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List Price: $22.99 | | Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Salesrank: 104632
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
25 of The Beatles' best songs transcribed for acoustic guitar with tablature. Includes: Across the Universe * And I Love Her * Blackbird * Girl * Help! * Here Comes the Sun * Hey Jude * I Should Have Known Better * If I Fell * Michelle * Norwegian Wood * Nowhere Man * Rocky Raccoon * Things We Said Today * We Can Work It Out * Yesterday * and more.
The Beatles for Acoustic Guitar Edition (Guitar Recorded Versions) Reviews:
Acoustic as it gets. 
2009-11-23 - As the title of the book says, "The Beatles For Acoustic Guitar", provides guitar transcriptions of songs in which the Beatles used acoustic guitar(s). In some cases, they also include electric parts, such as the solo for "Nowhere Man" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". This book is billed as having authentic transcriptions with notes and tab, and for the most part, it does. It's also important to point out, that this is the "Revised" edition, so be sure this is the copy you get as there apparently are some differences between this and the original edition put out in 1993(otherwise, why revise it). The book also includes the vocal(w/ lyrics), plus harmony parts. The book can be divided into primarily 3 parts:1.) Songs in which the acoustic guitar is used merely as an accompaniment or a strummed part to a song that also includes electric guitars, bass and drums and/or keyboards,and whatever else e.g.. "Nowhere Man", "Can't Buy Me Love", "While My Guitar...etc. 2.) Specific acoustic guitar parts,e.g. "Norwegian Wood".. that also exist as part of a larger ensemble, and 3.) solo accompaniment to a song, e.g. "Blackbird" and "Julia". In some cases their are more than one acoustic guitar part and the book does try to give you all the relevant parts,e.g. "And I Love Her". I'm also going to make some comparisons here, to Wolf Marshall's book, "The Best Of the Beatles For Acoustic Guitar", also a Hal Leonard publication, with a lot of the same songs transcribed and some that aren't.
Ok, we can cover 7 or 8 of these songs fairly quickly, in that they fall into the first category as songs with primarily "strummed" acoustic guitar parts. These songs include, "Can't Buy Me Love"(with elec. solo and elec. accomp.), "Bungalow Bill"( this one includes the flamenco guitar part heard at the beginning of the song)"Help!"(w/ descending elec. guitar part of the intro included and descending elec. parts in the chorus, but, they leave out one of the vcl. parts in the intro to 'Help!'; too bad),"Hey Jude", "I Should Have Known Better",(w/ elec. guit. accomp. and solo given with acoust. strumming pattern above), "Nowhere Man", with the strummed part(played by John) written out in music notation and tab as well as the elec. guitar fills and solo played by George,"Things We Said Today"(stummed and elec. accomp.) and "While My Guitar...", which includes the guitar solo played by Eric Clapton. As far as the acoustic guitar parts go in these songs, the rhythmic notation is usually given above the vcl. line with the chord changes, and chord diagrams sometimes given at the top of the page below the title. Why the editors do not put chord diagrams for every song I don't know. Perhaps once given they assume you can refer to a previous song, but that's inconvenient. They need to include them for every song. You can check the legend at the end of the book to understand how certain notational symbols are utilized for notation and tab e.g. note bending, grace notes etc. It is definitely a requirement that you know how to read music with this book, even with the tab, as the rhythmic figures are needed to execute the patterns. Unfortunately, they are not always given. The legend is ok as far as it goes, but you might need to augment it with another book on notation. that's up to you. Although the first reviewer seemed to do fine and he/she hadn't been playing that long, so use your best judgement. The strumming patterns notated above the songs just listed seem accurate enough as they convey the style and 'feel' of the songs. They could have gone a little further with the strumming rhythms on some songs like "For You Blue", which, after the intro only gives you John's slide part, but making no further indications for George'e strumming, which could have been helpful. Saying continue as w/ Rhy. 1 doesn't always get it. Some indications for pick direction would have been helpful and articulation as well. It's important to remember that these parts are improvised to a degree and it's doubtful they would play these parts(strummed parts) exactly the same way every time. But, you've certainly got enough here to get the idea. And, you need to check for accuracy, as music printing often leads to mistakes, but, i don't think there is anything here that is terrible. And you need to make sure and check for capo placement.
