This article is a review of "Fingerpicking Beatles", a book of fingerstyle guitar solo arrangements of Beatles songs. There are many classical guitar style arrangements of these popular tunes but few have the appeal to beginners and experienced guitarists. If you have thought about starting off as a fingerstyle guitarist or wondered about including Beatles songs in your repertoire, read on.
I sometimes see that guitar players advise students to learn songs by The Beatles, especially if they are learning fingerstyle acoustic. As searching for tabs that suit your taste and playing ability is sometimes a little bit boring and frustrating, I thought I would tell you about a book that has tabs for thirty songs by The Beatles arranged for solo acoustic guitar.
The book is called Fingerpicking Beatles and the tunes are essentially the vocal melody with basic bass lines and some chords. Chords are also featured so you can change the arrangement a little if you feel that it could be improved or it doesn't suit your taste.
The book also has standard music notation, instructions on how to play each song accompanied by photos. If you are not an experienced guitar player, the book also has a basic tutor on fingerstyle guitar. To add to the enjoyment, the book also has the words.
The advantage of the classical style of finger picking is the potential to bring out different voices in the piece you are playing by making use of bass lines and accompanying notes.
Quite often a guitarist will get some experience and some technique under his belt but feel that he could go just that little bit further. This collection of songs will definitely help if you need to raise the bar on your fingerstyle guitar picking.
Here is the complete list of songs:
A Day In The Life
Across The Universe
All You Need Is Love
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Can't Buy Me Love
Dear Prudence
Eleanor Rigby
Free As A Bird
Here, There And Everywhere
Hey Jude
In My Life
Lady Madonna
Let It Be
Love Me Do
Michelle
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Nowhere Man
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Octopus's Garden
Penny Lane
Please Please Me
Something
The Long And Winding Road
Ticket To Ride
We Can Work It Out
When I'm Sixty-Four
Yellow Submarine
Yesterday
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
The guitar is not a great instrument for sight reading but some of these arrangements are simple enough for a reasonably seasoned guitarist to carry off the first time they see it. Some of the songs did not strike me as being great choices for solo guitar playing, but maybe it's a matter of taste.
The song, Blackbird by The Beatles is a favorite amongst fingerstyle guitar players and all Beatles songs seem to have timeless quality and a melody that lends itself to the needs of a solo guitar picker.
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