If you’re looking to learn how to play Beatles guitar songs, you’ve come to the right place. Over the years, I’ve taken a lot of song requests at gigs as well as from friends and family while just hanging out. The Beatles come up perhaps more than any other band.
This isn’t surprising, as The Beatles are one of the most beloved groups of all time. They’re also a prolific group with a massive discography.
If you’re a new or intermediate player, you’ll want to add some Beatles guitar songs to your repertoire. Their catalog is filled with tunes that are not only fun to play, but also teach valuable skills like chord changes, strumming patterns, and finger dexterity.
Easy Beatles Songs on Guitar
Here are eight easy Beatles songs to get you started. These songs are listed in order from the easiest to the hardest to play.
1. Love Me Do
This song takes the top spot on our list of the easiest Beatles songs to play. It’s played in the key of G with a simple strumming pattern. It uses the four chords of G, C, G7 and D. These are all easy chord shapes to master, even for a beginner.
This is the debut single for the band in the UK, and the song that started it all back in 1962. It was officially released in the United States on April 27th, 1964. That makes “Love Me Do,” an excellent choice for the first song you learn to play.
2. Yellow Submarine
This is another song that uses easy, beginner chord shapes and a simple strumming pattern. This song is played in the key of F#. You won’t need a capo, but you will need to tune every string down by a half-step.
This effectively makes each open string flat. Of course, you can also play in standard tuning, but it won’t sound right if you’re trying to play along with the album version.
This song debuted in 1966 on the album, “Revolver” and is one of the few Beatles songs that feature Ringo Starr, the band’s drummer, as the lead vocalist.
3. Twist and Shout
Among the many easy Beatles songs to play, this is one of my favorites. It’s an absolute classic, but many Beatles fans are unaware that it’s a cover song.
It was first recorded by The Top Notes and later reworked and released by the Isley Brothers. The Beatles version was featured on their debut album, “Please, Please Me.”
The composition of this song is more complex than the previous two hits on our list. It uses more chords as well. This includes B, B♭ and C# barre chords, which may prove more difficult for beginners when compared to open chords.
4. Paperback Writer
Single-note licks, picking out the single notes of chords, and complex rhythms make this one even more difficult than the previous tunes on our list.
This song also uses some tricky hand positions and more advanced techniques like hammer-ons. With all of those disclaimers, it’s still one of the easy guitar songs to play in The Beatles’ vast catalog of music.
Debuting on the band’s 11th single, this song was a massive hit. It was number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 List for two weeks. The song was mostly written by Paul McCartney with credits also going to John Lennon.
5. Eleanor Rigby
For this song, just strumming the background chords wouldn’t be as recognizable as playing the melody. This makes it harder than just strumming, but it’s still going to be simple enough for most beginners and intermediate players.
If you only want to learn the rhythm sections, then this might actually be the easiest tune on our list.
“Eleanor Rigby,” is played in standard tuning with no capo. For the melody, you’ll be mostly playing in an Em pentatonic scale. This song was released as a single along with “Yellow Submarine,” and is also featured on the album, “Revolver.”
6. Hey Jude
This song isn’t hard to play from a technical standpoint, but it does contain a high number of chords to learn and remember.
There are 13 different chords in all, including a number of barre chords that might be challenging for an absolute beginner. Intermediate players will have no trouble at all with this one.
“Hey Jude,” was released as a single in August of 1968. It was the first release on the band’s then-new Apple Records label. It had an incredible nine-week stay on Billboard’s Hot 100 List. The original version was written by McCartney for Lennon’s son, Julian.
7. Get Back
This one has an upbeat tempo, an unusual rhythm and a bit of palm muting. It has a complicated structure that may be challenging to memorize, but it’s still not too hard to play through. Try playing along with The Beatle’s recorded version to get the speed and timing right.
This tune was mostly written by Paul McCartney along with non-band-member, Billy Preston. There are some interesting guitar parts here with leads credited to both Harrison and Lennon on this one.
8. Let It Be
Guitar chords here | Guitar Solo Lesson
“Let It Be,” has an intermediate-level rhythm section using the C, G, Am, Am7, Fmaj7, E and D open chords.
Additionally, it makes use of F and F6 barre chords. What makes this one particularly challenging is mastering the solo. This is the most complex lead part so far on our list of easy songs.
This song is the title track of the “Let It Be,” album. This would prove to be The Beatles’ 12th and final studio album. The band had unfortunately broken up by the time this record was released in 1970.
If you’ve been working your way through all eight songs, you will have started with the band’s first single and ended with something from their final work.
About the Author
Gustavo is a music teacher and classical guitar player from Brazil, currently residing in Dublin, Ireland. He holds a graduate degree in Classical Guitar Performance from the Federal University of Pelotas. In 2020, Gustavo successfully completed a Master's degree in Sound Engineering from the Academy of Sound in Ireland.