Songs Consolidation & Repertoire Check In - Beginner Electric

Top 10 songs to bass beginner electric - Grade 2

Full songs along to the recording

1. The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army - standard tuning with power chords

2. Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly (no capo version, full song)

3. The Kinks - You Really Got Me

4. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

5. Stereophonics - Dakota (power chords and main lead parts, verse picking part is a grade 3 level)

6. Oasis - Acquiesce or Cigarettes and Alcohol

7. Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

8. Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

9. The Surfaris - Wipeout

10. (Sitting on) The Dock Of The Bay

11. AC/DC - Highway To hell or Rock N Roll Train

12. House of the Rising Sun

13. Heartbreak Hotel

14. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

15. Oasis - Helter Skelter

What is an ideal song repertoire for a beginner?

In theory, an ideal beginner song repertoire is one that is full of songs you enjoy playing. In practice, however, this can lead to three things that we want to avoid;

1. Big gap in the persons playing ability

2. A repertoire of songs no one else will recognise (leading to making playing both with another guitarists or playing in front of anyone else potentially more difficult)

3. A repertoire full of difficult songs, all on the edge of or beyond your current playing ability

To combat the above, here's a suggestion of a bunch of beginner classics, all with links to comprehensive song tutorials on this website. These have been categorised so that if you do spot that you have a lot from one category, but none from another, this could be something to address at a late stage beginner level.

N.B. You're not expected to be able to play ALL these. There are many written here to give you options :)

Beginner classics & popular sing-alongs

• House of the Rising Sun

• Oasis - Live forever

• Dakota - Stereophonics

• Otis Redding - Dock of the Bay

Easy Riff based songs

These choices are all from my online band program and are beginner friendly for late stage beginners;

• The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army

• Tom Petty - Running Down A Dream

• Peter Gunn Theme

• Heard It Through The Grapevine/ Seen The Rain/ Proud Mary - All CCR

• Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man

• George Satellites - Keep Your Hands To Yourself

• The Doors - Roadhouse blues

• The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction

• Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly

• R.E.M - Everybody Hurts

• Leonard Cohen/ Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

• Eric Clapton - Cocaine

Ideal song late stage beginner repertoire

So, for example, a 10 song repertoire showcasing a range of song types could be;

1. Highway To Hell (4 chord easy riff song)

2. Sweet Home Alabama (3 chord easy, learn the riff at intermediate level)

3. Oasis - Live Forever rhythm/ chords (beginner classic)

4. Satisfaction (easy riff, be able to play through song)

5. R.E.M - Everybody Hurts (easy fingerstyle riff)

6. Hallelujah (simplified fingerstyle version)

7. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

8. Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight

9. Oasis - Helter Skelter

Hopefully this will help give you some ideas of where you're at and what your repertoire is missing. I hope it helps!

Intermediate lead solos:

• RHCP songs a CORE feature

• Cissy Strut and similar songs

• Buddy Holly - That’ll Be The Day

• Walk Of Life rhythm parts no capo

• Clapton - Crossroads

• Johnny Be Good/ Roll Over Beethoven/ No Particular Place To Go

• Green Day - Holiday

• ZZ Top - La Grange

• Pixies - Where Is My Mind

• Blues Scale songs/ riffs

• Fortunate Son

• You Give Love A Bad Name

• Apache

• Drive My Car

• Day Tripper

• Get Back

• The Thrill is Gone

• T-Bone Shuffle - jazz blues

• The Rolling Stones - Open G songs

• Open E tuning songs