beatles classical

Beatles For Classical Guitar

One of the big events in fingerstyle guitar playing many years ago was the publication of a music book called “Beatles For Classical Guitar”. This was the world’s first attempt to mix the simplicity of the Beatles’ tunes with the complexity of classical guitar technique.

One of the first things that fingerpicking guitar players who were not trained in classical guitar playing noticed was that the fingerings to some of the tunes were much more difficult to execute than they had been used to. But no pain, no gain. The trickier arrangements indicated how much more musical richness had been found in these more complicated arrangements of familiar songs.

Some guitar players thought that a book of classical guitar arrangements of the work of The Beatles was just a gimmick. They expected that a minimal amount of work went into these arrangements just to produce popular music for the “egghead market”. In fact the songs are all substantial arrangements that many classical guitarists find extremely satisfying to play.

People who loved the Beatles’ music found that the songs had not been rendered unrecognizable in the process of arranging them for fingerpicking. The songs were arranged for guitar players who could read standard musical notation and they were not the kind of arrangements that could be played right through on sight the first time you saw them. The pieces asked you to pay some attention and make some effort. Once you get the feel of the way the songs have been interpreted you can let your familiarity with the songs guide you as you play.

Some guitar players are going to feel cheated by the fact that there are not tabs but the pieces are a bit too complicated to be translated into tab effectively. Guitarists who are used to playing using sheet music will be gratified that the music is not made more complicated by the addition of a tab line.

Here is the list of songs:

Across The Universe
Ask Me Why
Come Together
Cry Baby Cry
Day Tripper
For No One
From Me To You
Hello, Goodbye
Here Comes The Sun
I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party
I Will
I’ll Follow The Sun
I’m A Loser
I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
I’m Only Sleeping
I’m So Tired
In My Life
The Long And Winding Road
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
No Reply
Nowhere Man
P.S. I Love You
Penny Lane
Something
Things We Said Today
This Boy (Ringo’s Theme)
Two Of Us
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Yesterday
You’re Going To Lose That Girl

You might be surprised by the inclusion of some of the tunes in a collection of guitar solos. So go ahead and try them out.

About the Author

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

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