Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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273 of 278 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic collection, meticulously transcribed, May 24, 2000
By A Customer
This is an amazingly complete and accurate collection... musicians attempting to learn and to replicate the Beatles sound will not be disappointed. Included are all instrument parts, all vocal parts, and chord names above the staff, with tablature for the bass and guitar parts. What a bargain! At times, the authors were able to capture some subtlties in the music which had gone unnoticed by me... but a careful re-listening to the song revealed the score to be surprisingly correct. Regarding some of the complaints in other Amazon reviews, which made me a bit hesitant to buy: 1) Size of the print: it really is not that small, and it is quite legible. 2) Supposed inaccuracy of chord names: it appears that there is a general chord name above the staff, but more detailed guitar-part scoring in the staff... they were not trying to name the exact chord every time... in some cases not every string is being played. 3) Complaints about the inclusion of 'tab' for 'musical illiterates': tab actually includes, concisely, information which standard notation cannot show easily... like exactly which string/fret to use, out of several options on the guitar. And, by the way, Paul McCartney STILL does not read or write standard notation himself. NOTE: I also compared this book to Hal Leonard's "The Beatles" (21 songs, in their "Transcribed Scores" series), and was amazed how much better The Beatles Complete Scores is.
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150 of 154 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book there is, May 9, 2000
I have owned at one time or another the 4 Lennon McCartney song books.
The major flaw with those books was that they replicated the melody line and attached a chord, but in most cases they came nowhere near the actual arrangements. This is particularly true on piano based hits such as Hey Jude, Let it Be, Yesterday, Lady Madonna, Back in the USSR etc.
This book gets the original arrangements as played by the Beatles which are generally much better and actually easier to play a lot of times. You can discern McCartney's piano style which is not technically difficult. After all you are accompanying a voice and not playing a melody.
So when you attempt Let it Be it sounds so much better, and with Hey Jude you think that's all he did to make that sound. Lady Madonna enables you to sound ridiculously accomplished playing something that is technically quite easy. Obviously I am approaching this from a piano player's viewpoint.
As far as guitar is concerned, it has very authentic transcriptions, certainly on the fingerpicking songs such as Blackbird and Julia, which are not that difficult to reproduce.
I have found this book to be unbelievably helpful. You are getting some of the Beatles trade secrets here. You finally get to see the outside the box thinking that separated the Beatles from the rest. I rate this book the best sheet music investment I have ever made, and a must for any aspiring musician.
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book.....very well done job!, November 16, 1999
If you read the reviews below, most people will sufficiently let you know about the minor inaccuracies in the orchestrations, vocals, etc. From what I've seen, however, 99% of the songs are dead-on accurate for the guitars and bass. If you want to learn how to play guitar, here is a way to learn from the best! Same with bass....and even piano (though anything other than "Let It Be" will be challenging for a newcomer to the instrument). If your band wants to be the next "1964", here is their owner's manual! The only thing that this book is lacking is the type of guitar and amp you should be using when playing the song in question! Only two things that make my teeth grind: 1) They will show a C# barred at the 4th fret, go to another chord, then come back to the C#, but now its barred at the 2nd or 3rd fret (even though the handwritten chord letter is correect). This is probably not the author's fault, but rather some lackey forced to write this stuff down. 2)While the transcriptions are accurate, some are shown as played with a maximum amount of difficulty. Prime example is "Blackbird"...there is a much simpler way to play the same notes EXACTLY, without having to make comparatively difficult fingerings. I would definitely recommend spending some bucks to get this book...if even to see the transcription to "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)"!
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DVD ~ John Lennon
~ The Beatles
by Tom Kolb
DVD ~ The Beatles
