The 6 Best Beatles Guitar Riffs

hello Internet my name is Ayla Tessler mabick today I'd like to share with you a few of my favorite riffs from one of my favorite bands of all time the Beatles although it's impossible to really say which are the best Beatles riffs because there are just too many of them here are just a few iconic riffs that truly make the songs and before we proceed because I don't think I've clarified this in my past videos my definition of a riff is a repeated melodic Motif that happens repeatedly throughout the song so not just a cool line from a solo or a chord progression anyways here we go [Music] anybody that has seen the recent Peter Jackson documentary get back will know that the song I've Got a Feeling was developed by The Beatles during those first days at Twickenham Studios and then released in 1970 on the Beatles last album let it be so let's break it down so we're going to start with a pretty cool version of an a major chord where instead of Simply playing a major you're actually going to reach up with your pinky all the way up here to the fifth fret of the high E string which is also the note a and we're going to be using this chord shape and what makes this riff so special is the way that it's picked which is pretty loose you know when you listen to the song and you listen to The Beatles In general they were a very precise and incredible musicians but at the same time it wasn't always about you know crazy technical Precision it was more just about Vibe so what you want to do is start by playing the a string and then you strum kind of aiming for the G string but if you happen to catch the D string in there as well that's totally okay and then you're gonna aim for the high E string but you can definitely try to get the B string in there as well it's all kind of loose whatever you happen to hit with your strumming hand will probably sound good come back down to the a strip and then you end up playing the D string and hammering on this chord shape which is essentially an A6 sus4 where you're putting that ring finger on the fourth fret of the D string and your middle finger on the third fret of the B string you end up playing kind of like again it's all very loose [Music] and this is actually the hardest note to have ring out because it's very easy to mute it and a lot of people might benefit from tilting the guitar forward a little bit just because then you'll have a little less tension through your hand and that can help a lot [Music] and it's okay to also play high e to the B when you play the Riff as well at the very end as opposed to landing on that g string just because I think occasionally John seems to play that instead again it's all very loose you do whatever you want and then after you've played that initial riff you end up playing something cool like this [Music] triplets on this double stop where you're putting your middle finger on the fourth fret of the D string and then your third finger your ring finger on the fourth fret of the B string what's up then you're sliding from the fourth fret to the fifth fret and you want to use your index finger to mute the G string here foreign and play it two more times you do that whole thing four times like I just did and in the original if you're playing the John part he just ends up playing chords at this part he just ends up playing something like an E major a G major and then a d something I think he uses different voicings than that but I also wanted to show you George's part which he plays on a Telly and of course it's a it's a separate guitar part but it's very cool to bring it into this main riff as well and that is this chromatic walk up where you play open e two three on the low E string and then two three four five on the a string and something I happen to notice because this little section happens three times in the song the very first time he happens to slide into that last note so that's just a little detail you could include it if you wanted to but if not that's okay so here's what we have foreign [Music] let's move on to the next one [Music] foreign [Music] up next is another one of my absolute favorite Beatles songs Helter Skelter I think I listened to the song a few times a week and I have for a long time now and there are a lot of amazing riffs in this song but there's something about that descending Motif in the chorus that just really gets me Paul was inspired to write the song After reading about how the who's I Can See For Miles another song I Really Love was their loudest most raucous song yet and he was further inspired to write Helter Skelter after reading press accusations that he was only capable of writing Sophie's sentimental ballads and so in response he wrote one of the heaviest rock songs of 1968 and here we go so started the chorus we come in with a slide down from the ninth fret of the low E string Landing in an a power chord a string to the second fret of the D string classic Blues move you play it twice and then you play the fourth fret of the D string and this part is I think slightly Palm muted and then we walk down g string and you play four two open on the D string and then four two open on the a string [Music] and I think the last note of that phrase is slightly Palm muted as well again these are just the little details I think I hear feel free to disagree feel free to ignore me but it could be cool to incorporate that [Music] and then you play a power cord here with the open and the front of the a string again doing that bluesy move where you move up to the fourth fret and play same kind of Riff as before down a set of strings and again I think the last note the open e is slightly Palm muted so so far we have yeah and then again up to the a string same thing again and now we get this crazy crazy move the influence of which I can't even comprehend sometimes because you still hear people doing stuff like that all the time and pumpkin and heavy music and it's crazy they already we're doing this in 1968 but when I listen to it I feel like Paul was here at the fifth