instrumentals

First off, you can turn any song you want into an instrumental. You (or another instrument) play the melody and the rest of the band plays the chords and rhythm and there you go. Think of it as a reasonably care-free, although potentially lengthy, solo. Band mates can even take turns playing the melody or melodic-style improvisations on the melody with each verse.

That being said, there are a number of easy (and usually recognized) solo pieces for bands. Tequilla by the Champs (with Seals and Crofts before they were Seals and Crofts) and Walk Don't Run by the Ventures are quick and easy to learn. TV theme songs are also fairly easy to learn. King of the Hill is a lot of fun on guitar. And then there are wonderfully beautiful pieces like Sleepwalk (Santo and Johnny) that will certainly go over well for weddings and other formal occasions.

There are tons more and I'm sure others will be chipping in their ideas soon, but I hope this helps for starters.

Peace

Thanks again David - i will go and youtube those suggestions now and have a listen to them.
But actually, the first thing you said - about turning any song into an instrumental really hit home. It had never occured to me to do that - but what a good idea!

You might not remember but over christmas you helped me with a Mr brightside chord melody piece - which i have now got finished(ish) - i think for the type of places we play that would go down really well - ill put it to the guys.

Thanks again. AL

Two that spring to mind are Freddie King's blues tunes Hideaway (covered by Eric Clapton on the John Mayall Beano album) and The Stumble (covered by Peter Green on the John Mayall album after Eric's, I think). Both are uptempo blues shuffles. Hideaway changes rhythm in a few places, adding interest. But, as they're both based on 12 bar, it should be easy to come up with alternatives for any bits you find too challenging (tho I don't doubt you're capable of playing both of these). SRV also covered Hideaway at some point.

There's also Green's Albatross, well known and very nice and chill.

For other bluesy yet not too taxing instrumentals, Kenny Burrell is a good check. I like his album Midnight Blue, which features Chitlins Con Carne, covered later by SRV. You might also wanna peep SRV's instrumental version of Hendrix's Little Wing, as David noted any tune can become an instrumental if you like it enough to develop an arrangement. SRV also had an instrumental called Lenny, which has some nice jazzy chords and a laid back feel. Oh, and for more examples of songs becoming instrumentals, hit up youtube for Jeff Beck doing Day In The Life (Beatles) and Drown In My Own Tears (Ray Charles).

Hope this helps.

cheers scrybe - some more great suggestions. I can see how im going spend my summer off now !!

Heh, I was only going to write one line pointing to the F. King stuff, but once I started typing...

I have full tab for Hideaway, the Clapton version, should you decide to tackle it, I can always sort a photocopy or somesuch for you.

ive just come off youtube and the stumble sounds very good - i saw the gary moor version.
i think ill start with that one and the sleepwalk that david suggested - two instrumentals with differrent feels to them.

cheers guys !!

The Shadows have a whole range of instrumentals - go here, you get not only the tab and chords, but also a rendition of how it should sound and a backing track (that Goran has used for the rendition). Well known are Apache, Dance On, Wonderful Land, FBI, Foot Tapper (Goran has 125 or so to choose from). They did a very nice rendition of Cavatina, as well. Oh, and a non-slide version of Sleepwalk.

What about Wipeout from the Surfaris, Pipeline (Chantays, Surfaris, etc), Walk don't run (again, several artists).

Fleetwood Mac's Albatross (you really need at least 2 guitars for this).

What about the Allman Brother's Jessica (theme tune from Top Gear - again, uses two guitars)?

Freddie King's Stumble and Hideaway (already mentioned), as well as San Ho Zay.

For a really slow, but fairly ambitious number, try Mark Knopfler's Local Hero (here)

Then, there's Samba Pa Ti by Carlos Santana

What about a couple of oldies? Summertime? Stranger on the Shore? Freight Train? Orange Blossom Special?

If you really want to stretch your fingers, try Sabre Dance by Dave Edmunds (Sabre Dance)

Jeff Beck? Beck's Bolero?

Guitar Boogie Shuffle (any one of 100 variations by 100 different artists). The Shadows have a version called Shadoogie.

I have tab for most of these pieces (not that I can play them all :D )

Díck Dale and Misirlou (used in Pulp Fiction).

Then there was Glen Frey's Crockett Theme for Miami Vice, the theme from Top Gun. What about Peter Gunn, Hawaii 5-0, Yakety Yak?

great list greybeard. im off to youtube once more to check them out :D

I have full tab for Hideaway, the Clapton version, should you decide to tackle it, I can always sort a photocopy or somesuch for you.
I'd like a copy of that, if you can arrange it. In recompense, here's a link to a backing track for it http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/play/clapton,_eric/hideaway.htm

I have a powertab of Freddy King's version, if that's any help to anyone.

What about the Pink Panther theme? James bond Theme?

I also forgot Peter Gunn, and Green Onions (Booker T and the MGs).

Greybeard - I could either photocopy and post it to you, or try photographing it and uploading. I don't have a scanner I'm afraid.

I'm a plank.... I have Guitar Pro 5 and could copy it up in there, if that's any use also.

I'm a plank.... I have Guitar Pro 5 and could copy it up in there, if that's any use also.
I've seen pix and you look nothing like a plank.

GP5 would be great, thanks.

Green Onions! Forgot that, completely.

Then there's M'Bube (Wimoweh) or, even, "I just want to make love to you" (I have the dots for both of those).

Or you can have some fun with that good old standard Hava Nagila.

Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg or the Theme to the Lone Ranger. Or "In the mood", the old Glenn Miller number. Or "Perfidia" - several versions (e.g. Shadows, Ventures). Or Sylvia (Focus).

You could try FBI - either the Shadows version ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hga1GalqYo4&feature=related ) or Bryan May's (Queen) version ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu_frDYfvK8&feature=related ).

Consider it done. I'll pm you once I have a chance to sort it. If anyone else wants a copy, let me know, but not by pm (my inbox is horrendous lol I'm so lazy).

One that isn't horribly difficult, tons of fun to do, got lots of "what was that!?" and dancers from the audience for us was Cissy Strut by the Meters

If you go to my MySpace page (click on the James Project at the bottom of this message), it's the first one on the player