How did they learn songs?
The Beatles could not read music and did not use scores. Or even lead sheets in the early days
The Beatles learned the language of music on the metaphorical street rather than in the classroom. Everything about their early musical education was piecemeal and fragmentary — they tried stuff, kept what they liked and junked the rest.
Songs were largely largely learned by ear — applying the chords they learned to the tunes they heard. They picked up the common chord progression and often used them. Let it Be has become a standard beginners practice piece because its shuffling of the most bog standard sequence | C G | A F | C G | F C | (I V VI IV I) resulted in one of the most recognisable pieces of music in any format.
They also used unorthodox progressions — ones that swerve the usual conventions of music theory. They didn’t know about those and so didn’t care. David Bowie had the same advantage — classically trained Rick Wakeman describes being perplexed by the chord sequence of Life on Mars — but instantly recognised that it worked.
Starting Points
Paul had the most background knowledge — his father was a musician — but importantly he used the same technical terms as the others.
With no YouTube tutorials to accelerate the process, and a relatively undisciplined approach to practice, progress was in fits and starts. Primarily, they picked up new techniques by watching other musicians play, listening to records they bought and sharing technical tips with their peers.
There was a subtle competitive element. At their first meeting John and Paul exchanged chords — and Paul was able to translate his new friend’s banjo ones for the guitar. George, passed his Quarrymen audition (held on the top of a night bus) by impressing a skeptical John with a ‘note perfect’ rendition of Duane Eddy’s RAUNCHY.
Later, Ringo would impress the others with his backbeat. They were hazy about the technical source of this (his left handedness) but recognised that it made his drum sound stand out.
Theory
Even when they were successful and being lauded by old school bigwigs like Leonard Bernstein, The Beatles continued to profess a proud ignorance of music theory. John Lennon liked to joke about the critic who spotted aeolian cadences in Girl (‘I thought he mean little birds’).
Paul clearly had more interest and paid more attention — but was careful to discuss musical matters in meat and potatoes terms in public statements. In interviews he has often referred to ‘searching for new chords’ as a teenager.
On one occasion he and George a took a bus trip across trip Liverpool to meet a guitarist who who could show them B7. Interestingly his explanation as to the importance of this reveals his grasp of the chord theory concepts
Rock music is built on three foundational chords: the I, the IV, and V, which are all major chords. It’s the A-D-E combination, or G-C-D, or E-A-B …they already knew E and A, so B7 was the “missing chord.”
Innovating
One striking feature of The Beatles musical education was that they became fast learners and fearless innovators, as George Martin was later to observe. George Harrison once expressed his impatience at Paul’s fiddling with Yesterday saying, ‘Who does he think he is? Beethoven?’
In terms of technique, the comparison is comical, as Paul would be the first to say. But in a crucial respect there is a link. The classical masters moved forward by reverse engineering what went before. Beethoven’s variations on Mozart and Hayden were essential building blocks in his own development
For The Beatles the process was similar, even if the virtuosity involved was less obviously apparent. It was there at the famous first meeting of Lennon and McCartney the 1957 Wooton Garden Fete
John {was} singing a song called ‘Come Go With Me’. He’d heard it on the radio. He didn’t really know the verses, but he knew the chorus. The rest he just made up himself.
That was how The Beatles would roll. They took what went before and made up the rest themselves.
