Need advice from real musicians (any instrument welcome!)

[Wolfbeckett]

So me and some buddies of mine had our first real band practice a few days ago, and it was super awesome. I have never played music in a group before and it was pretty much the most fun thing I have ever done. Problem is, we did not actually play any songs, we just sort of jammed, which was fun, but I would like us to start doing actual songs as well.

The real issue we have with this is that both the guitarist and myself (drums) are newbs. I have been playing for about 5 months and he has been playing since Christmas, so ~7 months or so. Now I think I am pretty decent for the amount of time I have been playing, I can play consistently up to about 120-140 BPM as long as the pattern is not horribly complex and I seem to pretty good at improving too. Our guitarist however has not been super diligent with his practice, so he can play some chords but he is not super fast at changing between them.

So I am reaching out to our great community here at Rockband.com. I need suggestions on songs we can learn. Here are the criteria:

1.) They must be rock. None of us have any interest in playing country, folk, teenie bopper pop, or anything like that, we are rock fans. Metal would be fantastic because we all like it but most metal is probably going to be way beyond our guitarists ability so any other kind of rock will be great too.

2.) They can not be too difficult on guitar. Please no barre chords since our guitarist can not play them yet. He can do all of the standard major and minor chords, dominant 7ths, and I could probably teach him suspended open chords without much difficulty if need be.

3.) Nothing too fast. As I said I can go as high as maybe 140 BPM and stay on top of it but much beyond that is pushing the boundaries of my current ability. No 200 BPM Ramones songs please .

That's it! Any songs you guys can recommend would be supremely awesome! Thanks for reading!

TL;DR version: I need advice for songs my band can play that are not too fast, not too difficult on guitar, and are rock songs.

[TheClashTheClashTheClash]

If your guitarist isn't that good, do some punk. Especially the Ramones...I'm a bassist with horrible guitar skills but I can even play some Ramones songs on guitar

[Alright_Computer]

Learn Alex Chilton by the Replacements. Not only do you already know it from Rock Band, but it's also really easy to learn and it sounds awesome. DO IT NAO

[TheClashTheClashTheClash]

Learn Alex Chilton by the Replacements. Not only do you already know it from Rock Band, but it's also really easy to learn and it sounds awesome. DO IT NAO

I wanna learn that on bass but I can't find the tabs for it

[neckermanncj]

Problem is, we did not actually play any songs, we just sort of jammed, which was fun, but I would like us to start doing actual songs as well.

a lot of bands are very successful doing that, notable Phish, Dave Matthews and Grateful Dead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_jam_bands

[Alright_Computer]

I wanna learn that on bass but I can't find the tabs for it

It's easy enough to figure out. With the exception of the main riff, it's basically just the root notes of the guitar, and the main riff is easy enough to figure out, I guess.

[TheClashTheClashTheClash]

It's easy enough to figure out. With the exception of the main riff, it's basically just the root notes of the guitar, and the main riff is easy enough to figure out, I guess.

Yea I'll probably just look at the guitar tab and figure it out that way. I could've sworn a couple of months ago I saw the bass tab for it but its not on UG or bassmasta

[voodoo618]

The intro to War Pigs.

[The Highway To Hell]

A very simple song that EVERYBODY knows and is very easy?

My best recomendation is AC/DC - Back In Black.

It's easy for drums, and there is only 3 chords for guitarists.


Lenny Kravitz - Are You Go My Way is an exciting song to play. And it's pretty simple, though you won't be able to recreate some of the effects without a music studio.


Jackyl - I Stand Alone is a moderate paced song that I think your guitarist can handle, the drumming has some slight variation and short fills, but I think they are easy enough for a beginning drummer.



EDIT: I'll see if I can find more songs in case you want to do multiple songs.

[Ultimatum]

Pixies, Nirvana, and some Grateful Dead material are all pretty easy too.