Just formed a new band, need help, more info inside!

[Matt27015]

I just recently formed a blues/rock cover band with some people from a jazz repertoire class I am taking.

I think it's important to note that our band consists of a drummer, singer (female with mid to high voice range), guitarist, and me (bassist of course ).

Thing is, up until now our song choices have been somewhat limited, because both the drummer and I are 'more experienced' players, if you will, as opposed to the guitarist. I'm not worried about our vocalist, she's very solid. Our goal as a band is to get to playing small gigs around town asap.

Long story short, I'm trying to find some songs to cover in which the guitar partition is relatively easy, but where the bass/drums are a little more interesting. I really enjoy playing more challenging tunes (basslines/drums such as Rush come to mind, to give you a rough perspective.) Artists such as Wooten/Pastorius are still well beyond me however...

Anyways, hope to get some help from you guys, I'd really appreciate any input!

-Matt

[cgnortheast]

One suggestion I have is to let each member of your band bring a CD with some tunes they might like to cover on it. Listen to them as a band, decide what oyu want to cover, let people vote on them, whatever. That way everyone gets served. Also, most audience type people would rather listen to stuff other than what we music nerds geek out to, that includes Rush and many many many others.....including Vic Wooten and Jaco....some of their stuff is accessible, but most is not very well known.
If you just want to get up and running quickly, I'd highly recommend funk. It's super easy to learn and play and if your singer has a sexy voice and good timing, people will make it a point to come see you....

[Matt27015]

Allright thanks for the help man! I've got a few ideas already, but got any you think would definetely be worth checking out?

[standupright]

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...80#post8090280

[Alexander]

That's a hard one - most of the simpler guitar songs involve simpler bass\drum parts as well. Do you think it would be possible to recruit a second guitarist with a bit more chops? He could then pick up some of the trickier bits while the other guitarist does some of the simpler stuff...

[ForestThump]

This sounds like a great reason to write your own songs that are adapted to what the group want to sound like and the level that each player is at.
Perhaps the guitarist can take a more rhythmic approach instead of extended melodic solos. Keep it simple, keep it strong!

[Steve]

Teach him how to upstroke a 9th and go reggae on his @$$.