The second catagory, deals with songs with specific ac. guitar parts as part of a larger ensemble. I'll list these and discuss one of them(Norwegian Wood):"Across The Univ..", "For You Blue", which includes George's acoustic guitar intro, and John's slide guitar part(see above). The slide part requires you to re-tune the guitar to a D7 chord, which is given above the beginning of the song along with chord diagrams for the slide part. Again, why they don't include chord diagrams for George's part is a mystery. Plus, "Girl", and "Here Comes The Sun",( I've played thru this and it is accurate, but I have one complaint; the ac. gtr. part for "Sun" is played out of a D position and capoed at the 7th fret, however, the music notation is in A, the actual sounding key of the song. I suggest transcribing this part in D, since that's how it's played, and then say capo 7th fret to get the sound George gets when he plays it. The book says capo 7th fret but notates it in A. Open position D, is clearer. See the Wolf Marshall book listed above, where he does what I suggest.) Also "I Will"( very good),"I'm Looking Through You"(good), "If I Fell"(some pick directions here would have been helpful, but as long as you let the guitar ring, as they suggest, it should be ok, 'Long, Long, Long"(good),"Lovely Rita", "Michelle", very good(but make sure the capo's on the right fret[5]), "Revolution"(from the 'White Album'), "Rocky Racoon", "Two Of Us", with both acou. gtr. parts and George's electric fills, "We Can Work It Out", and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", both faithfully transcribed. Unfortunately,"I've Just Seen A Face" was not included in this edition, which is too bad, but you can check it out in the 'Wolf Marshall" book, where it is accurately transcribed and discussed. "Norwegian Wood' is pretty faithfully transcribed, with sitar parts , but transcribed for ac. guitars( if ya' don't happen to have a sitar layin' about) and a 4th gtr. part for 12 string acoustic. There are hammer- ons in John's part which are shown and need to be executed, plus the combination of closed vs. open strings which adds to the exotic nature of the song have to come through. Again, this song should be played out of a D position, capoed at the 2nd fret. They tell you that, but the music notation is in E, the sung key. They say treat the tabbed notes as beginning on the 2nd fret as open position, but, why not just show it in open position to begin with, like they do in "Julia"? There is some pick directions indicated here, but they could have gone a little further with it, especially since the song is in 6/8 time and not the more trad. 4/4. Also, some accents,too, would help, as John uses a very aggressive strumming technique, which varies according to what and how he tends to emphasize. But, all in all, this is a good introduction to the song. It was the first song I learned to play many years ago and I still love to play and sing it. If you want a fuller sound, you can tune the low E string down a whole step to a D and play it that way. They don't tell you that, but, if you're playing it by yourself it helps fill out the sound.
The last category deals with songs where a solo guitar is used as accompaniment to the voice. These include, "Blackbird", "Her Majesty", "Julia" and "Yesterday"(sans string quartet). With the exception of "Julia", which is one of John's songs, this category is all Paul songs and they all use some type of fingerstyle technique. "Julia" uses what is commonly referred to as a "travis" picking pattern(after Merle Travis) that John learned from Donovan in Rishikesh, India. The transcription here is dead on, but you might want to look at the Wolf Marshall book for right hand fingering. The thumb part, w/ the travis style is meant to be steady and alternating. The downstemmed notes should be played with the thumb, and the upstemmed notes with the fingers, i=index, m=middle, r= ring(some call the ring finger a for anular). I think they need to be clearer about how this pattern should be executed. I would play notes on the high E with my ring finger, notes on the b string with my middle finger and notes on G/w with my index. The thumb would play the notes on the D, A and low E strings. You can play it however it works for you, but, that's my suggestion.
