"Tell Me What You See"

I probably should have included this in the post with my recording of "Tell Me What You See" in order to substantiate my claim that the bass part is never the same twice, but here's the bass part (and guitar chords) for "Tell Me What You See."  As always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong:

"You Know What to Do"

A couple days ago, I learned the chords for "You Know What to Do."  According to the liner notes of Anthology 1, it's a demo of a George Harrison song that the Beatles never properly recorded.  In any case, I noticed some connections between the chord progression and the lyrics in the bridge.

To start with, here are the chords (with the disclaimer that - as always - I might have something wrong).  There's an initial D major before the first verse.

Verses:
|: A major | E major :|

Choruses:
|: A major | E major :| A major | D major

Bridge:
B minor | D augmented | A major | D major

The chord progression is comprised of major chords until the bridge, which starts with a B minor.  Appropriately, the mood in the lyrics also changes here:  "Just call on me when you're lonely."  Following that B minor is a D augmented, with an A# accidental that also contributes to the desolate feeling of loneliness.

There's a parallelism (of sorts) between the first and last lines of the bridge, both lyrically and musically.  The lyrical parallelism is obvious:  "Just call on me when you're lonely" is only a few words different from "I'll call on you if I'm lonely too."  The "too" emphasizes the similarity.  The musical parallelism is a bit obscure (and less exact).  There's a B minor played for the entire first line, and there's a D major at the very end (corresponding to the "too" in "I'll call on you if I'm lonely too").  These are closely related chords:  B minor is the relative minor of D major, and D major is the relative major of B minor.  So in the bridge, there's a close relationship between the first and last lines and between the first and last chords.  Accordingly, the speaker/singer wishes for a close relationship between himself and the girl to whom he addresses the song.

"Help!"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I happened to play through the bass part of "Help!" again to-day while looking at my notation, and I realized that I'd written a few notes in the wrong place (making them D notes instead of E notes), so I amended that and rescanned my notation:

"Help!"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

I saved this post as a draft last week and then forgot about it.

---

After figuring out the bass part for "From Me to You," I revisited the bass part for "Help!"  In doing so, I discovered that they have the same rhythm for (most of) the verses.  The later verses of "From Me to You" have a different rhythm, and there are a couple measures in the verses of "Help!" that have a different rhythm too.

Because of that similarity in rhythm, notating the bass part for "Help!" seemed like it would be pretty easy.  While I was doing it, I discovered that (during the verse with the simpler arrangement) I had a few notes in the wrong octave in my recording from early January.  I've found that notating things often reveals errors in what I'd been playing because it forces me to scrutinize my own playing.

Back in January, I referenced The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook for the chords, but I found those needlessly complicated.  I think they try to incorporate other elements of the arrangement into the guitar chords, rather than just providing what chords are actually played in the song.  In any case, I wrote the chords above the staff roughly where they're played.

And, of course, there's the disclaimer that I might be wrong: