Customer Reviews

The Complete Beatles Gift Pack

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Virtually every Beatles song ever recorded appears in this two-volume set. It includes even some of the Beatles cover songs such as "Kansas City" and "A Taste of Honey".

What you get are the standard sheet music versions of these songs, nicely printed and easy to read. The book is at an intermediate level. Typical Hal Leonard scores: a base line in the spirit of the recording, chords voiced in the center and melody on top. Not always very pianistic, but the songs are transcribed pretty well harmonically. Also tab is included and of course lyrics. Some of the songs include the Beatles solo, fills or intros. For instance the instrumetal part of Polythene Pam, Savoy Truffle or Yer Blues. All the songs I've played so far except "Penny Lane" are in the key they were recorded in. It seems "Penny Lane" is in B, the music is in C.

If you want to know every note the Beatles played, get the "The Beatles Complete Scores" also sold by Amazon.com. However, to me its hard to read and not really playable. So if you just want to just get in and play, this is preferable.

It's quite a luxury to have not just thier hits but all their music together. After playing something like "Let it Be" you can just turn a few pages and delve into something you'd never expect to play like "Piggies", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" or virtually play through all of "Abbey Road". While the Beatles aren't Gods to me, it really hits you how talented these guys were when you've got it all in front of you like this.

While, it's fun to see ALL of the Beatles tunes in one book, this book was clearly not compiled by a guitarist. In many places the guitar voicing is spectacularly wrong, and is recorded in ways in which a guitarist would never play something. The author clearly had no concept of walkups and walkdowns around chords, a technique used by many composing guitarists. For example, "Dear Prudence," "While my guitar gently weeps," "Blackbird" and even easy ones like "Mother Nature's Child" are butchered in terms of tabbing. "Dear Prudence" and "Blackbird" are particularly offensive--the chord voicings in the book only bear a passing resemblance to those actually played by the Beatles. How can one mess up "Dear Prudence?" The verse bass walkdown over D is classic, and is the same as Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done." D-C-B-Bb, 2 beats each. The chorus and bridge are botched as well. Same thing with the "Weeps" verse over Am: A-G-F#-F. This is straightforward stuff if the author knew anything about guitar playing, but is completely botched in this book.

So in summary this book may work as a "family singalong around the piano" book, but it's going to fail a guitarist who wants to explore how the greatest rock songwriters in history practiced their craft. If you're looking at this for the guitar tab, look elsewhere! I did much better messing around myself or looking for tabs on the internet.

While I have read and don't discount the caveats from the guitar players and the extreme completists, for casual piano players like me who grew up with the Beatles this is everything you could want. Every song the Beatles sang, including covers.

While others have complained that the arrangements are too easy, they aren't dumbed down into the easiest keys to play as in some collections. They sound like the original keys -- a lot are in E major or c# minor (four sharps). The two volume split makes them a workable size to stay open on your piano. So far, no problems with the bindings.

I received this as a Christmas present and it is one of the best I've gotten in a long time. Just reading through the 200+ songs brings back so many great memories. A must for anyone who listened to music in the '60s.

. . . It was [fifty] years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play -- They've been going in and out of style -- but they're guaranteed to raise a smile. . .

This is the definitive book of Beatles songs, but unfortunately the size of the lyrics, notes, etc. is just too small. I ended up copying at 150% any songs that I really want to play on the piano. But this is THE book. Get it!

BOUGHT FOR OUR FAMILY, AND THEY LOVED THE BEATLES GIFT PACK. THIS IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE PIANO/VOCAL/GUITAR ARTIST SONGBOOK , ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A BEATLES FAN. RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

I bought this for my 14 year old daughter, a huge Beatles fan. She has a passing interest in playing keyboards and this was just the ticket to inspire her to keep working at improving her skills.

All the songs....even the ones that are not written by the Beatles themselves. That's sll I needed to complete my catalog. You can play it on piano, guitar or bass

The songbooks the same as I purchased years ago when I was a teen. I lent it to a friend and never got it back. My older edition was a single edition,while this one's a split one. A lot more practical, of course the price has increased since I was a teen but what hasn't. Have fun strumming along with The Beatles.

All the songs are included.
Vocals: incomplete. There is no backing vocals transcriptions.
Guitar: only the chords. No solo.
Piano: only a very simple arrangement.

A book contains a lot of information about the Beatles. But if the price can be set lower, I believe that many Beatlemania would come and buy!!! And remember e-mail me if you bought this book!