The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook | 194 Songs with Lyrics and Chords for Guitarists of All Levels | Authentic Guitar Songbook with Easy Chord Diagrams, Full Lyrics and Playing Guide

I love this guitar book! Includes all of the songs the boys wrote, including songs that didn’t make it to an album (In Spite of All The Danger, If You’ve Got Trouble, You Know What To Do, etc.).

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.

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 is an incredibly useful resource for learning Beatles songs and their lyrics. I used it to learn "Oh Darling!" (and taught it to my bandmates), and now I'm using it to learn "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". I'm seeing, too, that the book is now available in spiral bound; that would be so helpful. (I wish I could buy a spiral copy, but I'm stone broke.) TIP: Even it you have no use for this book, you can give a copy to musically inclined people you know. It's a surefire gift. NOTE: According to the back cover, a dude named Rikky Rooksby produced this book. I say he deserves a medal. I'll have to investigate any other books he's produced.

This is a great book for a fan of Beatles music who is learning to play guitar. Some of the chords are a little off here and there, but if you listen to the song, it's pretty easy to figure those out. Overall, a great collection and a great job transposing. Just to be clear, this is not sheet music. There are lyrics with chord charts above them. My only complaint is that the way the book is bound will keep you from being able to lay it open on a music stand or table. I read another review from another buyer who had theirs taken to a book repair shop to have the spine cut off and the pages placed into a three ring binder. That's a great idea. I used a single-edged razor blade to meticulously cut each page out, then three hole punched each page and both covers mounting them into a binder. If you are particular, fussy, ocd, or one of those people who places sentimental value on every book that you touch, or if you place a high value on your own time then take it to the book repair place to have a proper job done.

If you play the guitar this is a must have, well made and easy to use 👍👍👍 Eddie

As I am sure you know, it is difficult to find an accurate Beatles chord book. The Beatles have some music that is difficult to transcribe, I am sure. Most books are just not that accurate. I had one in the 80's that was pretty close, and I haven't seen anything comparable until now. I have had many different Beatles songbooks over the years. This one stands out above them all. It is simply just a GREAT BOOK! I couldn't be happier. The only downside is the size of the book. It's not as big as most songbooks, and sometimes you really have to work in the binding to get the book to stay flat long enough for you to get through a song. VERY small price to pay for this book. Unlike most songbooks, this book is written simply and specifically for the guitar player, there is no uneeded piano or vocal scoring to fill up the pages, so most songs fit neatly and easily on one or two pages. The chords used are charted only at the top at the beginning of each song, and then it is simply written out with just the lyrics with the chord letters above. Perfect. If you play guitar and you love the Beatles, you cannot live without this book. If a loved one plays guitar and loves the Beatles, you will give them their most prized and useful resource if you buy them this book. Hell, I am thinking of getting a second copy for the shelf so I don't feel so bad about beating up the one I have been using. If you made it this far, you are obviously thinking of getting a Beatles guitar book. Your search is over. Just get it!!

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.