5 Of The Easiest Beatles Grooves To Learn On Bass

Beginner-Friendly Bass Grooves

Ah, The Beatles. Who doesn’t want to learn how to play their songs? And let’s be real, Paul McCartney is mostly known for being a stellar singer-songwriter but he’s quite underrated in the bass department. Even so, he can undeniably hold his own in the company of other legendary bassists. And if you’re still learning the bass guitar, here are the easiest songs from The Fab Four:

5. She Loves You

According to McCartney, they got the idea for the call and response pattern for the song with Bobby Rydell’s “Forget Him”. He added, “I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘she loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘yeah yeah’. We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called ‘She Loves You’.”

4. Help!

It’s mainly written by John Lennon but with a little help from McCartney. Lennon was stressed about how fast they achieved superstardom. It’s one of his favorite songs because it was genuine and honest. He told Rolling Stone, “I meant it – it’s real. The lyric is as good now as it was then. It is no different, and it makes me feel secure to know that I was aware of myself then. It was just me singing ‘help’ and I meant it.”

3. Come Together

With McCartney’s prominent bass riff, this one’s fairly easy to learn. Lennon originally wrote it for Timothy Leary’s campaign as governor of California but Leary ended up in prison for marijuana possession. Lennon admitted, “It was a funky record – it’s one of my favorite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favourite Lennon tracks, let’s say that. It’s funky, it’s bluesy, and I’m singing it pretty well. I like the sound of the record. You can dance to it. I’d buy it!”

2. Lady Madonna

Written by McCartney, he worked on it before The Beatles went to India to study meditation. He recalled, “‘Lady Madonna’ was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing … It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression. It took my other voice to a very odd place.” Although Lennon helped a little with the lyrics, he later revealed that he wasn’t too proud of it.

1. I Saw Her Standing There

The opening track on their debut album, it was originally titled “Seventeen.” McCartney came up with the song after a concert in Southport, Lancashire. He said, “I wrote it with John in the front parlour of my house in 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton. We sagged off school and wrote it on guitars and a little bit on the piano that I had there.”