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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved

Beatle Guitar Scores
Richard Knappen's post has prompted me to finish reviewing a new album
of Beatle Transcriptions, in this including a CD.

The quality of the notation of the Beatles' music has grown from the
pathetically inaccurate scores of the sixties to current utterly
detailed transcriptions.

One must immediately discriminate between piano/vocal albums, and
transcriptions. The former have parts for voice and piano, along
with chord patterns. Although some albums have improved, they are
mostly full of errors.

Most the improvement is found in the transcriptions. These are often
just for guitars and voice.Some are some full band transcriptions,
including the mighty The Beatles Complete Score" (The Bible) which
notates each song (over a 1000 pages and highly recommended). 

Two collections have concentrated on presenting the Beatles' guitar
technique in its own right.

The Beatles Guitar Technigues
Wise Publications, 1994
Transcriptions by Jesse Gress

Over the years Gress has produced the best set of guitar and vocal
transcriptions on the market. He writes down what they sang and
played, not what the meant to sing and play. In this book he presents
the key rhythm and solo parts of about ninety Beatlesongs. 

Gress had already transcribed most of these songs. He added a
commentary to each pointing out key features of the techniques
involved. 

The Beatles Hits (Includes CD)
Hal Leonard Corporation, 1997 (www.halleonard.com)
Written by Wolf Marshall
Transcriptions by Jesse Gress*

Note, Hal Leonard Corporation is a subsiduary of Wise Corporation.
Most of the transcriptions are identical with those of Gress, so I
assume he was basically responsible for them. Some are corrected.

This collection includes only twenty six songs. The big feature is a
CD where all the song fragments are performed. First, with the band in
the left channel and the featured instrument in the right channel.
Then the rhythm and/or lead parts are played alone and slowly enough
for each nuance to be heard. 

Wolf Marshall was able to get hold of guitars and amps which came
close to the originals. The commentary in this book is quite extensive
and includes info on the guitars used etc. A lengthy introduction
spells out the basics and discusses the instruments they used.

For those who want avoid notation, or those would like to learn it,
this collection is ideal. It is really quite magical to hear some the
parts played separately on authentic instruments. The solo of I Want
You or the riff in I Feel Fine are just two stand-outs. There's
lots of bon bons. 

On the other hand, although the guys playing on this CD are no
beginners, you come away from the CD with even more admiration for the
all the Beatles' as guitarists. It is the Beatles touch that you
become aware of. Their ability to emphasise this note, or more
particularly, their ability to play certain notes very softly. It is
apparent with all most every riff.

Another collection, The Beatles Favorites, holds another twenty one
songs, handled in the same manner. I haven't seen that book so far.

Its good to see this industy moving toward using multi-media.

ian