Her Majestyby Beatles

Her Majesty is a cute little ditty of Paul McCartney’s that he never really planned on releasing. It was just written to amuse John and was originally included in ‘The Long One’, the medley that ends Abbey Road after starting off with ‘You Never Give Me Your Money.’ It fit between ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’ and ‘Polythene Pam’ but was cut at Paul’s direction. It did get tacked on after ‘The End’, as a hidden track, years before anybody started doing such things.

The tune is a 16-measure progression with hints of ragtime and tin pan alley. Paul uses an unusual picking/strumming technique that is all done with the thumb and index finger. He also uses some unorthodox fretting hand fingerings (thumb wrapped over to play the 5th string). All of these anomalies are addressed in the lesson, along with alternate approaches.