February 1Feb 1 Popular Post I have been playing the guitar for most of my life, and even though I play mostly metal, the Beatles have always been my fave band throughout the decades. So a year ago I decide to play all of the Beatles songs in basic order of release. I took a spiral bound book of their songs ("The Beatles Compete Chord Songbook"), found the right song, and then opened up the same song's guitar tabs on the ultimate guitar site. The only tabs I use are the ones from PJVILL (seriously, his Beatles tabs are untouchable). I printed out blank guitar tab sheets, transcribed PJVILL's tabs onto those paper templates, cut them out, and taped them into the chord songbook. Yes, it's an old man's way of doing it but then again who am I kidding. I like paper books. Anyway, I am playing all of the songs, including chords and rhythm guitar parts. But I'm also playing anything that's not a chord and/or that featured a prominent instrument -- so that's obviously the guitar riffs, fills, and solos, but it's also piano solos, trumpets, strings, etc. Anything that can reasonably be played on the guitar. So that would include, for example, the trumpet solo in Penny Lane, the strings in Eleanor Rigby, the crazy orchestration in I Am the Walrus, the piano opener to Martha My Dear, etc. See a couple of examples below. I have played all of those songs and parts in basic order of release, following their chronological releases of singles and UK albums. The only thing I've really switched up are Let it Be and Abbey Road, because Abbey was actually recorded after the Let it Be sessions even though Let it Be was released last. And because I'd rather finish with The End instead of Get Back. I'm not doing all of the unreleased songs, alternate takes, remixes, etc. because my main two main goals are 1) to be able to sit down with my guitar, open that chord book, and play whatever song I want with whatever fills, solos, riffs, and other stuff right there easy to access, and 2) to basically play every formally released Beatles song in some sort of reasonable order. Beatles nerds should know that I played Her Majesty out of order, because I want to finish with The End. And I'm not learning shit from their Christmas albums, etc. It's been an extremely cool project, even more so than I thought it would be. I have really learned a ton about the evolution of songwriting, chord structures, and theory. I have also really started to appreciate the different attitudes and instrumentation that each Beatle brought to the different songs and albums. You can really see it in the music itself -- chords, solos, tones -- just how much they evolved in about 7 years, and just how divergent they became with their own individual styles. It's been super badass and I'm now four songs away from finishing -- just the last 4-song Macca medley on side 2 of Abbey Road. My wife doesn't give a shit about any of this so I figured maybe someone on here would. One of the greatest bucket list journeys I've completed so far In My Life.
February 1Feb 1 You still haven’t added guitar to my Stranglehold drums. Enough with the Beatles and get to the Nuge, damn you. This is an insanely awesome journey, by the way. Nice work.
February 1Feb 1 very cool. If you have Sirius, check out Randy and Tal Bachman on the Beatles Channel. "Musical Mystery Tour" is great, and these two musicians, with their guitars in the studio, often get in the weeds on the way the songs were built.
February 1Feb 1 Author 36 minutes ago, Gil Bang said: very cool. If you have Sirius, check out Randy and Tal Bachman on the Beatles Channel. "Musical Mystery Tour" is great, and these two musicians, with their guitars in the studio, often get in the weeds on the way the songs were built. Yeah, I love that show. A lot of it goes over my head, but I still love hearing how the songs got developed over time with different takes, tempos, instruments, ideas, etc.
February 1Feb 1 Author 1 hour ago, smuggs said: You still haven’t added guitar to my Stranglehold drums. Enough with the Beatles and get to the Nuge, damn you. on it mwaaah mwaeeer mwwmwwaaahhhmwooo mmm myaaa myaaa that should just about do it
February 1Feb 1 One more thing: "and your bird can sing" is two guitars. The only guy on planet earth that can play it alone is Walsh.
February 2Feb 2 4 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said: Go back and do it on ukulele next. George loved Ukuleles, so that would be fitting. Dhani has said that anytime George traveled, he brought two ukes, in case he met somebody that needed one. Edited February 2Feb 2 by Gil Bang
February 2Feb 2 2 minutes ago, Gil Bang said: George loved Ukuleles, so that would be fitting. Dhani has said that anytime George traveled, he brought two ukes, in case he met somebody that needed one. I know. I occasionally listen to the YouTube of Paul on the uke George gave him doing the first half of Something, at the George celebration, before Clapton and the whole band took over for the big finish.
February 3Feb 3 Author Not too many ukuleles in Honolulu 😉 Good idea. Something makes sense on the Uke given the chord progression and how easily it is played on the uke. George was a big fan of Hawaii and wrote several songs about it -- seemed to fit his personality pretty well.
February 3Feb 3 Author I finished the project over the weekend. Got the whole songbook cobbled together with bunches of tabbed solos, riffs, and instrumentation. Gotta say it feels pretty good to have that project tackled. Gil - AYBCS is a freaking blast to play, BTW. Either guitar. It takes me several takes and mistakes to eventually get into the rhythm well enough to do a half-decent job at it, but man it's such a great guitar song.
February 3Feb 3 This is extremely admirable and ambitious but like, why, dude? You don't want to learn to play cool music?
February 3Feb 3 Author 11 hours ago, ztejas said: This is extremely admirable and ambitious but like, why, dude? You don't want to learn to play cool music?
