The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook

This is the best Beatles chord songbook I've had. A high percentage of the chords in this songbook really hit the nail on the head. This is my go to songbook if I need to refresh some song chords. PROS: 1. The songs are in alphabetical order which is deeply appreciated. 2. Perfect for rhythm playing as you get the lyrics and the corresponding chords above (no for lead guitar). 3. You can see the overall chords of a song at the top which helps a lot to have a general idea of how a song is going to play. 4. Most songs have accurate chords; the ones that don't won't bother you if you are a Beatles fan and know what chords they usually resorted to on their songs. CONS: PLEASE READ - A couple of caveats: 1. The book does not stay lay flat as it is very thick. I went to my local stationary store and asked them to spiral the whole book. This did the job. 2. The songs you'll find are exclusively written by the Beatles. The songbook does not contain covers such as Anna (Go to Him), Baby It's You, etc. I hope this review helps.

I love the Beatles. I purchased this book about 10 years ago, I removed the spine, took it to Office Max and had them cover and bind it so that the book would lay open when I was using it. It did not cost that much and was well worth it. I have worn this book out over the years. I left it in my gazebo this past summer and it got wet when it rained hard one day. My wife tried to dry it out with a hair dryer but that just caused it to blow up to twice it's size and pull the pages out of the binding. I was devastated. My beloved Beatles book, gone. Here I am, 10 years later, just bought it again, and will do the same thing, take it to Office Max and have them re-bind it and cover it (bout 5-10 bucks)(why don't the publishers realize that as players we need it to lay flat!?) Anyway, as almost everyone else say's here, this book is spot on. EXACTLY as the Beatles played it, in the right key's. The people here who say the song's are sometimes not in the right key are wrong. Sure the Beatles used varispeed technology sometimes on their recordings so you may have to tune down or up a semi-tone or use a capo to get it exact, welcome to the real world,(read Geoff Emmerick's book on how the Beatles recorded and experimented) but this book gets it right for a guitarist learning and playing the songs with or without a band,and 99% of the time playing along with the song, the right chords placed perfectly over the words. I do not read music or tab. This is a CHORD book. No music notation to get in the way, no tab numbers, just chord names with chord pictures where your fingers are placed and the position on the neck. This book has the chords for each song pictured at the top of the page for that song to reference while playing or learning. Every song is laid out so that when you open to a new page laid out flat the whole song fits into those 2 pages that you are looking at, starting on the left page and ending on the right page. No page turning when playing! Perfect! Well thought out practical book for a guitarist. If you like the Beatles and play guitar you have to have this book. It has every song Lennon & McCartney wrote during the Beatles period that they recorded as the Beatles, and every song that George Harrison recorded with the Beatles. It is THE definitive one to have. Update: The book arrived a few days ago. I got it for $16 (list is $25 which I paid when it came out over 10 years ago) I took it to Office Max last night. It cost me $1.09 for them to cut the binding off and $3.19 to put a new spiral binding on it for a total of $4.65!(including tax) Just over 20 bucks total and I have THE PERFECT Beatles book. They had 2 bindings to choose from, the spiral wire looking binding, and a thicker half inch long type of binding. Go with the thick one. The book lays open perfect now, easy to turn the pages. Get a capo, you will need one to make this book work sometimes, the voicing are great with a capo on and exactly what the record is doing. For those of you criticizing the book read the introductory part in the beginning to explain what the approach was. It is a perfectly logical approach. I flung the book open last night and George's "Here Comes the Sun" was there, never tried it. Must admit I never thought he was a great player, good but not great. I musta been missin' somthin', cause that song ain't easy! The way the book is written it gives me a path to doing as little or as much as I want with it. The capo @ the 7th fret is a great voicing/tone for the song. Exactly goes along with what was originally done. Get the book. Hope this was helpful. Enjoy!

This book is great for learning Beatles tunes quickly and accurately. It is more helpful I would think, to a rhythm guitarist, as you only get the chords, and although you can usually figure out the little lead parts from the chord progression, it is in no way indicated here. But this why it's called a chord book. Anyways, this book contains pretty much every song The Beatles released. They are listed alphabetical, but I almost wished that they had grouped songs from the same album together in chronological fashion. But, its easy enough to mark off the pages of the particular songs you want to play. I bought the book to practice guitar with (I am a bass player) and I have found the Beatles are great to sit down, learn some different chords, and commit them to memory by playing along with the albums. The accuracy is astounding sometimes, where you always thought you were hearing Am in "I Will", its really A7, which you can hear if you look for it. Also The Beatles were known to play tuned down a half or whole step sometimes, and to speed up or slow down recordings a bit, so in the beginning of each song, it is indicated if you need a capo, or if the song is detuned. Very helpful for playing along to the recordings. The lyrics are included, and so this book can help you practice singing and playing at the same time, which is one of the harder aspects of guitar playing, after simply mastering the instrument. The drawback of this book is that it is bound like a regular book, with a glued spine. This is OK, but with almost 200 pages, you will need to either really work the spine, or get some clips to hold the pages back on a stand. If this book were spiral bound, there'd be no problem. I guess the best work around is just to photocopy your selections first. I gave this book 5 stars for how great a resource it is, because you can get the complete sheet music (with chord diagrams) for more money, but if you don't read music, you're paying for a lot of work that in the end is useless to you. Just having the chord diagrams here is enough for me.

