BEATLES CHORDS and progressions
Join Jon Bishop as he delves into the wonderful world of Beatles harmony with a feature that covers key Beatles-style chord shapes and progressions with great backing tracks too!
Their sound and style changed music forever. Find out how their different use of chords can expand your own musical horizons, and learn more about what made this band so special.
The Beatles, of course, need no introduction. As a band and as solo artists after their dissolution in 1970, this Liverpool foursome’s body of work remains almost beyond comparison. But what marked them out over and above their look, their style, their humour and those cheeky Scouse accents was, of course, their music.
When they first hit the charts in 1962 no one had heard their like before. Their songs were fresh, their vocal harmonies less obvious and more complex than those of their vocal idols The Every Brothers, and their use of chords so different and catchy that the country, and soon the world, couldn’t get enough of them. That they went from She Loves You in 1963 to Sergeant Pepper in just four years is almost incomprehensible. In the history of pop or rock there’s never been a transition so marked or so amazing.
All three guitarists in The Beatles were fine players, but their impressive individual musicianship and writing prowess is often overshadowed by the sheer enormity of the group’s success. Thus the aim of this lesson is to learn and apply many of the tried and tested harmonic concepts used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison during their eight-year run at the top. With a catalogue so iconic and influential it’s fair to assume that studying and learning some of their nuts and bolts will benefit our overall musicianship - whether we do or don’t choose to play or write in their style.
To get you started we have recorded 10 contrasting chord types and progressions. These are in the guitar-friendly key of A (a key in which all three guitarists often wrote) to make your comparisons easier. They are of course moveable to any key you’d like; you could try playing the equivalent intervals using other shapes - say C-Am-Fm-G instead of A-F#m-Dm-E - or use a capo and stay with our original shapes, as The Beatles so often did themselves. To make things nice and clear we have also provided 10 chord boxes for you to check out. These are typical shapes used to concoct parts and can be recognised in many famous Beatles tunes. The fingerings are moveable so they can be used in any key.
As a band The Beatles had a great feel, so to help frame our 10 examples we have also composed two jam tracks, which apply the concepts studied here and introduce a couple more. The first is an up-tempo stomper with a major tonality, while the second has a more relaxed, minor feel.
If we harmonise the A Major scale the following diatonic (from the same key) chords are produced. We can attach Roman numerals to provide context when in different keys. So: Chord I = A Chord ii = Bm Chord iii = C#m Chord IV = D Chord V = E Chord vi = F#m Chord vii = G# diminished This will help us to explain the harmonic concepts demonstrated in our 10 examples. The Beatles were fans of substituting the diatonic chords available to strengthen cadences and provides harmonic surprises one classic being the aforementioned substitute of the IV chord (major) with its minor equivalent. The addition of chromatic chords (chords from outside the key) also provides plenty of great sounding options.
Once you have played through the examples and tracks why not try composing your own song using some of your favourite sounds. It doesn’t have to be Beatley, just musical and perhaps a little surprising.
Many thanks to Charlie Rinks for playing the keyboards on the first jam track.
One Of my BiggesT Thrills is siTTing dOwn wiTh a guiTar Or a pianO and jusT OuT Of nOwhere Trying TO make a sOng happen Paul McCartney