourite guitar channel, Been here since 2018

One of my favorite acoustic intros is Warrant’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Been trying to find a good tab for it forever.

They had an inexcusable lack of Joni Mitchell songs in that list.

I love that heart riff. my girlfriend who isnt a musician hears me play that and goes "oh youre doing that again?" not too difficult IMO but super fun to play once you get it. I also finger pick it

Crazy on You is freaking hard. That one definitely belongs, I haven’t attempted it in awhile but, I could never get it down growing up. I’m super impressed they put Operator on there, definitely sneaky tough. Also an extremely under rated song, one of the best songs ever written in my opinion, it’s perfect. It’s also two guitar parts but, the rhythm part is probably the hardest.

They did put Lindsey Buckingham on here with Fleetwood Mac, but I think his songs "time precious time" or "big love" much more deserve to be there. Insane fingerpicking

My pick for led zeppelin is Black mointain side. The white summer/black mountain side version he played live (on electric) is absolutely insane.

10:55 it's the John Butler Trio btw, great video btw

As a non guitar player, watching you try that song by Heart was massively entertaining 😂 thank you!

“Midsummers Daydream” by Triumph. The changes are tough but the timing is insanely difficult. Almost all covers I have heard have been too fast. Kudos to those who can play it though; it’s too advanced for me…

I feel like Leo Kottke should have at least gotten an honorable mention.

Oh yeah for Zepp: Going to California or the rain song especially the outro!

The answer is subjective for sure. Any Tommy Emmanuel song works for me. I guess my favorite of his is TE Ranch or Mombasa. Mombasa is a fun song to learn and play. Beautiful melody.🙂

McCartney has a weird acoustic fingerstyle method, doing up and down strokes with one finger. A little trickier than two finger Travis picking I find!

As far as the LED Zeppelin song I'd have to say The Rain Song is the hardest acoustic song to play. It's the tuning mostly but the chords I think are different than normal standard chords so that definitely makes the rain song tough. And I play fire and rain but not like James Taylor does lol 😂

Hearing Tyler say that the Crazy on You intro has a "hard move right there" ( 4:29 ) makes me feel so proud of being able to play this intro, it's SO FUN and way easier than it actually sounds, very creative use of the guitar. Everything is so subjective, I feel good about myself now :) Edit: Tyler can definitely learn to play the song with his big hands/fingers (Keep practicing!!) the pads on my fingers are very thick/deep and it's possible to hold the Am without blocking the B string

What makes the Crazy On You intro so difficult is not only the fretting but the hybrid picking. Peddling the open A with a pick while finger picking the rest of the notes is the challenge. At least for me that was one of the hardest parts to learn.

Toughest one I've never mastered. Midsummer's Day Dream by Rik Emmett. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

More like "The TOP 10 HARDEST ACOUSTIC GUITAR SONGS FOR BEGINNERS"

The intro to crazy on you is my acoustic tester riff haha. Love it

One of my favorite acoustic songs of zeppelin is babe I'm gonna leave you. It's simple but the note changes on the b string make it so awesome.

I genuinely said "what?" out loud when I saw number 9. That was literally the first song I learned on acoustic.