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List Price: $79.95 | | Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Salesrank: 5329
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| Our Price: $45.69 |
| Used Price: $42.97 |
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| Media: Hardcover |
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Editorial Review:
A fitting tribute to possibly the greatest pop band ever - The Beatles. This outstanding hard-cover edition features over 1100 pages with full scores and lyrics to all 210 titles recorded by The Beatles. Guitar and bass parts are in both standard notation and tablature. Also includes a full discography. Songs include: All You Need Is Love ¥ And I Love Her ¥ Baby YouÕre a Rich Man ¥ Back in the U.S.S.R. ¥ The Ballad of John and Yoko ¥ Blackbird ¥ CanÕt Buy Me Love ¥ Come Together ¥ Drive My Car ¥ Eleanor Rigby ¥ From Me to You ¥ Glass Onion ¥ A Hard DayÕs Night ¥ Help! ¥ Hey Jude ¥ I Saw Her Standing There ¥ I Want to Hold Your Hand ¥ Michelle ¥ Penny Lane ¥ She Loves You ¥ Twist and Shout ¥ Yesterday ¥ and many more! Book is packaged in its own protective box. A must-own for any serious Beatles fan or collector! 7-2/8Õ x 10-7/8Õ.
The Beatles - Complete Scores Reviews:
There isn't a better set of scores available...yet. 
2009-10-09 - Sometime down the road, there will be a new edition of this book of "scores".
Not soon though, as there are, no doubt, quite a few copies of this edition left.
No, it'll be not long after the last musician, eager to either finally break the code of "that song", which has been gnawing away at his or her curiosity, or the new convert, tired of the derivations, who has successfully found the source and purchased the last copy of this edition.
Then will come the announcement: "Released this week, the NEW, UPGRADED..."
Why? Because there is at least one mistake in this edition, and it occurs in "Blackbird", the very first song I checked. Previously, there have been a number of fingering methods portrayed as a true reflection of what McCartney did in '67, when he wrote and recorded this song.
I'm talking specifically about bar 5, and all subsequent bars which contain the C - Cdim - D - Ddim changes which underlay "take these broken wings...".
I'm surprised that the transcriber wouldn't have either checked with the source, or even checked a couple of YouTube videos which clearly show McCartney playing what are both simpler, and more manageable versions of the fingering of these notes.
This is what McCartney plays: 3rd fret on 5th string (1st finger) with 5th fret on 2nd string (4th finger), 4th on 5th (4th finger) with 3rd on 1st (1st finger),5th on 5th (1st) with 7th on 2nd (4th), 6th on 5th (4th) with 5th on 1st (1st), 7th on 5th with 8th on 2nd.
These are natural and sensible changes, in contrast with what the guitar TAB transcriber has written, and no editor picked up on.
Pedantic? Well, hundreds of thousands of guitarists will now use the score version, believing that's what McCartney wrote. What's scored is more convoluted and doesn't reflect the fingering used, nor style of writing the author clearly shows in a YouTube video of him doing a sound check during a tour of Russia from some years ago.
So, song one... mistake. Great introduction. I'd imagine you'd be hard pressed to find too many others, but I guarantee many fingers will flip straight to page 359 to see what the transcribers made of the opening chord to "A Hard Day's Night", and... it's not a bad take on the chord, however it's not complete, as it doesn't contain the opening piano chord played by George Martin.
Is it asking too much to have these already-documented elements included? Well, the book says "Full transcriptions from the original recordings". "FULL TRANSCRIPTIONS" of some of the most popular songs musicians and music students are determined to play correctly.
So, don't be surprised if the publishers, sometime around 2015 or so, after collating all the necessary mistakes reviews such as this one, have pointed out, have the new edition of these scores available..."THE ABSOLUTE FINAL, WE REALLY GOT IT RIGHT THIS TIME EDITION!"
Nevertheless, this is a welcome addition to any musician music teacher or student's library of music. Some people have complained about the size of the staves/notes etc, but they're not that bad, certainly adequate enough to enable one to learn a song.
And, the packaging is excellent. A glossy hard-cardboard outer cover that the scores book, which also sports a strong hard cover, resides within. Given the thickness of the book, it's been well manufactured, with a spine that allows it stay open at most internal pages without having the covers flip closed.
I'm giving it 4 out of 5, for the reasons already stated.
If you're at all interested in taking Beatles songs apart, there isn't a better set of scores available....yet.
Great for guitar players
2009-09-10 - I'm a guitar player and I think this book is worth every penny of the $50.00. There are, however, problems. Tab should always reflect the chords relative to the capo. I don't have the book with me as I write this, but I believe that the tab for Norwegian Wood, as written, is unplayable--until you realize that it should be played in the "D" position with a capo. I dabble with the piano and I find Let It Be, Hey Jude, and For No One to be just fine for my meager talents. However, Lady Madonna is pretty bad. I would like to see a version of this book with just guitar, bass, lyrics, and piano. Most of us are not looking for exact transcription of the orchestral and drum stuff and--if other reviewers are correct--the scores are inadequate anyway. And do we really need a "transcription" of Revloution #9? That is just silly and a waste of paper. Some of the reviewers who gave this book a one-star review are being pedantic and overreactig. It really is a fun book to own, and, all in all pretty accurate for guitar. My advice would be for the authors to go back and edit the book for errors and release a volume with just guitar, bass, piano, and lyrics. Perhaps release it in volumes with spiral bindings for ease of use.This would cover what most of us are after and it would solve the problem with the small font. I, myself, would be willing to buy copies of the edited versions even though I already own the full transcriptions.
Definitely Worth It
2009-08-24 - Overall, this is definitely worth the money. The type is small and there were a few minor errors in some of the songs I previewed, but this is by far the most complete and accurate collection of Beatles music I've found.
A Music Bible 
2009-08-24 - Perfect book, very very well transcripted songs from Beatles.
If you like The Beatles and like to play, you can spend hours and hours with the book!
Best Transcription Collection Ever
2009-08-21 - I am a long-time Beatle fan & I've been performing their music for over 30 years. My first song I worked on from this collection was "Nowhere Man" which I just finished about 2 weeks ago. Where I would usually write parts out it was great to just open the book & check the accuracy of the parts which were spot on, especially Ringo's drum part. I had most of the harmonies worked out but gained a nice insight into the crossed voices that happens in the first lines of every verse. I probably shaved at least a weeks work using this. I started working on "No Reply" right after finishing "Nowhere Man" & had it completed in less than a week. My only complaint: the printing is just too bloody small & I have to switch from my reading glasses to my computer glasses too often.......grotty, to say the least.
