Beatles Songs

Learning Beatles songs is all I seemed to do when I was learning guitar. I learned other peoples songs too but I learned the most about music from the Beatles tunes

They seemed to be coming out with a new album before I could learn the songs on the one before.

John and Paul did most of the song writing but George Harrison had some very good songs too. Frank Sinatra said the song “Something” written by George was the best love song he had heard in 20 years. Frank was a Swooner from years before the Beatles.

The Beatles had a lot of songs with good guitar riffs in them. Day Tripper, Ticket to Ride and I Feel Fine are just a few of them.

The first song we'll learn is Day Tripper.

Day Tripper
Beatles Songs

Day Tripper Chords

There are some more for the middle break in the song. I will list them down below. The chords up above will do the main part of the song.

Day Tripper Guitar Riffs

Riff One - E Chord

You know exactly what song is coming right after you hear that 1st note.

This is what I mean by “guitar songs”. No other instrument can sound like this naturally and then when the bass kicks in with the lead guitar. It's just a great song.

Riff Two - A Chord

The second riff is just the 1st riff played a perfect 4th higher.

The I to IV chord change is in many songs and just about any style of music like Blues, Rock, Jazz, Country Folk and any combination of them.

You will find the 4th movement in Beatles songs and other songs to not just the I to IV. It can be the ii to V a very common progression and chord move within a song.

Here are the CD and sheet music links.

Day Tripper

Words and music written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Guitar Riff 1 singing starts on 6th Riff.
Verse 1
E
Got a good rea-son  for tak-ing the ea-sy way out
Riff 2 over A chord then back to Riff 1
A                       E                 
Got a good rea-son  for tak-ing the ea-sy way out now
          F#7
She was a day trip-per  One way tick-et Yeh It took me
A        G#7            C#           B    
So    Long   to find out and I found out
E
Riff 1 Two Times
Verse 2
Same Chords as Verse 1
Play Riff 4x then lead Lead Section
Lead Section
B                 B7
Riff 3 4x         8 bars guitar lead
Riff 1 Two Times
Verse 3
Same Chords as Verse 1 and 2
Riff 1 Two Times
Repeat and Fade
E
Day Trip-per        Day Trip-per Yeh

Lead Back-up Riff B-B7 Chords

Lead Section Chords

Use the B7 chord for the last two measures of the lead section. The lead is backed by Ah_________ vocal in harmony.

If you bought the sheet music from Music Notes in the link above(or here) follow that. They have very exact transcripts.

Ticket to Ride
Beatles Songs

This riff uses open strings and notes on the 6th and 7th frets. This may confuse you at first because your are going up a string to go down in pitch. You'll see what I mean when you try it.

Here's the Riff. This one stays the same and you only use it on the A chord. You can pick out notes from the other chords using the same rhythm as the riff except when the song changes rhythm.

There are two bars of the riff in the example so playing the barr twice gives you 4 riffs.

Ticket to Ride Riff

Ticket to Ride Chords

These are all movable barre chords.

Ticket to Ride

Words and music written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Play Riff Example 2x
Verse 1
A
I think I'm gon-na be sad  I think it's to-day  Yeh
A                                           Bm7   E7
The girl that's driv-ing me mad is go-ing a-way
F#m                    D    F#m                     G
She's got a tick-et to ride She's got a tick-et to ri - hi hide
F#m                        E7                  A
She's got a tick-et to ride   but she don't care
Verse 2
Verse 2 same Chords
Song Bridge 1
D7
I don't know why she's rid-ing so high  She ought to
D7                                E
think right she ought to do right by me
D7
Be-fore she gets to say-ing good-bye  She ought to
D7                                E7
think right she ought to do right by me - Little Lead
Verse 1 Repeat

Song Bridge 2
Bridge 2 Same as Bridge 1
Verse 3 Repeat Verse 2
Verse 3 Same Chords
Ending Repeat and Fade
A
My ba-by don't care    My ba-by don't care

Links to CD and Sheet music pages.

Beatles Songs

One of the things about Beatles songs is most of them are timeless. In other words the song Michelle or In My Life could have been written in the 1800's or in 2050 and it would still be a good song.

A lot of their songs are about love and relationships which are timeless.

If you like this page about Beatles songs let me know. Just hit the Contact Us button and tell me what you think.