hey y'all,


just found out I am playing in the pep band for the men's basketball team. Aside from the main music, the director, if there is no time for a whole song/the announcers talk way too much etc, he likes to have the bass/drums jam. Now, i can jam my own stuff, but it is fun when they would play something recognizable, and, well, kind of peppy.

I have some ideas, but I wanted to get some imput for which songs/bass lines would be good in this setting.


Thanks a bunch guys. It's gonna be a fun gig.

electric bass in pep band?

Figure out a lick from BYU's fight song, short for a filler, see if the director will let you play that.

Mock opposing schools fight songs?

Jeopardy theme for when the refs are taking too long.

I played in a volleyball pep band, but the NCAA rules never let us play much of anything. Too many rules as to when we could play.

Dude, I play for the pep band at my university as well :hyper: I don't know if you're in highschool or college, it's all good anyway.
In my band we have a bunch of "shorties" that we can pull out and play during the 30 second timeouts (I'm still trying to figure out how that works). However, if you could pull if off some Victor Wooten would be cool for a bass n' drums jam. Some RATM might work too. I don't know, there's a lot of stuff out there, just go watch some youtube vids and see what you dig :bassist:

electric bass in pep band?

yes. as well as 5 saxes, 4 horns, 2 baritones, 2 tubas, 9 trumpets, 6 trombones, and drums.




YEah, there are a lot of rules about when we can play. I am just looking for cool ideas when there isn't time for the whole band to pull up a tune. The director will just point at us and expect us to jam. We have a book with 150+ tunes the band knows.

wow... that's interesting.
In my high school (graduated 2007) pep band was the full marching band, with eight to eleven tubas (depending on the year) and a full drumline. Sometimes it was split in half for smaller games.
Now that I think of it, I do remember seeing other schools have smaller pep bands with drumsets and electric bass and guitar.

no guitar, although I was asked to put together a small pep band for a hockey game last year... had a big ol funk band pretty much, trumpet, like 4 saxes, guitar bass drums. It was a ton of fun.

electric bass in pep band?

I did it...I got to sit on my amp while the rest of those fools marched in the hot, hot sun :D (we need a mauahahah smiley)

We used to play those 30 second 16 bar, little cue card songs on the bleachers...we where never very good at them, since we never practiced them, and cause we where rag tag as heck...but how could a bass drum jam take less time than that?

Congrats on pep band. I played in my high school pep band as well. I was a drummer then though, we also had electric bass and guitar. That was in 90-93.

Anyway, have fun with it. Keep in mind the fans are not there to hear you play technical Jaco, Victor Wooten, ect. lines. They most likely don't even know who they are. Stick with simple stuff everyone has heard, they are there to watch a game not, see a bass concert.

We will rock you
We are the champions
Rock you like a hurricane
Enter Sandman
Another one bites the dust (for penaltys ect)

Songs that people will reconize in the first bar or two....keep it simple and fun.

Edit: I just remembered....between periods we would play longer songs, well the band got together and learned how to play a song called Three Headed Chick, by Lord Tracy. At first the crowd had never heard of it, but soon the word got around and the students at our school would sing it loud when we played it. It took awhile maybe 5 or so games before the staff caught on to the words of the song and then some of us, myself included got suspended from school for 3 days for playing it. It was funny and worth it. But I don't recommend it. LOL

electric bass in pep band?

Heck yeah. I played for the basketball spirit band my senior year in college. What a blast. (Plus I got to stand on the floor right behind the pom girls. Yow.)

Here's some suggestions:
Hoop + harm = "Demolition Man" by the Police
Team intro = "Superfreak" by Rick James
Opposing player fouls out = "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen
During other times, just jam on something that you and the drummer both know. It doesn't matter because very few people will be paying attention anyway. Just have fun. :cool:

I second mocking the other teams fight song...play it diminished or minor or something to mess with them, as long as it won't get you in trouble. Or take the last song they played and funk it up.

I played bass in the pep band too. I started playing "Brick House" once and every game after that the drummer would yell out "BRICK HOUSE!!!" Every other time out, he loved it... Everyone knows it, it's funky, and it allows your to slap n goes nuts if you chose.

Another good one is Lowrider, just get a bone and a trumpet and you're good. Just a couple quickies that the people should recognize and enjoy.

It's been a long time, but I remember playing electric bass in the pep band. The band director was into the Blues Brothers stuff and we did several short takes on their stuff. One of my favorites was "I Can't Turn You Loose." Otis Redding, actually, but most were familiar with the BB version.

I just remembered me and the pep band drummer used to always do Mario level 1-2 that was always a lot of fun.