We’ve been asking our students and our ‘likers’ on our Facebook page to name their favourite tracks to play along to. Below are the results. This list is growing so we will add new suggestions over time – feel free to contribute to the list by adding your favourite drumming songs by leaving a comment at the bottom of the page.
Playing along to songs is a great way to practise drums. It exposes you to different styles of playing, develops your sense of timing, and is a practical way to explore song structures. Drum kit is usually played as part of a band so it is important to practise drums in the context of real music to help develop musicality and performance skills.
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The Elephant Drums list of ‘drum-along’ songs
All I Want – Skunk Anansie
All My Life – Foo Fighters
All Right Now – Free
Always On The Run – Lenny Kravitz
Assassin – Muse
Back In Black – AC/DC
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
Black Dog – Led Zeppelin
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Car Wash – Rose Royce
Chameleon – Herbie Hancock
Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
Chop Suey! – System Of A Down
Common People – Pulp
Cosmic Girl – Jamiroquai
Dani California – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Drumming Song – Florence and The Machine
Enter Sandman – Metallica
Everlong – Foo Fighters
Every Breath You Take – The Police
Faster Than The Setting Sun – Fyfe Dangerfield
Feeling Good – Muse
Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon
Fool In The Rain – Led Zeppelin
Heart Shaped Box – Nirvana
Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles
Hey Joe – Jimi Hendrix
Highway To Hell – AC/DC
I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown
I Love Rock And Roll – Joan Jet
I Predict A Riot – Kaiser Chiefs
In Bloom – Nirvana
Iron Man – Black Sabbath
Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine
Kings And Queens – Thirty Seconds To Mars
Knock On Wood – Eddie Floyd
Late In The Evening – Paul Simon
Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye
Live And Let Die – Guns and Roses
Long Train Running – Doobie Brothers
Lovely Day – Bill Withers
Message In A Bottle – The Police
Moondance – Van Morrison
Move On Up – Curtis Mayfield
Mr Brightside – The Killers
My Generation – The Who
Next To Me – Emeli Sande
No One Knows – Queens Of The Stone Age
Nothing Else Matters – Metallica
Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry
Plug In Baby – Muse
Ride – Twenty One Pilots
River Deep Mountain High – Tina Turner
Rockin’ All Over The World – Status Quo
Roll With It – Oasis
Rolling In The Deep – Adele
Rosanna – Toto
Roxanne – The Police
R U Mine? – Arctic Monkeys
Run To The Hills – Iron Maiden
Seven Days – Sting
Seven Nation Army – White Stripes
Sex On Fire – Kings of Leon
Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
Should I Stay Or Should I Go – The Clash
Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Summer Of ’69 – Bryan Adams
Sunday Bloody Sunday – U2
Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream
Superstition – Stevie Wonder
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Teenage Kicks – The Undertones
The Best – Tina Turner
The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret – Queens Of The Stone Age
The Number Of The Beast – Iron Maiden
The Unforgiven – Metallica
The Zephyr Song – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Tighten Up – The Black Keys
Time Is Running Out – Muse
Tom Sawyer – Rush
Twist and Shout – The Beatles
Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
V.I.C.E. – Razorlight
Valerie – Amy Winehouse
Walk This Way – Aerosmith
Warpigs – Black Sabbath
Waterloo – ABBA
Whatever It Takes – Imagine Dragons
What’s Up – 4 Non Blondes
When You Were Young – The Killers
Who Are You – The Who
Wipe Out – Surfaris
You Really Got Me – The Kinks
You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
Add your suggestions for more drum-along songs by clicking the “submit a comment” button below.
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What no ‘Eye of the Tiger’?!
That song is kind of basic to practice to?
Dave’s Gone Skiing – Toto (in fact all Toto is up here) : )
Span – Dont Think The Way They Do
Toto – Rosanna
John Mayer – I Got a Woman
John Mayer – I Dont Need no Doctor
Foo Fighters – The Pretender
Dizzy Mizz Lizzy – Glory
Toto hold the line
No One Knows- Queens Of The Stone Age
bed of roses
november rain
Can you play drums
Really Alex
I’d add ‘Drumming Song’ by Florence and The Machine
You can find most of the songs on streaming sites like YouTube or Spotify, or buy them from online stores like iTunes, Amazon etc. Or go and support your local record shop!
Nice post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially the last part 🙂 I care for such information a lot. I was seeking this for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.
I like this 🙂
Summerholidays vs. Punkroutine – Refused (The Shape of Punk to Come)
Very Nice !
Carry On Wayward Son – Kansas
Breathe – Pink Floyd
Scott Pilgrim – Plumtree
Any Colour You Like – Pink Floyd
Video Killed The Radio Star – Presidents of the USA
Glad someone included Carry on Wayward Son
Anything with Keith Moon on it
How could you not forget Sweet Child o’ Mine??
No songs from Rage Against The Machine? Dafuq?
True. Anyone heard of Killing In The Name Of?
