After watching two weeks of several American Idol contestants mess up some of my favorite Beatles songs, I decided I wanted to learn to play a few more Beatles songs. I can play Day Tripper, but I wanted to learn some songs from my favorite Beatles Album Abbey Road.

Hal Leonard has many books with guitar tab for albums, including Abbey Road. so I decided to pick it up.

Here Comes the Sun - Capo on the 7th

sun, sun, sun, here it comes! At first I found this song ridiculously hard to play, until I noticed a small note at the beginning of the song. use a capo on the 7th fret After I stopped trying to bar the 7th through several unnecessarily complex finger patterns, the song was much easier. (A capo fits over a fret holding all the strings instead of your fingers). It took me a while, but once I practiced the bars a few times and listened to the song, I got it!

This song was tested with a Fender Parlour Acoutic Guitar with a Keyser Quick Change Capo

Not All Guitar! Because

Because Why? Because Because was actually played on a Harpischord, but it is arranged in the book for guitar. Good thing for those of us who don't have a harpischord handy! It really is a beautiful arrangement too, I played it on both an acoustic and an electric.

Tab Sample

__________________________________ E (high)
________________5_________________ B
____________6_______6_____________ G
________6_______________6_____6___ D
____4______________________7______ A
__________________________________ E (low)

The six lines represent the six strings and the numbers represent the fret to put your finger on and play. The above is the opening to Because arranged for guitar.

You Never Give Me Your Money also contains the piano parts arranged for guitar. It's also in Drop D tuning. Any tunings that are not standard are indicated in the book. One song actually changes from Drop D to standard in the Middle of the song! Something includes a guitar arrangement for the strings portion of the tune, and then back to standard tuning!

What about Electric?

One of the first songs I tried out from the book was Come Together a song that rocks hard enough for Aerosmith to want to cover it. (not that the Beatles have any shortage of other bands covering their songs) Chords are written out above the music and the lead is on the tab line. Some tab books show the chord formations at the beginning of the song, this book does not. Know your chords if you want to do the rhythm guitar!

Is it Complicated?

Abbey Road is a lot harder than the Beatles make it sound! However lots of notes are in this book including notation on when to use distortion, when to use the bridge pickup instead of both or the neck pickup when to let a note ring and even what type of guitar was used. (Not the exact type but electric, acoustic or 12 string acoustic). The tab is very complete, including slides, pull offs and hammer ons.

This tab book makes you realize just how much MUSIC went into the Beatles arrangements. This book assumes you don't have a piano, a harpischord or a string section readily available and arranges those segments for guitar.

To fully appreciate and use this book you should have some background in guitar, Abbey Road isn't full of their easiest songs. An acoustic Guitar, an electric guitar an amp with distortion settings, a capo and a 12 string acoustic guitar would be ideal to get the most out of this book. My son and I don't have a 12 string guitar, but many songs on this album cry out for the acoustic, while others want the Electric with a variety of settings. I jammed on Come Together with a Gibson SG Standard Guitar and a Line 6 Spider III Amplifier

Summary

Hal Leonard's Recorded Version Guitar The BEATLES - ABBEY ROAD is a very thorough book with guitar and guitar arrangements for all the songs on Abbey Road. It was $20.00, and in many cases I feel that is too much for one album's worth of songs, but in this case, I thought it was a good value! Five Stars.

Other TAB books and Guitar Books

The Best of AC/DC
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Black Sabbath Tab Book
Franz Ferdinand
Guns N' Roses Complete
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Metallica .. and Justice for All
The Rolling Stones Singles Collection - The London Years / Guitar Tab Edition
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Lightning Blues Lead Guitar
Neil Young Anthology

Chord Master - How to Choose and play the right guitar chords
Total Scales Technique and Application
Electric Guitars - The Illustrated Encyclopedia


Recommended: Yes