Easy songs on guitar

[James1981]

Ive been learning the guitar, know a few chords, pretty good at the pentatonic scale and a few sabbath riffs. Just wondering what the best Alice songs are to have a crack at for a relative beginner such as myself?

[Si]

'Eighteen'

[tuneylune]

I had luck with the opening riff of "Is It My Body" and the driving two chords in "Muscle of love" (the two slams during the vocals; eg: "Who's the queen of the ...BAM1 BAM! ..locker room?"
May not sound great, but sure is fun... Sabbath riffs are also loads of fun to play.

[While Heaven Wept]

Most of the ACG material is fairly easy on guitar, I had an Alice guitar tab book when I was younger so learnt most of the classic - Eighteen, School's Out, NMMNG, Elected, Only Women Bleed etc

I always struggled with Under My Wheels though

[Lisacooper91]

I always thought Is It My Body was pretty easy, including the solo.

I'm Eighteen, Wicked Young Man, Gimme, Brutal Planet, Caught In A Dream, Ballad of Dwight Fry, Spark In The Dark... All of those shouldn't be too hard.

[While Heaven Wept]

I always thought Is It My Body was pretty easy, including the solo.

I'm Eighteen, Wicked Young Man, Gimme, Brutal Planet, Caught In A Dream, Ballad of Dwight Fry, Spark In The Dark... All of those shouldn't be too hard.

Although Brutal Planet sounds pretty bad when played on an acoustic guitar

[Lisacooper91]

He didn't mention that he's playing on an acoustic guitar, right? But yeah, I bet it sounds pretty funny that way

[Devon]

Was going to say "Eighteen" as well. It is the "Smoke on the Water" of Alice Cooper songs on the guitar. Opening riff of "Welcome To My Nightmare" is pretty cool to learn too as a beginner.

[Comus]

I used to have some Wind Up Toy tabs that sounded pretty good and weren't too hard. First song I learned was Ballad of Dwight Fry. Poison Intro is OK too.

Oh - Lost in America - simple and fun (I never bothered trying to learn solos though)

[Gunner]

According to Orianthi, A LOT of Cooper's work is tricky and complex on guitar - ar eyou sure you guys are playing it right??

[A_MichaelUK]

>According to Orianthi, A LOT of Cooper's work is tricky and complex on guitar

Damon Johnson once told me the same thing (at least, that it isn't as easy as it might appear).

[Gunner]

To be honest, I have only ever tried 18, Ballad of Dwight and Spirits Rebellious (am a singer and keyboard man mainly); 18 is pretty easy, Ballad - VERY easy and Spirits seemed tricky from what I recall.

Often when pieces are transcribed, they are approximate, done 'by ear' (of course) and simplified somewhat (although they sound about right). I would tend to believe the guitarists in Alice's band about the level of difficulty and I have heard Orianthi say this on more than one occassion (and she should know - she's damn good!!!)

I've NEVER heard the riff to School's Out played like Glen (or was it Mike - or both?) played it.

Ask Steven Crayn here - he will probably know more than most of us here on Cooper guitar parts.

[bigbradwolf]

Eighteen and Ballad are certainly two of the simple tunes to sing and play along to.

Is it My Body and Feed My Frankenstein are simple enough on guitar without singing along to.

Other simple tracks to play from experience are:
Be My Lover
The One That Got Away and Woman of Mass Distraction (same chords)
House of Fire

Currently working on Caffeine to play at our next set of gigs. Really fun to play!

[recoop]

I'm a strummer-to me there are some not too difficult rhythm parts like the intro to BDF but when I listen to the ACG stuff there are a lot of intricate bits that are very difficult imo...i'd go with Orianthi's opinion re difficulty level..most of its difficult for me right enougn but even when I listen to Schools out for the millionth time I here new twiddly bits.. be ok if i could play 3 guitars at same time (reality=I struggle to play one)

[ThePainAddict]

">According to Orianthi, A LOT of Cooper's work is tricky and complex on guitar

Damon Johnson once told me the same thing (at least, that it isn't as easy as it might appear)."

I think the easy comments come because most of the songs have relatively simple chord structures and basic arrangements. Also, none of the musicians were considered virtuosi.
Conversely, Orianthi & Damon comments reflect a lot of the textures the musicians produced, sometimes this was even due to their lack of formal training.
Talking to Chuck he said he made many of Dennis's riffs more difficult because he was trying to play them from traditional bass positions, but realized that some of Dennis's riffs weren't so difficult once he saw Dennis actually playing them.