Absolutely fantastic, very guitar-friendly Beatle fakebook. The chord selections are spot on and playable, and the pages are set up well for singalongs or jams with other guitarists.

This is nearly as good a compilation of Beatles song lyrics with chords as a guitarist could hope for in a single, compact volume. But despite a number of glowing reviews saying the book is "spot on... EXACTLY as the Beatles played it" or "solid gold accurate," that's simply not the case. The book's own introduction is clear about this: "This book presents The Beatles' songs in a format designed for a guitarist singing the songs unaccompanied, or with others. For this reason chord shapes have been simplified where possible. The Beatles made frequent use of barre chords up and down the neck, as on songs like 'She's A Woman' or 'I Feel Fine'. These can get tiring, especially on an acoustic guitar, so easier shapes have sometimes been substituted." In addition, some Beatles songs have multiple guitar parts; obviously those songs cannot be presented "spot on" in a book providing just a single part. As an intermediate player, I was really hoping to have the actual chords for most songs, without simplification, so 4.5 stars for me for the limitations. But to be fair to the publishers, my expectations were heightened by misleading reviews. Also, the chord simplifications do not affect all songs. This book remains a must-have for any Beatles-loving guitarist. With this book as a foundation, you have what you need for sing-a-longs with friends, and a solid foundation if you want to fill in the details yourself.

Actually paying for music seems quaint in the 21st, when you can dial up anything you want on the 'net, from "Cry Me a River" to the East German national anthem. This is as true for sheet music and guitar tabs as it is for the actual songs. The problem with the homemade chords and tabs that you find online, however, is that they're often written by a bunch of schmoes who get things wrong. And worse, these bad tabs spread like a virus across the web: once a tab has been linked to enough times, you can't get rid of the thing, and it crowds out any future tabs that seek to correct it. And so, tired of learning songs from campfire hacks and 14-year-olds in Oslo, I shelled out the dough for this book. The songs are all in the right keys and are, as far as I can tell, uniformly correct. I haven't found a duff chord in the book. As others have said, learning to play the Beatles music gives one a new appreciation for them as composers. Each was a hyper-fluent musician for whom exactness won out over approximation, and that exactness is well served by this dogged piece of work. My only complaints about this book have to do with its design. Whoever laid it out was apparently a bit alphabet-challenged. You'll find "Long Long Long" between "It's All Too Much" and "It's Only Love." "Golden Slumbers" is stuck between "Dig It" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret." Looking for "Old Brown Shoe"? Just go to the M's. And so on. While the front cover design is lovely, the back cover features a horrible snapshot from '67 that has not even been corrected for red-eye, and the layout of the front matter and appendices looks like it was farmed out to a high school yearbook committee. (The book also has a habit of snapping shut while you're playing from it. Exasperated axe-men may have to resort to a chip clip to keep the damn thing open.) The author of this otherwise fine set of transcriptions is listed as one Rikky Rooksby. A search for Mr. Rooksby only turns up other guitar books--the man himself remains elusive. Obviously Rikky Rooksby is the front name for a secret guitar society, possibly hiding out in the mountains of the Near Middle East.

This is a comprehensive set of music for the couch strummer to enjoy. I say couch strummer because as has been pointed out in other reviews, this has no lead tabs or notated music. This is basically the kind of chord and lyric only arrangement you would find on the internet for couch or campfire strumming sing a longs. Of course, unlike the internet, this is correct, complete, in the original key, and not overly simplified. One will however have to know both open and barre chords to use this book. There are nice chord diagram boxes on every page to go with every song. I would say this is a book for the beginning intermediate player and above and a great choice if you need some songs to practice your barre chord work. It certainly has provided me with enjoyable material to work on my E and A shaped barre chords. It's really fun to play along with the mp3 of the original songs too. Having a huge collection of songs in one book has a down side. It is ridiculously hard to use even with a good music stand. It simply won't stay open at times and would have been a good candidate for spiral binding. I photo copy the song I am using or working on. Some others have removed the binding and spiral bound it. What a pain, but worth it to have correct chords to every Beatles song (and there are tons of them) for so cheap and so neatly done too.

Good

My absolute favourite

Excellent book, with some interesting chords used!

All the beautiful songs of The Beatles with all the chords , it's all you need ,well done ,enjoy it very much !!!

Livro vem legal!

I've got lots of Beatles songbooks but this one is the best...with one exception. It doesn't have all the covers that the Beatles played in the early days (like 'Anna' or 'Taste of Honey').