"Blackbird" is just about everyone's favorite Beatle acoustic guitar song and it is reflective of Paul's somewhat unorthodox yet beautifully executed technique. Again, I refer you to the Wolf Marshall book, which augments the faithful transcription given here, with some advice on how this part is executed. The moving notes are played by plucking the bass notes(downstemmed)with the thumb and playing the notes on the B string,occaisionally the high E(upstemmed) with the middle finger as you move up or down the fingerboard and playing the open G string on the off beats with the index finger to create a subtle drone or pedal point to the accompaniment. Where he lands on a chord(e.g. when he slides to the 12th fret), those notes are strummed or 'brushed' with the fingertip of the index finger, [i], (fleshy part on the upstrokes, nail on the downstroke) with the bass note repeated with the thumb as indicated in the transcription. Be sure to repeat the bass notes on the strummed parts, as indicated. I actually use the thumb as part of the last upstroke, because that works for me, but, you can experiment to see what works for you. I've tried and did play this as entirely fingerpicked without the 'brush' notes, but, realized you could get a fuller sound by strumming the chords where the rhythm indicates and it was easier to sing with as well. You can check out any video where Paul plays "Blackbird" and watch how he executes it. The "Unplugged" for MTV in '92 is good, if you can find it(it's on youtube), but there are several examples. Also, the Wolf Marshall book comes with a cd that has a slowed down and at tempo demonstration to check out. The remaining songs here, "Her Majesty", "Rocky Racoon", "Mother Nature's Son" and "Yesterday" all use this basic technique or some variation of it. The key to "Yesterday" is to tune the guitar down a whole step and play the chords out of G major(which they tell you do and Paul tells George to do on the Anthology). Again, thumb on down stemmed notes and strumming on upper strings with plucked notes as indicated. This may take a little getting used to, to find the easiest way to articulate the plucked and strummed notes. You'll just have to work at it until it feels and sounds right.
Ok, I'm about done. Whew!!, I know. I believe this is a useful book for musicians wanting to delve into the acoustic guitar parts of these Beatle songs. The transcriptions here should allow you to perform, with some practice, what you are hearing from the recordings. Understand that there are 3 guitar players involved here: John, Paul and George, who all have different approaches to the acoustic guitar and there are different parts that are played with a pick('Norwegian Wood']John], 'Here Comes The Sun'[George] and fingerstyle('Blackbird'[Paul] and 'Julia'[John]. So, there's a lot to sort out. However, this book can save you the time from figuring this all out yourself. Especially, given that some of the parts are buried somewhat in the mix, and are being played with other acoustic parts. The new remasters should help this in that the acoustic tracks sound much clearer to me than before. I gave this book a four, with criticisms duly noted, especially related to consistency regarding transcriptions where the Beatles used a capo, putting in the chord diagrams for every song, and, putting in the rhythmic notation for the strummed parts of every song, not just some of them. I initially gave the Marshall book a three, but I think it's really more a 4 or 4 1/2. The two books overlap a lot, but, they do have some differences, so you might need both, that's up to you. 'I've Just Seen A Face', is one glaring omission from the REVISED edition discussed here. But, it's in the Marshall book, so, check it out there.
One of the Worst Tab Books I've Ever Seen and Curiously Mis-named! 
2009-10-31 - I've been playing guitar for many, many years and I've seen many guitar tab books and while most are average at best there are a few that stand out and still reside on my music bookshelf for future reference. Unfortunately this one is an eye-sore that I got years ago and boy do I regret getting it! The transcriptions are mostly inaccurate and in some cases virtually unplayable. The title is also false advertising ("Guitar Recorded Versions - Authentic Transcriptions With Notes and Tablature") as most of the tracks are not even acoustic pieces to begin with and are certainly not like the recordings and are also patently inaccurate for the most part. Here is a track by track critique:
1) Across the Universe - an acoustic track and mostly well transcribed except for a few mistakes where they neglected to add the G chord at the bottom of page 3 and the top of page 5 as well as the lyric after that should be "shades of life are ringing ..." and not "shades of earth are ringing ...." I can tolerate these mistakes up to this point as few tab books are 100% accurate and I don't mind correcting a few mistakes as I play along with the cd with my pencil.
2) Act Naturally - how on earth can this be considered an acoustic track when electric guitars dominate the actual recording? The intro is totally wrong by the way as well as the accompaniment which is a joke and I would laugh if I didn't actually pay for this.
3) And I Love Her - acoustic track but like track one I had to correct the last measure at the top of page 12 where they had an extra note that was not on the recording.