February 3Feb 3 17 hours ago, ztejas said: This is extremely admirable and ambitious but like, why, dude? You don't want to learn to play cool music? Good on you dude. By why didn't you just start here: https://a.co/d/0o1tVls
February 3Feb 3 Author 1 hour ago, Chad Fuck said: Good on you dude. By why didn't you just start here: https://a.co/d/0o1tVls Well had I known that existed, I might not have gone to the trouble! Definitely could've started with that... BUT I do think that having my book be spiral bound helps a lot when playing. Also, the fact that most of the songs in my book span just two pages makes it way easier to read and play. The book you referenced certainly looks more complete, but I don't need all of the extra notations at this point. Plus I do think there was value for me in really taking the time to pore through things and write them down by hand -- part of my learning process I suppose. Maybe not necessary for others, but I needed the time it took to transcribe, etc to really process the different things I was learning and playing. Still, that's a cool resource book I didn't know existed, and it's now on my Christmas list, so thanks!
February 3Feb 3 y'all heard of the "Fab Faux"? It's a bunch of studio guys that got together...they play Beatles songs EXACTLY as they were recorded. it's really something.
February 3Feb 3 Author 7 minutes ago, Gil Bang said: y'all heard of the "Fab Faux"? It's a bunch of studio guys that got together...they play Beatles songs EXACTLY as they were recorded. it's really something. That's incredible
February 4Feb 4 I propose that a few of us get together and form our own "Fab Faux", but stay with me here...instead of Beatles songs we do SPINAL TAP songs. Who's with me?
February 4Feb 4 Man, that was clearly Will Lee from the jump. I think at least one other of those guys is from Letterman's band.
February 4Feb 4 7 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said: Man, that was clearly Will Lee from the jump. I think at least one other of those guys is from Letterman's band. one of them was in Conan's band.
February 4Feb 4 7 minutes ago, Gil Bang said: one of them was in Conan's band. Ah, that's right. Jimmy Vivino. He was instrumental (heh) in helping my friend's business (Durham Electronics) get off the ground. Alan had built an overdrive pedal for Charlie Sexton (the "Sex Drive") and Charlie was in NYC producing an Edie Brickell record. He loaned his original Sex Drive to Jimmy who loved it so much he took it to Manny's Music to show them, and then they were off.
February 4Feb 4 15 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said: Ah, that's right. Jimmy Vivino. He was instrumental (heh) in helping my friend's business (Durham Electronics) get off the ground. Alan had built an overdrive pedal for Charlie Sexton (the "Sex Drive") and Charlie was in NYC producing an Edie Brickell record. He loaned his original Sex Drive to Jimmy who loved it so much he took it to Manny's Music to show them, and then they were off. Aside from Lee, those cats are all eye-talian. You'd expect to read their names in a RICO indictment.
February 4Feb 4 1 minute ago, Gil Bang said: Aside from Lee, those cats are all eye-talian. You'd expect to read their names in a RICO indictment. I won't lie, I thought the same thing. They should have gotten Pino Palladino (technically Welsh, but of Italian descent).
February 4Feb 4 VERY off topic, but that reminds me of Dario Franchitti. The most italian name imaginable, and he sounds like this guy:
February 4Feb 4 Author 1 hour ago, Gil Bang said: I propose that a few of us get together and form our own "Fab Faux", but stay with me here...instead of Beatles songs we do SPINAL TAP songs. Who's with me?
February 4Feb 4 Well had I known that existed, I might not have gone to the trouble! Definitely could've started with that... BUT I do think that having my book be spiral bound helps a lot when playing. Also, the fact that most of the songs in my book span just two pages makes it way easier to read and play. The book you referenced certainly looks more complete, but I don't need all of the extra notations at this point. Plus I do think there was value for me in really taking the time to pore through things and write them down by hand -- part of my learning process I suppose. Maybe not necessary for others, but I needed the time it took to transcribe, etc to really process the different things I was learning and playing. Still, that's a cool resource book I didn't know existed, and it's now on my Christmas list, so thanks!Yours is much easier to read, for sure. Plus you did it yourself. Also the spiral bound is much easier to use day to day. Still, if you really want to nail the mellotron part from Strawberry Fields, there’s only one option.
February 4Feb 4 Author 11 hours ago, Chad Fuck said: Yours is much easier to read, for sure. Plus you did it yourself. Also the spiral bound is much easier to use day to day. Still, if you really want to nail the mellotron part from Strawberry Fields, there’s only one option. Truth!
February 4Feb 4 On 2/1/2025 at 4:11 PM, Pato del Muerto said: I know. I occasionally listen to the YouTube of Paul on the uke George gave him doing the first half of Something, at the George celebration, before Clapton and the whole band took over for the big finish. A few years back, the "Concert for George" played at theaters on 1 night...the anniversary of George's passing or his birthday or something. The first hour or so is all Indian musicians playing traditional Indian music. That was tough to get through.
February 4Feb 4 18 hours ago, Gil Bang said: y'all heard of the "Fab Faux"? It's a bunch of studio guys that got together...they play Beatles songs EXACTLY as they were recorded. it's really something. Very impressive and such a great song.
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