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12.44pm
16 June 2020
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Hey (bull)dogs,
I recently had the idea to pursue playing/recording some Beatles songs ostensibly as they were played by the Beatles themselves in the recordings, having known about the existence of this text (Complete Scores).
Looking at early(er) songs I was surprised to see the rhythm chords prescribed in open position. Having seen a little concert footage, I know John mostly seems to use a couple movable chord-shapes.
I also noticed in the text that the strumming patterns are relatively involved compared to how John strums in the footage, where he seems to go simply upstroke-downstroke almost always.
5.15pm
Moderators
27 November 2016
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Hey JohnM
I can’t really give you any concrete detail (others on here will) but my hypothesis for the strumming patterns is that ij the studio he got more technical, and on stage he simplified it. That’s pretty common in the music world so it wouldn’t surprise me.
But again I don’t actually know, so take that with a grain of salt!
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1.26am
24 June 2019
Offline JohnM, sheet music, especially guitar music, is often written for the most basic of players to understand. So, whilst John may have played a G Major barred at the 3rd fret, sheet music would just show the open chord for simplicity. Unfortunately, this means that following the music this way will not give as accurate a rendition as you might like. Tablature music for guitar is often written with a more accurate reflection on a recorded version of the song (although not always the Beatles version) as it shows the finger positions on the strings rather than a simplified chord pattern.
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2.40am
19 July 2020
Offline Hey JohnnyM, reading your post was tops for me mate as I have engaged on a very similar path as you during corona lockdown in LA and I am very excited to see someone else inspired to make some recordings of Beatles songs the whole way through. About a month ago I got some sorta itch and I found the Beatles Naked Podcast. Which led me to this immersive experience of a website where I spent every night in bed for two hours reading every live performance entry logged here (I’m only up to March ‘63 but man there was like 90 performances to read through of just the first Hamburg trip alone!)
finally, when I finally figured out what that itch really was I had ended up putting together a project where I decided to immerse myself in everything Beatles that I could get my hands on and record at home on Logic Pro X (and some with my band virtually) every Beatles song officially recorded and in the sequence they were released (UK release of course.)
I had already devoured most of the important and staple pieces of Beatle fandom over my 26 years being a massive fan (albeit spread out) – but now to do it in a concentrated manner. Books, every film they made, all these diverse and in depth websites that I ne’er even thought of looking up before, YouTube and of course, The Complete Scores. I had been reading this and playing songs from this book for five years and loved how they tabbed every instrument. Being a seasoned guitar player and singer for 26 years they still had chords that I never figured out until this book. It’s a massive complete text to me and even though I have only completed the first three songs (Love Me Do , Please Please Me (the singles before the album), and ISHST I would say that the chordings are correctly tabbed for guitar and bass, at least tonally from my listening and comparing. An open E chord sounds quite different the and lower chord version on the 7/9 frets and John’s rhythm on ISHST is definitely the E7 moveable chord shape. I’ll let you know if I come across inconsistencies myself? (Side note: I actually started my first attempt at this with a “demo” version of John’s “Bad To Me” to match his as it is only two tracks and I couldn’t stop humming the tune that week leading into it)
so what songs have you chosen to try recording? Any luck with trying to re-create their sound? Logic Has some “Beatlesque” plugins or instrutments but now I’ve ended up with the Abbey Road Studio colllectio pin from Waves which was on sale this last week. But it’s quite an undertaking figuring that out!
i know I’ll never finish this project but it sure is the most excitement I’ve had these last four months. We are calling our band Liverpool Lockdown. Next up is Misery . Gotta admit it was fun learning how to play harmonica for LMd!
btw this is my first post in the forum so thanks for getting me inspired to join and write. It looks like I found a home for a while…
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sir walter raleigh, The Hole Got Fixed12.55pm
26 January 2017
Offline I once tried to learn the White Album all the way through on piano and guitar, but never attempted to record it. One time I did perform the first half at a family dinner party.