fret if he was the one playing this I think he was fifth fret of the B string with the open e as well slowly bending up and then at the end of that phrase releasing the bend that being said when you see Paul play it live with a band sometimes the guitar player is up here at the ninth fret of the G string [Music] and then you get the open B string in there as well so it's totally up to you you can choose which way you prefer uh but yeah once you do that [Music] you land on the open E string and it sounds to me like there's a little bit of uh modulation and Pitch going on there which I think might come from pushing down on the string here past the nut that's a good way to achieve that kind of sound also some guitars allow you to get a similar effect putting down here past the bridge either way this is a great technique to take note of because I think sounds to me like it's used throughout the song as well again it's crazy how groundbreakingly heavy this song was for the time where you get these sort of uh dissonant drones and that's one way to achieve that sound so now let's move on to possibly the most recognizable Beatles riff of all time you let me know if you agree in the comments alright here we go [Music] so in case you didn't already know that is Day Tripper probably one of the most iconic Beatles Rifts of all time and it was released as a single in 1965 with we can work it out as its double a side this single was noted as the seventh highest selling single of the 1960s the song was also included in their concert set list until they retired from live performances in August of 1966. it appears in the intro and during the verses played in both E and A as they change chords back and forth in the verses taking a lot of influence from American Soul music so so iconic so this is how we play it so start with the open E string three four and then you're gonna walk up second fret of the a string second fret of the D string open D string [Music] and now that last part is second fret of the a string fourth fret of the D string second for the a string open D second fret [Music] so for the next part we're going to move down a set of strings starting on a strip [Music] and just a quick note about tone and guitars just because I think this is kind of cool this is a 1967 Gretch double anniversary so this guitar is you know a little bit younger than the song itself but this is a cool guitar because it's pretty similar to the Gretch Tennyson that was used occasionally by The Beatles not occasionally very often and the actual guitar used to play this intro is hotly debated some think it was that Gretch others think it was another hollow body like maybe a three three five something like that some people have some other ideas about the guitar I'm almost sure it's some sort of hollow body just based on the jangliness and the fullness of the tone but if you happen to know with 100 certainty what guitar was used please feel free to leave a comment I personally would love to know all right let's move on to our next riff this one's a little bit heavier [Music] so our next riff is Hey Bulldog which appears on the Beatles album Yellow Submarine and this song features a riff that has such a quintessential 60s sound to it played on a Gibson SG just like this one George is really just playing notes from the B minor blues scale but playing them in such a way that it creates such an iconic and memorable hook it's also worth noting that George played all of the guitar parts on this track which I think is pretty cool and this is another one of my absolute favorites let's break it down so first I'll show you how to play the Riff in its most simple basic form just the Frets and then I'll talk about a few little details you could add so to start play the second fret of the a string twist and then the open D string back to that second fret again and now You're Gonna Roll from the second fret of the a string which I just told you to play to the second fret of the D string [Music] back to that second fret again and then three four on the D string and then starts the same way as before with that second fret of the a string threat to that second fret of the a string [Music] and then you move from the fourth fret of the D string down to the second part of the a string and then third fret second fret on the D string [Music] so in the intro of this song that whole sequence repeats twice and when I listen to the song with just my right ear piece in or my earbud I can hear a couple more details because the guitar is panned all the way over to the right and it sounds to me like the Riff starts with a super subtle hammer on so instead of just playing the second fret like this twice it sounds like a subtle hammer on from the to that first second fret the first time I play the second fret another detail it sounds like when you're ascending in that riff you slide from the second fret to the third fret and then when you come down [Music] it sounds like there is a little bit of a bend on that second fret of the D string [Music] and there's the ref so the next iconic beetles riff I'd like to share with you is the one from Paperback Writer [Music] this song was written by Paul McCartney in response to a challenge made to him by his aunt Lil to write a song that was not about love and so Paperback Writer is written as a letter from an aspiring author addressed to a publisher and John Lennon described the song as the son of daytripper meaning a rock and roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy loud guitar so this is another riff that really captures the Zeitgeist of the mid-60s I think so this is another song where there's a lot of controversy around what guitar was actually used of course this was a period of time where George was seen with his SG a lot and he did a lot of promotional material around this time using the SG upon listening to the song it really sounds like it might be some sort of hollow body just because of the amount of twang there you know but at the same time I think it sounds really cool on the SG so