Beatles Abbey Road Package

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Her Majesty

  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.

• Lesson 2: Because - The Beatles - Guitar Lesson

  The Beatles last studio recording was Abbey Road, released in 1969. It included some of their best work. Because is a masterpiece from John Lennon, although the music is very short, really just 14 measures of arpeggios in the key of C# Minor.
  
  This short lesson just looks at how to play the accompaniment note-for-note along with the keyboard. There is a little hint about a chord solo at the, which may become a full lesson sometime soon.

• Lesson 3: Mean Mr. Mustard

  Abbey Road ended with a long medley of short, mostly unfinished tunes, all put together masterfully, and it turned out way better than they had anticipated. This lesson breaks down Mean Mr. Mustard, which followed Sun King and led into Polythene Pam, at least on the final release, but more on that in the lesson.

  The song only uses a couple chord shapes but has some quick, chromatic changes. The strumming pattern uses some palm muting and keeps a very regular pattern.

• Lesson 4: Polythene Pam

  The second side of The Beatles last album, Abbey Road consisted mostly of the long medley of short, some unfinished tunes. Polythene Pam was a little ditty of John's that followed Mean Mr. Mustard (or Her Majesty in the original incarnation) and led into She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.

  
  This lesson looks at the chord progression and strumming patterns, as well as going in to how to connect it to the neighboring tunes.

• Lesson 5: She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

  We have another addition to our set of lessons on tunes from the Abbey Road Medley (The Long One) to go along with Mean Mr. Mustard, Her Majesty, and Polythene Pam. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, a whimsical ditty of Paul's, follows those three and continues into Golden Slumbers.

  The song has just two short parts, a verse and a chorus, and is over in less than two minutes. The lesson incorporates a lot of Paul's bass part into strumming through the chord progression and shows a great way to strum through it accompanying the vocal part.

• Lesson 6: Come Together

  Come Together is the opening song from Beatles 1969 album "Abbey Road" which was very well received in the US and UK, reaching the top of both music charts. This has always been one of my all time favorite Beatles songs. I actually spent a lot of time in college arranging Beatles songs for solo acoustic guitar and come together was one of my favorites. All of the parts are uniquely laid together. The drums are very rolling and tom-oriented and the bass is very fat and round, which leaves the guitar up to play riffs which is unusual for Beatles considering they played chords most of the time. This song also incorporates one of the most standard blues riffs where you jump back and forth between a power chord and a major sixth interval. The solo is a perfect example of how phrasing, bending and the use of few notes placed correctly can create a unique and powerful sound..

• Lesson 7: I Want You - Guitar Lesson

  I Want You is a song with two distinct personalities, a gritty, bluesy section where the lead guitar doubles John's vocal, and a semi-classical keyboard arpeggio with a somewhat sinister sound. Both parts are addressed in this lesson with the arpeggios being done fingerstyle and the bluesy section with standard flat picking technique.

• Lesson 8: Here Comes The Sun - Guitar Lesson

  Here Comes The Sun is a lesson we have had a partial version of here at TG since the early days. Neil has finally put together the complete version.
  
  The song was written by George Harrison in Eric Clapton’s garden, as the winter of 1969 was turning to spring in England. This lesson goes into detail about the techniques George used to create this acoustic masterpiece.

• Lesson 9: Something - Guitar Lesson

  The version of Something on Abbey Road is done in the key of C, modulating to A for the bridge. This arrangement we are looking at is based on George’s acoustic guitar demo of the song that was released on The Beatles Anthology III. This version is probably how George played it for his wife, Patti, in their kitchen in 1968. We are playing in the key of A, modulating to F# for the bridge. The intro riff, or melody is much easier to play in this key and leads me to believe that this is the key George wrote it in, if he wrote it on guitar. There are conflicting stories about this. Most composers who play the guitar tend to write things that lay comfortably under the fingers on the fretboard.