Play Like The Beatles

I am amazed at the number of uninformed people who suggest that George Harrison was just an ordinary "nothing special" guitarist. And yet, if someone asked you to name the top ten guitar riffs of all time, would you not include the Intro to I Feel Fine, the solo to Something and the riff in Day Tripper.

But what about the roots of Merseybeat? Well, I can tell you that when we were all getting our bands together, Liverpool was already a hotbed of guitar playing. Every Saturday all us young aspiring guitarists, would trot down to Rushworths and watch Bob Hobbs the man who sold the Beatles those famous Gibson electro acoustics play some amazing stuff. Across the road at Hessy's you could sit and watch Jim Gretty playing Chet Atkins. In Breck Road every week The Liverpool Guitar club would meet and play jazz. At a time when we were struggling to find B7, we would sit and watch in awe as these "Old Men" would stroke the fret board in the most exotic way. Later on, when the Beatles started writing, it was those jazz chords that George, Paul and John had learnt on a Saturday morning that would flavour some of the most iconic compositions. Remember the famous opening chord from A Hard Days Night, what about the funny Chords (as George would call them) in My Sweet Lord. In fact in pretty well every Beatle track there was a chord that you wouldn't find anywhere else in the world of Rock N Roll.

Today, these advanced chords shapes are used everywhere and are now de riguer, but in those days with only Bert Weedon's Play In A Day book to reference, we either had to guess the chord or go and watch the maestros in Rushworths and Hessys.

This page is dedicated to people who want to play like the Beatles and learn how to play true Merseybeat. From beginners to advanced playing we will bring the best lessons we can find.

This a great You Tube channel from Scuggs who plays it good, using in most cases the actual type of guitar used on the recording.