Songs in C Major?

[MinorPentatonic]

OK peeps please bear with me.....it's open mike night on Sunday next, if we were to get up on stage and play something nice and simple around C major or A major, cos thats about the level at the mo, do you have any suggestions as to what? (Even to my fairly untrained ear Fool In The Rain seems to have a C maj derived bass on it)

[Tingly]

Jeez. Very broad question. Other than the Zeppelin tune, um, is there a particular "genre" you're interested in performing? Blues? Rock? For instance, my band does Creedence's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" in C.

Also, remember that, although there might be reasons why you would want to respect the original key of a tune to be covered, ANY song can be TRANSPOSED to C major, no?

[MinorPentatonic]

Thanks for the reply...........well um I was thinking more of a slow ballady sort of thing (I can sing a little bit y'see). Kind of like a big Elvis 70's number LOL

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Originally Posted by Tingly

Also, remember that, although there might be reasons why you would want to respect the original key of a tune to be covered, ANY song can be TRANSPOSED to C major, no?

Unless the song is dependant on playing open strings, I'd just go this route.

OR, if you're asking the question more for yourself as a bassist, playing in ANY key is as easy as playing in C (again, unless the song is dependant on open strings). One of the nicer things about playing an instrument that's tuned in fourths all the way up is the symmetry in the fingerboard, allowing all the fingering patterns you've learned for C major to work with every other key (playing a five or six-string can aid in this).

[pontz]

Here are a few tunes everyone knows that are comonnly played in C mixo (which just mean you have to flat the 7th):

Traffic's version of Fellin' Alright, Mustang Sally, Motown versions of Heard it Through the Grapevine, Southbound

[Llama's Rage]

remember that Amin = Cmaj....so you can play like 90% of santana songs now


learn smooth, its an easy song to learn, has a good groove, and is easy/fun to jam on

[leanne]

like a rolling stone
ain't too proud to beg

[wulf]

Being in C major doesn't make a song "easy". There's a whole bunch of songs you can get by with two or three notes and it doesn't matter if they're C, F and G or C#, F# and G# as long as you find your starting point.

Who else are you playing with and what things do they know?

Wulf

[Bruce Lindfield]

I agree with Wulf - what key the thing is in, bears no relation to how "easy" anything is to play - in fact , I would say that is the last consideration you want to be making!

I could show you or play you, some really tough,rhythmically complex bass lines in C Major and I could similarly show you some nice easy riffs in C# Minor!!

A "3 chord trick" is a "3 chord trick", no matter what key those chords are in!!

[Bass2x]

Maybe it's the keyboard player that forces the band into the C key restrictiction?