You’re playing that wrong!

Alright…. there are a hand full of tracks out there that guitarists have disagreed about how to play for YEARS!  I remember when Guitar Player magazine started printing transcriptions of guitar solos in the 1980’s. Invariably, people would would write in disagreeing with the transcription. Usually this was over a fast passage and was often confined to a line or two. But there were guitarists who would get down right nasty about the transcription being “wrong”… as if they were some how ripped of by the magazine or something.  To keep the peace Guitar Player would print these corrections or “alternate versions” and order and peace were once again restored in the world of guitar playing.

Guitarists can be down right anal about fingering, chord positions, and even a  tiny variation of a riff will almost always provoke a “That’s Wrong!” from some one with entirely too much time on their hands. Guitarists are also very anal about their tone and claim to hear minute differences in eq curves, over drive character and reverb depth that no one else can. They throw around terms like, “chime” and “glass” and  talk about emphasizing “even order harmonics” .  I’ve been playing for 30 years or so and I have known many guitarists and I assure you that these terms are so arbitrary as to render them completely meaningless.

Will all of these anal retentive guitar players roaming the planet , you can imagine the extreme relief when the mystery of the opening chord for Hard Days Night was FINALLY solved.  This one chord has provoked more arguments, caused more band brake-ups and sent more fists flying at more rehearsals than any other guitar riff or solo in the history of the instrument.  Thanks to Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive fame (yes… they put one of those meaningless guitar terms in their name.) who was granted access to the Beatles master tracks, we call all sleep a little better tonight.  The chord is actually two separate chords played on two different guitars by two different guitarists and one of those guitars is a twelve string. These guitars in combination with the bass note…played on a bass guitar create the magic that is the “chord heard round world.”   The six string guitar (played by John Lennon) is playing a D chord with a G note added on the first string. The twelve string guitar (Played by George Harrison) is playing a form of an F chord with and added G  on the sixth string and a G on the first string.  The bass guitar (played by Paul McCartney) is playing a D note.  Put it all together and you have music magic!

Here Randy Bachman tells the complete story of how he got to hear the master tracks and demonstrates what he learned.