Songs on the guitar
Every song in the catalogue - but the guitar is the one instrument here that answers a different question. Not "has it got the notes" but "are they under one still hand".
Why 100, and not 100
A lesson keeps the hand in a single position: the open strings plus four frets, a shape you can hold without looking. The position itself slides - anywhere from the nut up to the eighth fret - so a high tune is met by moving the hand rather than by dragging the tune down into the bass.
That is why nearly half the catalogue sounds an octave below where a piano would play it. Standard tuning bottoms out at E2 and the singing part of the neck sits below the treble stave; a guitar playing a folk tune at soprano pitch would be playing it in a register a guitar does not have.
Where the tunes sit
Of the 100 it plays, 55 are taught at written pitch , 45 move a whole octave - same note names, different register .
Easy 47
- Mary Had a Little Lamb at written pitch
- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star at written pitch
- Ode to Joy at written pitch
- Jingle Bells at written pitch
- Happy Birthday to You at written pitch
- Amazing Grace at written pitch
- Auld Lang Syne at written pitch
- Lullaby at written pitch
- Silent Night down 1 octave
- Joy to the World at written pitch
- The First Noel at written pitch
- O Come, All Ye Faithful down 1 octave
- Hark! The Herald Angels Sing at written pitch
- Good King Wenceslas down 1 octave
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas at written pitch
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat at written pitch
- Pop Goes the Weasel at written pitch
- Au clair de la lune at written pitch
- For He's a Jolly Good Fellow at written pitch
- Hot Cross Buns down 1 octave
- Itsy Bitsy Spider down 1 octave
- When the Saints Go Marching In at written pitch
- Danny Boy at written pitch
- Scarborough Fair at written pitch
- Loch Lomond at written pitch
- The Wild Rover down 1 octave
- The Parting Glass at written pitch
- The Star of the County Down down 1 octave
- She Moved Through the Fair down 1 octave
- Träumerei down 1 octave
- Home, Sweet Home down 1 octave
- God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen down 1 octave
- Away in a Manger at written pitch
- O Little Town of Bethlehem at written pitch
- Kagome Kagome at written pitch
- Alle meine Entchen at written pitch
- Red River Valley at written pitch
- Arirang at written pitch
- The Skye Boat Song at written pitch
- Symphony No. 5 down 1 octave
- Eine kleine Nachtmusik down 1 octave
- Sonata facile down 1 octave
- Ave verum corpus at written pitch
- Andante grazioso at written pitch
- Sheep May Safely Graze down 1 octave
- Heidenröslein down 1 octave
- Emperor's Hymn down 1 octave
Medium 27
- The Holly and the Ivy at written pitch
- Deck the Halls at written pitch
- Humpty Dumpty down 1 octave
- London Bridge Is Falling Down at written pitch
- Lightly Row down 1 octave
- Alouette down 1 octave
- My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean at written pitch
- Down by the Salley Gardens at written pitch
- The Minstrel Boy at written pitch
- The Last Rose of Summer at written pitch
- Soldier's Joy down 1 octave
- Angels We Have Heard on High down 1 octave
- We Three Kings at written pitch
- Korobeiniki down 1 octave
- Tōryanse at written pitch
- Sur le pont d'Avignon at written pitch
- Santa Lucia down 1 octave
- Mo Li Hua at written pitch
- Kangding Love Song at written pitch
- Song Bie at written pitch
- Greensleeves at written pitch
- Ye Banks and Braes down 1 octave
- Rondo alla Turca down 1 octave
- Menuett in E flat at written pitch
- Moonlight Sonata at written pitch
- Minuet in G down 1 octave
- Gymnopédie No. 1 down 1 octave
Hard 26
- Whiskey in the Jar at written pitch
- The Water Is Wide down 1 octave
- Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms at written pitch
- The Ash Grove down 1 octave
- The Irish Washerwoman down 1 octave
- John Ryan's Polka down 1 octave
- Mairi's Wedding down 1 octave
- Bist du bei mir down 1 octave
- Prelude Op. 28 No. 7 down 1 octave
- Musette in D down 1 octave
- Old French Song down 1 octave
- Thaxted at written pitch
- La Marseillaise down 1 octave
- Waltzing Matilda at written pitch
- La Cucaracha at written pitch
- Bella ciao down 1 octave
- Battle Hymn of the Republic at written pitch
- À la claire fontaine at written pitch
- Für Elise down 1 octave
- Turkish March down 1 octave
- Menuetto in G at written pitch
- Pathétique Adagio at written pitch
- Die Forelle down 1 octave
- Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 down 1 octave
- In the Hall of the Mountain King up 1 octave
- March of the Wooden Soldiers down 1 octave
The same catalogue, other instruments
One song list, nine instruments, and every one of them meets it differently.