No songbook is complete without some easy Beatles songs on guitar – let's dive into 10 of them today!
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In this free lesson you will learn…
10 easy Beatles songs
Tips for conquering each tune
A brief history of the band
The impact of the Beatles on guitarists & music
Let's Explore Some Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar!
So many guitar players have picked up the guitar in the first place to try to play Beatles songs; it is one of the great pleasures in life to be able to make this music!
Everyone from Nirvana to Black Sabbath to XTC has emulated The Beatles in some way, whether it's melody, song structure, or groove.
We are no exception! In many music classes and private lessons, we use easy Beatles songs on guitar all the time to illustrate a point, learn a skill, and make sure everyone can sing along.
The Beatles changed music forever, and many of their songs serve as great teaching points.
Here are our top 10 easy Beatles songs on guitar. You'll enjoy these songs whether you have been playing the guitar for two weeks or 40 years.
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar I – "Don't Let Me Down"
Their catalogue is not exactly full of simple songs, but this song is easy enough to be the very first song you learn!
This wailing Lennon love song to Yoko Ono was recorded during the 1969 Let It Be sessions.
"Don't Let Me Down" is recorded in the key of E, but you are going to play it in D, with just three easy chords. If you'd like to play and sing along with The Beatles, put your capo on the second fret.
D
Em7
A7
The chorus of the song has this chord progression:
Em7 |Em7 A7| D D
The second time you do that progression, stop on the second D and don't strum anything while you begin the verse, "Nobody ever loved me like she," and when you get to "does," follow this chord progression:
Em7 Em7 D D
To get used to playing this song, you can strum down, down, down, down for each measure and stop and start with the recording.
If you would like more support for basic strumming, please check out this awesome lesson on how to strum a guitar.
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar II – "All Together Now"
This is one of those easy Beatles songs on guitar you can include in your all-ages singalong.
It sounds like a children's song, and it is – sort of.
"All Together Now" was written mostly by McCartney and recorded during Magical Mystery Tour, but it was released on Yellow Submarine about two years later.
The party-singalong backing vocals were reportedly provided by whoever was standing in the room.
This song is in the key of G, and it only has three chords.
G
C
D7
The verse chord progression goes like this:
G G D7 D7
G G D7 G
The part right before the chorus – "Sail the ship" – goes like this:
C C G G
C C D7 D7 D7 D7
And the chorus chord progression goes like this:
G G G G
D7 D7 G G
Ultimate-Guitar.com is one of the more reliable websites for finding the chords and tablature to all of your favorite easy Beatles songs on guitar.
Check out this chord chart for All Together Now if you'd like guitar chords and lyrics.
Try this "boom chuck" rhythm on "All Together Now."
For each measure, you'll pick, strum, pick, strum instead of strumming four times.
The individual string you pick depends on the chord – for the G major chord, it's the E string. For the D7 chord, it's the D string. For the C major chord, it's the A string.
That way, you'll approximate what is in the recording and keep the song nice and bouncy!
Pro-Tip: As with most songs, even easy Beatles songs on guitar tend to have one or two tricks in them, like a few bars of changing meter, one really bizarre chord, or voicings up the neck.
If you can play more than half the chords in the song, don't let the little tricks get in the way.
Play as much of the song as you can and in time, you'll get the whole thing!
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Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar III – "Get Back"
Some of Billy Preston's most delightful work on the Fender Rhodes is in "Get Back," another of your three-chord easy Beatles songs on guitar.
If you have a few days to kill, you can listen to a lot of different iterations of this song, but we'll stick with this version for now.
The song is in the key of A, and it also has only three chords:
A
G
D
If the Beatles wrote so many three-chord songs, why are they so difficult for beginners to play, you may be wondering.
In the case of "Get Back," it's that quick G-D-A change in the middle of the chorus.
The chord progression for the entire song is this:
A A D A
During the chorus, the progression is altered slightly, like this:
A A D |A GD|
The rhythm for "Get Back" is straight eighth notes, which you can achieve with a steady down-up strum.
That percussive rhythm works well not only in easy Beatles songs on guitar, but also as modified in reggae and ska music, where the up strum is accented more than the down strum.
It's very satisfying to play once you get it down!
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar IV – "Love Me Do"
Here's one of the earliest easy Beatles songs on guitar!
"Love Me Do" was recorded on three separate occasions with three different drummers: Pete Best, Ringo Starr, and Andy White.
White's recording, the last in time, featured Ringo on tambourine.
This unfussy McCartney jam has just two chords in the verse, and an additional chord in the bridge.
The song is in the key of G, and the chords are below:
G
C
D
After alternating between G and C in the intro, the verse progression goes like this:
G C G C
G C C C C
The bridge, "Someone to love," has this chord progression:
D D C G
If you're not a harmonica player but you'd like to play that little figure in the intro, here it is, transcribed for guitar:
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar V – "Twist & Shout"
One of your easy Beatles songs on guitar is a cover of an Isley Brothers tune. Here they are, freaking us out on the Ed Sullivan show!
This is not only one of the easier Beatles songs on guitar, it is also, due to its chord progression, at least a hundred other very, very famous songs, including "Hang On Sloopy," "La Bamba," "Good Lovin'," and "Wild Thing."
"Twist and Shout" is in the key of D and has only three chords to deal with:
D
G
A
And that's how the song goes!
|D G| A
When you get to "aaaaaaaaahhhh," just hold on to the A chord.
The best part of all of these easy Beatles songs on guitar is when George comes up with a tasty little lick. If you're feeling adventurous, here is the "Twist and Shout" tasty little lick.
e|—————————-|
B|————-3–2—-2——|
G|———-4–4–2—-2–4–2|x4
D|–4—-4–5————-5–4|
A|–5—-5——————–|
E|—————————-|
Pro-Tip: The Beatles' catalogue might be the most extensively documented canon of music in the 20th century, which means that no matter what your experience level is, you can definitely find resources to play any of these easy Beatles songs on guitar that strike your fancy.