[While Heaven Wept]

According to Orianthi, A LOT of Cooper's work is tricky and complex on guitar - ar eyou sure you guys are playing it right??

I don't think James1981 is trying to play them perfectly though?! It's the same as most things, easy to pick up but hard to master.

Feed My Frankenstein is fairly easy until it gets to the solo...... I could practice every day for a year and still not scratch the surface of that one!

[steven_crayn]

lots of people play Alice Cooper songs but most of them don't play them the way they were originally supposed to sound like, including people who have actually played with Alice Cooper.

That is not necessarily a criticism, as things like artistic licence come into play.

As the great Steve Cropper once said "what you don't play is just as important as what you do".

Also bear in mind there is a difference in strumming the basic chords of an Alice Cooper song to actually playing the sometimes intricate riffs that though sounding subtle have a lot more going on.

Second Coming for example

[steven_crayn]

According to Orianthi, A LOT of Cooper's work is tricky and complex on guitar - ar eyou sure you guys are playing it right??

I don't think James1981 is trying to play them perfectly though?! It's the same as most things, easy to pick up but hard to master.

Feed My Frankenstein is fairly easy until it gets to the solo...... I could practice every day for a year and still not scratch the surface of that one!

Even the guys in Alice's bands over the years never quite matched Vai & Satriani's solos on that one!

[steven_crayn]

">According to Orianthi, A LOT of Cooper's work is tricky and complex on guitar

Damon Johnson once told me the same thing (at least, that it isn't as easy as it might appear)."

I think the easy comments come because most of the songs have relatively simple chord structures and basic arrangements. Also, none of the musicians were considered virtuosi.
Conversely, Orianthi & Damon comments reflect a lot of the textures the musicians produced, sometimes this was even due to their lack of formal training.
Talking to Chuck he said he made many of Dennis's riffs more difficult because he was trying to play them from traditional bass positions, but realized that some of Dennis's riffs weren't so difficult once he saw Dennis actually playing them.

Dick Wagner & Steve Hunter were definitely considered virtuoso in the 1970s.

[steven_crayn]

To be honest, I have only ever tried 18, Ballad of Dwight and Spirits Rebellious (am a singer and keyboard man mainly); 18 is pretty easy, Ballad - VERY easy and Spirits seemed tricky from what I recall.

Often when pieces are transcribed, they are approximate, done 'by ear' (of course) and simplified somewhat (although they sound about right). I would tend to believe the guitarists in Alice's band about the level of difficulty and I have heard Orianthi say this on more than one occassion (and she should know - she's damn good!!!)

I've NEVER heard the riff to School's Out played like Glen (or was it Mike - or both?) played it.

Ask Steven Crayn here - he will probably know more than most of us here on Cooper guitar parts.

It was Glen who played the main riff on School's Out and I agree no one has played it quite the same since.

Ballad Of Dwight Fry of course has a guitar solo from Glen that is far from straightforward and shows genius.

The other thing about that song is that you could expect an E minor chord to be used (as the relative minor of the key of G) as the other chords in the verse are G , C and D (1, iV & V in key of G) but instead an E major is used creating harmonic and melodic interest.

Later in the chorus an A major chord is used which again creates harmonic and melodic interest as normally in the key of G you would use an A minor.

This is where the concept of minor feel comes in using notes such as a minor 3rd against a major chord.
So if you looked at Dwight Fry in a different way as E major being the tonic (or home) chord or key you could see the G, C, D and A chords relating to a scale that contained the notes E, F#, G, G#, A, B, C, C#, D, a 9 note ambiguous scale with both a minor and major third, a minor and major 6th and a dominant 7th.

This ambiguity is the cornerstone of the blues and is why when playing a minor based scale against a major home chord or key is often used, because it sounds good.

For example if you use a blues, minor pentatonic or a dorian scale over a major chord it fits, even though the music theory seems to contradict the way music theory evolved, but what is more complex is the tones in between the 12 note western system ie the quarter tone which is the cradle of blues and its African Swahili roots. The notes blues singers and musicians are subconsciously searching for when this music is played and blues is the cornerstone of where rock n roll came from.