The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Hey Folks,

My gf is learning to play the drums and I wanted to make a list of easy songs for her to play along with. Popular songs with a straight four drum beat are best. Think along the lines of Billy Jean by Michael Jackson.

Thanks!

Ken

Def Lepper and Daft Punk come to mind, as well as the Beastie Boys. Or you could record some "blank" songs that are made to be played with. I did that for a friend who is learning guitar, and he said it worked fantastic.

Pretty much the entire AC/DC catalog. Same beat, different tempos. Or Sharp Dressed Man for some simple fills.

Tequila! Good for an intro to working the ride.

Rock Band 1 and 2 are good sources of songs that are fun to play drums to. If you can find track lists sorted by difficulty you can figure out which ones would be good for beginners. Some of The Cars' hits, which are available as downloadable content for RB2, have some good straight rock drumming in them, for example.

When I first started learning drums, I played along with POD's old album - Brown a lot. There's some pretty simple stuff on that album, but it's got some basic dynamic changes too. And it would be a hell of a lot more fun to play than Billie Jean, as much as I love that tune.

It's debatable of course but I think the entire Ringo Starr catalog is a good place to start. The Car's suggestion is good as well, but let me take it a step further and suggest Gary Numan's "Cars" song. Solid easy beat, tempo changes, big cymbal hits in place of the synthesized snare drum, small relatively easy snare fills. Yeah that song has it going on for beginner drummers.

Might I suggest the White Stripes? It doesn't get much more basic than Meg's drumming. Don't get me wrong, I love it in the context of their music, but it's simple stuff.

Simplicity isn't nearly as important as her familiarity with and love for the song she's playing.

I got my start drumming by playing along to They Might Be Giants songs, even ones that had drum machines. I knew those songs inside and out, so I was able to focus on playing these new rhythms rather than listening to make sure I was doing it right (because I would already know if I was or wasn't doing it right).

I was going to post some easy Rock Band 2 stuff earlier, but then I thought better of it and didn't. I've really enjoyed playing the drums on it, and I picked up a good chunk of Doolittle by the Pixies for the game. The drum parts are very straightforward, as a rule. Try those out, especially "Tame," "I Bleed," "Here Comes Your Man."

I second "Doolittle" by The Pixies. I've played along to a lot of the songs from that album myself and they're both fun and relatively accessible to a newbie. I can't remember which song it is, but there's one that's basically the same simple beat the whole time, with just some variation on how open the hi-hat is.