Part of the fun of NFS is developing a repertoire of songs that everyone in my family knows. When I was a kid, my sisters and I knew all songs from The Sound of Music because we saw that movie on television every year. With NFS, our kids are singing along weekly to Johnny Cash, or Paul Simon or Carole King and suddenly we have a rich family songbook. When one of those songs pops up on the radio, we all sing along (if they aren’t bickering over who gets to sing a solo).

A few of the singers in NFS have mentioned to me that they were bedroom guitarists themselves, so I’ve been organizing beginner guitar jams.

The trouble is, people don’t always know the same songs.

(Wife: Everybody loves Cat Stevens!
Me: Not everybody in this marriage loves Cat Stevens.)

So I picked out some well-known, three-chord songs, each with different things to try — like a short riff, or the chance to play in different positions on the guitar, or practice with barre chords — and I made a short “songbook” to share. If you’re a bedroom guitarist and have interest in hanging out and playing with me, here is a Google Doc with some songs I know that we can play together.