Good instrumental songs?

Thecowslayer

Senior Member
Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has some ideas for some good instrumental songs for a music class that I am taking at a music school near my house. Right now, we have a bassist, drummer, 2 guitarists, and a keyboard player. The bassist also plays trombone as well. We meet up once a week, and we are trying to learn some songs so we can perform at festivals and other places, so far we have a few songs in mind, I was just wondering if anyone here has some good ideas.
 
"Peaches en Regalia" by Frank Zappa

"YYZ" by Rush

"Left Coast Boogaloo" by The Greyboy Allstars

"You know, You know" Mahavishnu Orchestra

"Sprung Monkey" by Stanton Moore

"Ain't it Funky Now" by James Brown

"Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter

"Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson

"Cissy Strut" by The Meters

anything by Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Soulive, Return to Forever and Weather Report

any of Jeff Beck's instrumentals, as well as Joe Satriani
 
Since you have keys, check out the Booker T. catalog for some classic grooves.

And for fun, there are a bunch of '60s surf instrumentals.

If you're in a retro mood, look to the big band era: Stompin At the Savoy, King Porter Stomp, Take The A Train, Sing Sing Sing, etc.

Classic pop/rock/jazzish tracks: Pick Up the Pieces, Put It Where You Want It, etc.

Or more ecclectic: Zappa's "Peaches En Regalia" :)

For more fun, there are plenty of cool TV themes, even if they have lyrics, you can do them as instrumentals with a guitar por horn playing the lead. For that matter, you can take most songs and just have an instrument play the lead vocal to make the song an instrumental.

Bermuda
 
Early Genesis or any Steve Hackett stuff. Also try some Brand-X.
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. As of now, we have 4 songs we want to do.
Green Onions by Booker T. and the Mgs
Peter Gunn Theme, I'm guessing by Peter Gunn, but it's pretty much the Blue's Brothers theme.
Wizards In Winter by the Trans Siberian Orchestra
Circle House Blues by Slightly Stoopid
The Basisst also says that he will try to sing Tom Sawyer by Rush, so we'll see how that goes.
 
Wring That Neck - Deep Purple

Transylvania, Genghis Khan - Iron Maiden

Freedom of Choice Theme Song - Devo

Rat Salad - Black Sabbath

.......................................................
 
Pink Floyd has loads of great instrumentals. And of course, Booker T and the MG's, Green Onions is a classic. Rush has some great instrumentals (La Villa Strangiato being my favorite, with YYZ a close second) All kinds of great stuff.
 
Since you seem to be Rush fans, there's a chance you might be into Dream Theater. So, an absolutely phenomenal, and chronically overlooked, instrumental of theirs is "Hell's Kitchen."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ifpji6QUz8

On the subject of Dream Theatre, I can't believe no one has posted Dance Of Eternity yet! Try if if you feel like you really want to challenge yourself... 104 time signature changes I believe.
 
Back
Top