I'm going to teach it to you on this guitar I'm already holding it this is how we play it so we're in G and we're going to start by kind of forming a G power chord so you're going to start by putting your index finger here down on the third fret you're going to be kind of barring uh we're going to start by playing that third fret of the low E string you're going to do a hammer on from the third fret to the fifth fret on the a string which is why it's very helpful to bar and then we're gonna play the fifth fret of the D string so we end up forming a G power chord and then we come down and play fifth fret of the a string and then third fret of the D string and again if you're barring all you have to do is take that pinky off [Music] and now [Music] foreign and now [Music] you end up playing third fret of the a string and again you just remove your ring finger [Music] and then we end by playing for the E string [Music] and then a quick hammer on from the third fret to the fifth fret on the a string [Music] and you end up playing the D string and [Music] you end up hearing a nice double stop between those two notes nice and crunchy [Music] and you might have an easier time catching both notes if you actually pick up at that point [Music] there we go that's Paperback Writer so for the fourth time in this video I'd like to say that this is also one of my all-time favorite Beetle songs and maybe just one of my favorite songs of all time in general I Want You She's So Heavy off of the incredible record Abbey Road and again there are so many iconic riffs and so much fantastic guitar work in this song in general but it's that riff that comes in during the heavy breakdown at the end of the song that I truly think is one of the coolest riffs that has ever been written [Music] foreign [Music] so I don't want anyone to freak out because sometimes people get very scared when you talk about drop tuning and detuning your guitar but this song is in drop D which again I think really just goes to show how groundbreakingly heavy it was so don't freak out you'll be able to do it even if you don't think you can we're gonna take that low E string and we want to tune it down to the note D so best thing you can do is D string for reference that's the note we're trying to tune to but down an octave take that low E and you bring it down you get to that note now if you want to double check of course pulling up a tuner could be a great thing to do now you can just double check that it's totally precise you could even feel free to recheck the tuning of your other strings because sometimes detuning one string on your guitar can knock the other strings a little bit Out Of Tune but it's nothing to fear it's not really bad for your guitar especially something like Drop D It's not that crazy the guitar can handle it uh and yeah let's learn the Riff all right so to begin we have this walk down crazy so good so third fret below the love strength second fret open e walk back up to the second fret third fret [Music] play five seven two and now this is a hotly debated topic some people play this entire Riff on the low E string which I think is entirely possible that being said personally for some reason I've always just felt like I like the way it sounds when you move to the a string this next part playing three two one and then third fret fifth fret to the a string open a and then this whole thing repeats and the whole time I'm thinking in three one two three one two three wanted [Music] and what's very cool about this riff is it's almost hard to tell what guitar it was played on though it very possibly was a casino or maybe a Les Paul but what you can hear is there are a bunch of guitars that are layered on top of each other it's not just one guitar part it's definitely a bunch and again I don't think it's necessary to learn all the precise moments where little details like slides happen in their exact Precision unless you want to but I can just almost guarantee in the moment you know John Lennon and George Harrison we're not thinking about those sorts of things they were just you know playing what they felt that being said if you want to add some slides in the Riff for character because they're definitely in there somewhere you could do something like this [Music] foreign [Music] seventh fret and definitely down to this second fret and then sliding to the third fret fifth fret and then down to the open a string just like that put it all together [Music] so there we have it I hope you enjoyed this lesson and have a lot of fun learning these iconic riffs and I especially hope that all of the Beatles fans out there enjoyed this I know for me anytime I get to play music by some of my favorite artists I have an amazing time so again I just hope you have an amazing time I think there's so much to learn from great music even if it was created over 50 years ago because you can hear the roots of so much modern music in the greats of the past and I think it's so cool to learn directly from the masters of the past and learn the roots of the music that you love even current music because that always helps you appreciate it and learn it on a much deeper level it's just about music appreciation and music love thank you so much for watching I hope you had fun and please feel free to leave a comment down below of what your all-time favorite Beatles riffs are because honestly I would love to know what you think and have the most beautiful day bye [Music]

Channel: Musora

Views: 288,191

Keywords: guitar riffs, the beatles, paperback writer, The 6 Best Beatles Guitar Riffs, best beatles, best beatles guitar riffs, how to play beatles on guitar, play guitar for beginners, play the beatles, guitar lesson, guitar riffs for beginners, guitar lessons for beginners, how to play guitar for beginners, day tripper, ive got a feeling, helter skelter beatles, hey bulldog, i want you, shes so heavy, beatles, beatles songs, beatles greatest hits, beatles get back, how to play

Id: vPGjNv-bvSY

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2022