Please do yourself a favor and pick up The Beatles – The Complete Scores.
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar VI – "Rocky Raccoon"
Your next selection of easy Beatles songs on guitar is also an excellent story song!
This White Album treat was composed mainly by McCartney, with lyrical intervention by Lennon and also Donovan.
As a bookend to "Love Me Do," "Rocky Raccoon" is the last Beatles recording that features Lennon's harmonica playing.
"Rocky Raccoon" is in the key of C, although it takes the chord progression a little while to reveal itself.
There are a couple of unusual chords here for the beginner, but they're minor modifications of common chords, so you'll be fine!
Am7
D7sus4
D7
G7
C
C/B
The chord progression throughout the whole song is below:
Am7 Am7 D7sus4 D7
G7 G7 C C/B
If you'd like chords and lyrics, Ultimate-Guitar.com has you covered again with a great chord chart of "Rocky Raccoon."
We don't know who he is, but he has an extensive and accurate collection of chord charts for easy Beatles songs on guitar, so we salute him!
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar VII – "Eight Days A Week"
One of the first easy Beatles songs on guitar for you is one of their biggest hits.
"Eight Days a Week," a Lennon-McCartney jam from 1964's Beatles For Sale in the UK, went unreleased on that album's US counterpart, Beatles '65, and got airplay as a single in the US before being released on Beatles VI in June 1965.
It was the first song they brought into the studio unfinished to work on, and that became a bit of a habit for them. It's good to be The Beatles!
The song is in the key of D. Here are the chords:
D
E
G
G6
A
Bm
If you would like a different B minor chord, check out this handy lesson!
The progression in the verse is as follows:
D E G D
D E G D
Bm G6 Bm E
D E G D
The bridge, "Eight days a week I love you," uses this chord progression:
A A Bm Bm
E E G A
The rhythm for the song is a continuous swing rhythm.
Strum down-up, down-up, down-up, down-up, but make the down strum longer than the up strum, as if your arm felt heavy. Now you're swinging!
The intro and outro for this song are fantastically fun and easy to play! Here's a simple version for you.
Download our lead guitar cheat-sheet to make things easier
It can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys.
With this in mind, we created a cheat-sheet; a key and scale-finder that you can use again and again.
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Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar VIII – "You Won't See Me"
McCartney wrote "You Won't See Me" about not being able to keep his then-girlfriend, Jane Asher, at home attending to his dreams.
He was living at the Ashers' family home in London at the time. Poor Paul.
Well, we got a lovely song out of it, anyway. "You Won't See Me" is in the key of A and has a lot of chords, but they are all pretty simple.
Some might not consider this to be one of the easy Beatles songs on guitar, but practice makes perfect!
A
B7
D
A7
Dm
D6
Dm6
E7sus4
E7
The chord progression for the verse goes like this:
A B7 D A
A B7 D A
A7 D Dm A
A B7 D A D A
The chord progression for the bridge, "Time after time," goes like this:
D6 Dm6 Dm6 A
B7 B7 E7sus4 E7
The rhythm for the actual guitar part in this song is more or less just a strum on beats 2 and 4, but it might be more fun, rhythm-wise, to imitate the background vocals.
To do that, you'll strum down, down, down-up, -up.
This is one of the most fun easy Beatles songs on guitar to sing along to!
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar IX – "Yellow Submarine"
Another of the handful of all-ages easy Beatles songs on guitar is right here.
This nonsense song is another McCartney jam.
People love to read things into "Yellow Submarine", but sometimes a fun song for kids is just a fun song for kids!
It is in the key of G. Here are the chords:
G
D
C
Em
Am
The verse is a little tricky because of the fast chord changes, but another way of looking at it is that "Yellow Submarine" is a really fun chord changing exercise.
The verse chords alternate between one beat and three beats.
Later in the song, if you'd like to spice up your arrangement a little, you can do a steady down-up swing strum.
Remember, swing is about the down strum being longer than the up strum.
The chorus chord progression is much easier!
G D D G
Warning: The chorus can go on forever. Have fun singing this with everyone!
Easy Beatles Songs On Guitar X – "Let It Be"
Yeah, the final item in your collection of easy Beatles songs on guitar isn't really a Beatles song at all, but if you're going to be playing any Beatles songs at all, people will probably expect to know this one:
It's hard to know what to say about this song except that we can all relate pretty deeply to it.
It's one of the most comforting songs of all time, and it's a powerful thing when a bunch of people get together to play and sing it.
The song is in the key of C,but you'll play it in the key of G.
To sing along with Paul, put your capo on the fifth fret.
G
D
Em
C
Simple! The chord progression is also simple. For the verses, it's this:
G D Em C
G D C G
For the chorus, "Let it be," this is the chord progression:
Em D C G
G D C G
Enjoy playing this one and having passersby stop in their tracks to sing along with you! This is one of the greatest easy Beatles songs on guitar.
Further Learning For Easy Beatles Songs on Guitar
Apart from the book mentioned above, there are scores of books featuring easy Beatles songs on guitar.
There are books that give you chords and lyrics, like this Beatles Little Black Songbook.
There are entire YouTube tutorials of Beatles songs.
The best way to learn easy Beatles songs on guitar, though, is through practice. Remember, practice makes perfect!
Recommended Resources
Not done learning yet? We've got plenty more content in store for you past easy Beatles songs on guitar. Check out a few more lessons below:
How To Use A Capo
How To Tune A Guitar
How To Play Electric Guitar
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