How is there no Rush??? How can you not include the greatest drummer in the world?
It seems these are all songs that anyone can learn. Good drummers carry the beat in time, while great drummers polish it up with some Peart like technicality. It is what separates the good from the great
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Everlong – Foo Fighters — the BEST!!!
Red Elephant – Sunny Day Real Estate
Venetian snares – ongyilkos vasarnap
squarepusher – My red hot car
Roni Size – New forms
Street light manifesto – point/counterpoint
Blasteroid by Mastodon yea yeeeeaaaaa
The Horse – The Ventures
Since You’ve Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
Almost everything by the bands Ratatat and Ronald Jenkees.
We will rock you is a good one. You should also consider doing something fast like the Beatles.
My favorite song to drum to is “hit that” by the offspring.
I play a different beat to the one on the song, but it’s a great one for fills!
Any bon jovi song, tico torres is unreal. The best of the best
LA Riots & Polina-Kamikaze
Led Zeppelin – In the Light
Linkin Park – In the End, What I’ve Done
Green Day – Give me a Novocaine
Make Total Destroy by Periphery! So much fun!! Plus, look up Victor Wooden & play along to his bass lines!
Pompeii by Bastille should be in this list!
St. Moondog – White Trash
Some that I enjoy:
Entrance of the Elected – Bear vs Shark
Go With the Flow – Queens of the Stone Age
The Sweetness – Jimmy Eat World
McFearless – Kings of Leon
the best ever that I’ve seen before
Yeah, a lot of these are pretty cool. I love the foo fighters.
Ghost of perdition by opeth
It’s easy enough to learn and fun to play
No teenage spirit
“Pull Me Under” – Dream Theater
Anything off NOTHING’S SHOCKING – Jane’s Addiction
“Fool In the Rain” – Zeppelin
Clearly, they’ve never heard of Phil Collins… In the air tonight, anyone?
“White Room” – Cream
Yes! I 100% agree. This song is great for drummin
‘Loving you is so easy’ by 101 North. Great slow jam produced by Quincy Jones. Very difficult to keep the thread subtly hanging in the air.
Tangled by Maroon 5
I agree with R0BB13DRUMM3R, what about In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins? Great song to play the drums to…
Shake It Off – Taylor Swift
Sing – Ed Sheeran
YYZ -Rush
2112- Rush
Royal Blood – Out Of The Black
Kryptonite- 3 doors down is a fun one to play to.
pressure and time by rival sons
hey would be great GENESIS Gabriel era: 1971 – 75
Perfect Strangers – Deep Purple
I always thought Robert Palmer – Addicted to love was a simple song to begin with.
There was this famous beats played by two drummers playing in the hurricane or snow kinda a set up which was a massive hit in the early 2000’s i guess. I don’t remember the song or the band can someone recall that for me if it makes sense.
Awsome songs!!! Thanks for recommending.
Tom Sawyer by Rush is a barrel of fun to play on the drums
Hi ! i’m sad because i don’t find a drumless track for “Maybe i’m a leo”, from Deep Purple.
Help me please, i’m so much a desperate drummer.
Thanks.
Basically 90% of led zeppelin songs are great to drum with. Really works out your bass drum foot.
Don’t stop – Fleetwood Mac
Hey do you have a brother vic
Styx – Renegade, Come Sail Away
Journey – Don’t Stop Believing, Faithfully, Separate Ways, Anyway You Want It, Open Arms
Yes – Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Roundabout
I agree, especially the Styx songs
Shadow Moses – Bring Me The Horizon
Figure it out – Royal blood
Song for the dead – Queens of the stone Age
Baby love – mothers finest
Luno – blok party
Anna Molly – incubus
36 degrees – placebo
Master of puppets – Metallica
Undun by the Guess Who
Pick up the Pieces by Average White Band
Anything by John Cougar Mellencamp
Theme from Rocky
It Don’t Come Easy by RINGO!!!!!
Billion Dollar Babies – Alice Cooper
You really should add clint eastwood by gorillaz and hit that by the offspring.
Walk all over you – AC / DC
Good call, classic underrated AC/DC track and one of their best I think. It’s on my drumming playlist.
Really interesting list, I’ll be cherry picking a few.
Like playing to Puddle of Mud – Clean album, gets the heart rate up. Weezer – Hash Pipe is a good heavy groove track to warm up with.
Nice blog! my kids love music. Thanks for the ideas. Really helpful guide.
I think you can play “Happy” by Pharrel Williams, but it’s pretty fast.
Okay, the most amazing piece you may ever hear is, Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group. An excellent old fashioned drum solo in the middle. But for over indulgent drumming, try anything by Buddy Rich.
Running on Empty by Jackson Browne
Assassin – Muse
Oops already there!
Sing Child Sing by Heart
Easy lover Phill Collins
Welcome To The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance is definitely a great drum song!
Alice in Chains – Man In The Box
Toxicity – System of a Down