INSTRUMENTS

-Electric guitar
-String bass or later bass guitar
-Drums 
-Optional piano 
-Saxophone(s),
 -Vocals 
In the earliest rock and roll styles of the late 1940s and early 1950s, either the piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument, but these were generally replaced  by guitar in the middle to late 1950s, The beat is essentially  for an accentuated backbeat.