Best Roles In Rock Bands

Any musician can be famous with any instrument .But I think these are the best roles in rock bands if someone wants join in a rock band .


Backing Vocals hasn't counted as any instrument.
The Top Ten
1 Lead Vocals/Bass
2 Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar

Usually musicians like this become famous from both guitar and vocals side. Plus, they can perform on stage easily. Playing rhythm guitar isn't hard like lead guitar. You could sing greatly along with it.

The one who sings and plays rhythm guitar

Examples:James Hetfield,John Lennon,Paul Stanley

3 Lead Guitar

People usually identify a band with only one guitarist as a lead guitarist. But he plays rhythm part too. But when a band has more than one guitarist, they can split between the role.

4 Lead Guitar/Lead Vocals

It's really hard but Kai Hansen nailed it. Also Jeff Waters did vox on some albums. Both play very fast and technical stuff. Moreover, they often switch lead/rhythm to play riffs.
Kai Hansen: Helloween - Ride the Sky, Gamma Ray - Land Of The Free, Rain, Gardens of the Sinner
Jeff Waters: Annihilator - 21, King of the Kill, Fiasco

Very hard but gets my vote because it requires the most skill.

Also Devin Townsend (try: Strapping Young Lad - Wrong Side). He plays rhythm G, too.

5 Bass

Only bass

Examples: John Entwistle,Cliff Burton,Steve Harris,

6 Drums

Drumming with backing vocals is possible. But singing as a lead vocalist with drumming is very very hard. Drumming takes both two hands and two legs works. Most importantly it takes a lot of attention.

7 Vocals

Only vocals.Not any major instruments

Examples:Axl Rose,Robert Plant,Ian Gillan.

Haven't added Freddie Mercury cause he used play keyboards and guitars.

I would add Dio, Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, Matt Barlow (Iced Earth)

8 Keyboards
9 Rhythms Guitar

My favorite rhythm guitarist is Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth - a very solid player.

10 Vocals/Keyboards

Singing with piano isn't very hard. I won't say its easy, but when keyboardists play multiple keyboards organs, synthesizer, piano at the same time, it becomes too hard to sing.

Example : Freddie Mercury

The Contenders
11 Guitar/Bass

By the way, musicians record their songs with separate instruments. And then they mix it. So, when recording an album, a musician can record a lot of instruments. But he/she can't perform it on stage alone.

Very rare

The only musician that I can think of is Tom Scholz of boston.And Paul McCartney played some guitar on some songs of Beatles

Can't perform in stage with these two,unless using some amplifiers.

12 Drums/Vocals
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