Could The Beatles Read Sheet Music?

I have to qualify this article about whether or not the Beatles could read sheet music with an admission: I never knew the Beatles. I was still a toddler while they were making their last album as a band.

Unfortunately, I have never met a Beatle, and I do not have first-hand knowledge of the way in which they operated in the recording studio. Instead, its based on what I've read and what I know about the Beatles songs themselves. I am a huge Beatles fan. Huge. I have devoured almost every Beatles book out there, and listened to numerous interviews. In addition, as a musician and songwriter, I have a unique view into how the Beatles approached their songwriting and recording sessions. In fact, that's exactly what I pay attention to when I'm reading a book or interview about the Beatles. In this article, Id like to address a question I frequently get from those a bit less acquainted with the Beatles songwriting and recording activities: could the Beatles read sheet music?



Handwritten Lyrics



Everything I've encountered has demonstrated that the Beatles could not read sheet music. Whats more, they actually refused to learn how to read sheet music. During the early years, the Beatles would come in with a completely new song and perform it live for George Martin. In these early years, George may make an arrangement suggestion and the band would make alterations of their own, but as the musical arrangements were finalized, the musical parts were not written down. From Revolver onwards, the Beatles began to use outside (hired) musicians on their records. Even then, though, there was quite often no sheet music for the hired musicians to play from. The Beatles instead tended to operate by trying to get the most from their session players. They were known to give vague specifications to the hired players and to help shape the part that the players created (if necessary). If the Beatles really did need some sheet music for an outside musician to play (for example, The string part on Eleanor Rigby), the Beatles (mostly Paul) would sit with George Martin to create the score. George Martin would complete the transcription work, however he did this as an extension of the idea which was being composed by the Beatles. More typically, however, the Beatles gave a general instruction of what they were hoping for, in hopes that the outside musician would add his or her own ingenuity to create the musical part. The Beatles could then produce what the performer created until the band got the sound they wanted for the record. While George Martin did compose the piano parts that he played on some of the very early singles and he did integrate non-traditional arranging ideas into their songs, he was invariably quick to explain that he worked under the Beatles direction, giving them the vast majority of the compositional credit.

Handwritten Beatles lyric sheets are available in museums; pictures of them are available on the Internet. I find them fascinating to study. However, none of the 15 or 20 you can find on the Web even have the chord changes written above the lyrics. Apparently, there are a few handwritten lyric sheets that others have seen that do have the chord names written above the words...but that's all. The Beatles did not read or write music. There was no need to. As a self-taught musician and songwriter, I can tell you that this was probably never a hindrance to them. It's quite possible to create music and record it without using a single page of music notation. The Beatles composed and recorded from their souls, not from a page of sheet music. In all the recording session photos I've seen, frequently there is no page of any sort in front of a Beatle as he is recording. When there is, there's only a single page of paper--presumably the handwritten lyric sheet...ostensibly the kind of handwritten lyric sheet that you can find photographs of when you do a Google image search. As self-taught songwriters and performers, the Beatles had no need for standard music notation.