4) Blackbird - the ultimate acoustic track but TOTALLY inaccurately transcribed! Incredible! Thankfully I had already committed it to memory playing along with the cd years earlier from another very good Beatles tab book. The second note should be G but is transcribed as a B and the Travis picking isn't even illustrated! Instead they put "brush strokes"! Not only is this unplayable as described but is also flat out wrong as anyone who can play this piece will tell you that you need to use Travis picking to play this right.
5) Can't Buy Me Love - electric and not acoustic track and no tabs at all as they only give us the chords and the vocals in standard notation. When you get to the guitar solo, they are too lazy to transcribe that too as they just put the words "Electric guitar solo" at the spot as if we needed to be told that the solo should be there! Amazing!
6) The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill - electric tune and again no tab but chords and standard notation for the vocals; forget about playing with the cd for this.
7) For You Blue - marginally considered an acoustic piece but none of the slide guitar bits are transcribed. The rest of the tabs are a joke!
8) Girl - Essentially chord diagrams as eventhough the guitar solo is transcribed it is done so farcically inaccurately.
9) Help! - the publishers certainly need it! Not an acoustic track again and essentially chord diagrams again as for the electric guitar fill before the verse guess what they did? You guessed right, no tab and just "Electric guitar fill" like we didn't know the fill would be there although we were hoping given the hard cash we spent on this thing to at least have that part transcribed.
10) I Should Have Known Better - I should have taken the track's title advice too! Mostly chord diagrams with a pathetic attempt at transcribing the solo missing the final harmonic note. Again acoustic?
11) I Will - finally an acoustic track and also finally a passable transcription relative to the others.
12) Nowhere Man - acoustic? No guitar solo! and so effectively just chord diagrams and standard notation for the vocals.
13) If I Fell - Inaccurate transcription, see The Beatles rock score: Twelve famous Beatles songs scored for small groups : complete with lyrics (Rock score)for an accurate version.
14) I'm Looking Through You - acoustic? passable attempt relative to the rest.
15) I've Just Seen A Face - acoustic? passable relative to the rest.
16) Michelle - Intro transcribed but sounds weird; I don't trust it to be accurate but I'll accept this as relative to the other transcriptions here this is passable. No guitar solo by the way!
17) Mother Nature's Son - very inaccurate; see the Feb 97 edition of Guitar World for a much better transcription.
18) Norwegian Wood - requires some effort on your part to listen to the cd and to correct the many obvious mistakes.
19) Rocky Raccoon - actually well transcribed although the ragtime piano interlude and outro isn't transcribed for guitar which is too bad as that would have made this the best and only truly well transcribed track in the entire book.
20) Things We Said Today - chord diagrams and no useful tab to speak of.
21) Two Of Us - One of the better ones relative to the rest but that's not saying much given the overall "quality" of the transcriptions.
22) We Can Work It Out - Just chord diagrams and vocal tracks and if that's all you are expecting then this is acceptable.
23) Yesterday - for optimal version see The Beatles rock score: Twelve famous Beatles songs scored for small groups : complete with lyrics (Rock score)
24) You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - Just chord diagrams and vocal tracks and if that's all you are expecting then this is acceptable.
25) While My Guitar Gently Weeps - not acoustic tune and very poorly transcribed with no guitar solo as well; thankfully I have a much better version from an old guitar magazine I bought years ago.
If I have to come up with positives, I'd say the print is large and so helps with reading while you play along and the binding allows the pages to stay open while you play without irritatingly closing on its own as some book bindings will do although the pages are prone to come off the spine with repeated use.
Certainly not the best Beatles tab book that is out there and this is also among the worst ever tab books that I've ever seen for guitarists.
Highly NOT recommended!
Accurate tab and chords 
2003-08-03 - I'm a beginning guitar player, and I got this book after having played for maybe 6 months. I've seen other books with Beatles songs where the chords don't really sound like the song when you play them. In this book however, they give you what actually sounds like what the fab four are playing. Very useful, and good for an advanced beginner. Includes tab, for finger picking parts such as in "Blackbird", chords, chord diagrams, and lyrics.
