George Harrison 10-Pack

Lessons

• Lesson 1: My Sweet Lord

  My Sweet Lord has been one of our leading vote getters in the Recommend A Lesson here at TG for quite a while. This lesson covers strumming it in a couple of different keys, one using a capo, and also goes over the slide guitar parts that immediately identify the song.

• Lesson 2: If Not For You (Bob Dylan)

  If Not For You was written by Bob Dylan and appeared on his 1970 album New Morning. George Harrison, who had always been a fan of and was heavily influenced by Dylan, covered in it 1970 as well on his album All Things Must Pass. George's version added some slide guitar to the accompaniment, giving it a touch of his signature sound. The lesson goes over the chord progression as well as some of the slide fills. If you have not tried playing bottleneck or slide guitar you might start with the lesson on Amazing Grace. If Not For You is a good one for the second step of your bottleneck journey.

• Lesson 3: Isn't It A Pity

  Isn't It A Pity was written by George Harrison in 1966 but was not recorded until he started working on his solo album All Things Must Pass, released in 1970. Neil's lesson shows a way to strum through the chord progression in the original key of G major,but also includes a look at George's acoustic demo version recorded in January 1969, when the Beatles were shooting the movie Let It Be.

• Lesson 4: Beware Of Darkness

  All Things Must Pass was the album that really brought George Harrison’s songs to the attention of the public. Released in 1970, just after the Beatles broke up, it was full of great songs, including *Beware Of Darkness*. The song was also recorded by Leon Russell at about the same time, and in 1996 was covered by the modern progressive rock band Spock’s Beard. All Things Must Pass was produced with a very heavy hand by Phil Spector, but we are fortunate that George made some demos that were stripped down to just solo performances. Consequently, this song makes a great acoustic guitar lesson. It is played in the key of E, using quite a few barre chords, along with a couple of chords outside of the key, and the lesson includes a segment on transposing it to the key of B as well.

• Lesson 5: It Don't Come Easy - Guitar Lesson

  It Don't Come Easy was one of Ringo Starr's first solo releases, coming out in April 1971. It features a simple opening guitar lick, much in George Harrison's style, who coincidentally 'helped' Ringo significantly with composing the song. George and Ringo performed it live at the Concert For Bangla Desh later that year.

• Lesson 6: Give Me Love

  In 1973 George Harrison released the follow up to All Things Must Pass, Living In The Material World. It included his next hit, *Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth),*a song played with a capo at the third fret and mostly chords in the key of D. Many of George’s songs feature unusual chord combinations and this is no exception. The strumming, on the other hand, is somewhat basic. The lesson includes a quick look at a piano fill that occurs in the chorus as well.

• Lesson 7: All Those Years Ago

  George Harrison and his old band mates were masters of interesting chord progression, many times combining chords from multiple keys into one section of a song, and other times reaching out pretty far from conventional harmonic patterns. *All Those Years Ago* reaches outside the box a bit with the addition of a diminished, an augmented, and even a minor sixth chord. This guitar lesson focuses mostly on strumming the chords, although we also look at playing a shuffle-type riff with a bluesy lick, as well as a couple of segments on transposing it to a key different from the original. The song first appeared on his 1981 album Somewhere In England, and was written as George's tribute to John Lennon.

• Lesson 8: Handle With Care (George Harrison)

  Here we have a great example of the collaborative effort the Traveling Wilburys put together on Volume 1, the opening song, Handle With Care. It features an opening segment by George, followed by a section featuring Roy, and a 3rd part done by Tom, Bob and Jeff. The chords are very basic and the strumming can be simple as well, although we look at a pattern that includes double bass notes played on consecutive eighths, which adds a bit to the level of difficulty.

• Lesson 9: End Of The Line (George Harrison)

  In this lesson we look at the last song on the first album by the Traveling Wilburys, End Of the Line. The Wilburys consisted of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne (ELO and producer of most of George's albums), Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. Many of the songs were true collaborations with parts written and sung by all members of the band. End Of The Line is a very basic strumming song but includes an intro that uses 3-string chords up the neck. These are from the D, A and E families and played on just the top 3 strings.

• Lesson 10: Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

  The album George Harrison was working on in his last days was Brainwashed, and it was released posthumously in 2002. George had always been enamored by the sound of the ukulele and he included *Between The Devil And the Deep Blue Sea*on the album. Harold Arlen (Over The Rainbow) wrote this standard in 1932 and George played it on the ukulele in a very traditional manner. This lesson goes over the chord progression and strumming techniques for guitar, as well as how to get the ukulele sound on the guitar, and even how to play it on the ukulele.