I love the official scores book, however there are a few spots that aren’t fully accurate, and it takes some adjusting by ear to get the fully correct parts. I also have The Beatles real book, which is just basic charts for each song, and that is so full of errors they’ll get basic I-IV progressions incorrect.
You seem like quite the Beatles fan and musician Cloudburst, I know we’d all like to see you stick around and join in on some more discussion.
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cloudburst5150"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
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-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
1.34pm
7 November 2010
Offline sir walter raleigh said
I once tried to learn the White Album all the way through on piano and guitar, but never attempted to record it. One time I did perform the first half at a family dinner party.
Now that is a party trick.
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sir walter raleighI think it's great you're going through a phase, and I'm awfully glad it'll all be over in a couple of days
2020
2.51pm
26 January 2017
Offline I was a guitar beginner at the time and it was monumental in my learning progress and playing confidence.
"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
"We could ride and surf together while our love would grow"
-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
2.32am
19 July 2020
Offline sir walter raleigh said You seem like quite the Beatles fan and musician Cloudburst, I know we’d all like to see you stick around and join in on some more discussion.
I figure I’ll give the ol’ poke and pry when I get the hang of this. See? I just figured out my first “quote” in these forum threads! I can do this! Btw I am looking forward to and also a bit apprehensive of taking on the White Album . I mean I gotta master alternating-thumb finger licking style for Julia ? But I got real chunky thumbs. No bueno. I can imagine your dinner party was quite a success.
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sir walter raleigh3.08pm
7 November 2010
Offline sir walter raleigh said
I was a guitar beginner at the time and it was monumental in my learning progress and playing confidence.
That’s great to hear, but I was attempting to make a bad joke about playing guitar and piano simultaneously aha! 
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sir walter raleigh, cloudburst5150I think it's great you're going through a phase, and I'm awfully glad it'll all be over in a couple of days
2020
2.18am
19 July 2020
Offline JohnM said
Hey (bull)dogs,I also noticed in the text that the strumming patterns are relatively involved compared to how John strums in the footage, where he seems to go simply upstroke-downstroke almost always.
JohnM – have you also used the Ultimate Guitar website and you get the “official” recreated Beatle tracks tabbed? (Might need pro mode I’m not sure at the moment) I kind of balance the two with the book and see live footage to get a sense of what’s actually happening. I can tell a lot of the information on there is tabbed right from the “Complete Scores” but sometimes it isn’t and you get a nice precise tab when the book gets it different. And of course “different” means one’s interpretation of the playing of the instruments (tabber) and also how you hear it yourself. Like the piano for Lady Madonna in the “Scores” doesn’t feel right and when I found PianoJohn on YouTube and his breakdown it was what I heard in my head “hearing” the record. But who knows? Maybe I’ve got hearing problems from years of playing live and having ears blown out by my Marshall.
4.00pm
9 March 2017
Offline Those “official” tabs aren’t always accurate either. For example, the “official” Ultimate Guitar tab for Back In The USSR has the rhythm guitar playing the blues shuffle during the verses, as most tabs state. However, the rhythm guitar’s actually doing a weird gallop thing that’s barely audible on the finished product where it plays nothing for the first 2.5 beats of the measure and then plays 6 16th notes.
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3.00am
19 July 2020
Offline Dark Overlord said
Those “official” tabs aren’t always accurate either. For example, the “official” Ultimate Guitar tab for Back In The USSR has the rhythm guitar playing the blues shuffle during the verses, as most tabs state. However, the rhythm guitar’s actually doing a weird gallop thing that’s barely audible on the finished product where it plays nothing for the first 2.5 beats of the measure and then plays 6 16th notes.
Yeah right on. Akin to most rock n roll musicians that are recording, you try to get them to play the same thing again exactly and you are asking a lot! Obvi, some are technical machines. Your example above points out why bar bands I’ve heard covering that song always sounds “off”-ish. So who else out there has to break out the magnifying glass with “Scores”?
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