At times, the authors were able to capture some subtlties in the music which had gone unnoticed by me... but a careful re-listening to the song revealed the score to be surprisingly correct.

Regarding some of the complaints in other Amazon reviews, which made me a bit hesitant to buy:

1) Size of the print: it really is not that small, and it is quite legible.

2) Supposed inaccuracy of chord names: it appears that there is a general chord name above the staff, but more detailed guitar-part scoring in the staff... they were not trying to name the exact chord every time... in some cases not every string is being played.

3) Complaints about the inclusion of 'tab' for 'musical illiterates': tab actually includes, concisely, information which standard notation cannot show easily... like exactly which string/fret to use, out of several options on the guitar. And, by the way, Paul McCartney STILL does not read or write standard notation himself.

NOTE: I also compared this book to Hal Leonard's "The Beatles" (21 songs, in their "Transcribed Scores" series), and was amazed how much better The Beatles Complete Scores is.


The best book there is   May 9, 2000
L. Power (San Francisco)
177 out of 182 found this review helpful

I have owned at one time or another the 4 Lennon McCartney song books.

The major flaw with those books was that they replicated the melody line and attached a chord, but in most cases they came nowhere near the actual arrangements. This is particularly true on piano based hits such as Hey Jude, Let it Be, Yesterday, Lady Madonna, Back in the USSR etc.

This book gets the original arrangements as played by the Beatles which are generally much better and actually easier to play a lot of times. You can discern McCartney's piano style which is not technically difficult. After all you are accompanying a voice and not playing a melody.

So when you play Let it Be it sounds so much better, and with Hey Jude you think that's all he did to make that sound. Lady Madonna enables you to sound ridiculously accomplished playing something that is technically quite easy. Obviously I am approaching this from a piano player's viewpoint.

As far as guitar is concerned, it has very authentic transcriptions, certainly on the fingerpicking songs such as Blackbird and Julia, which are not that difficult to reproduce.

I have found this book to be unbelievably helpful. You are getting some of the Beatles trade secrets here. You finally get to see the outside the box thinking that separated the Beatles from the rest. I rate this book the best sheet music investment I have ever made, and a must for any aspiring musician. The genius is in the details.

I hopethis review was helpful.


Excellent book.....very well done job!   November 16, 1999
misterzero (Indianapolis, IN)
50 out of 52 found this review helpful

If you read the reviews below, most people will sufficiently let you know about the minor inaccuracies in the orchestrations, vocals, etc. From what I've seen, however, 99% of the songs are dead-on accurate for the guitars and bass.

If you want to learn how to play guitar, here is a way to learn from the best! Same with bass....and even piano (though anything other than "Let It Be" will be challenging for a newcomer to the instrument). If your band wants to be the next "1964", here is their owner's manual! The only thing that this book is lacking is the type of guitar and amp you should be using when playing the song in question!

Only two things that make my teeth grind: 1) They will show a C# barred at the 4th fret, go to another chord, then come back to the C#, but now its barred at the 2nd or 3rd fret (even though the handwritten chord letter is correect). This is probably not the author's fault, but rather some lackey forced to write this stuff down. 2)While the transcriptions are accurate, some are shown as played with a maximum amount of difficulty. Prime example is "Blackbird"...there is a much simpler way to play the same notes EXACTLY, without having to make comparatively difficult fingerings.

I would definitely recommend spending some bucks to get this book...if even to see the transcription to "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)"!


The Best Book of Its Kind - But Mis-Titled As "Complete"   November 13, 2000
Sean P. Laughney (San Luis Obispo, CA USA)
59 out of 64 found this review helpful

This book is as good as it gets - period. All titles from The Beatles catalog of British & American releases (during the group's career together) are represented. That's the first major plus of the book - you get The Beatles' arrangements of all their covers from Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, etc. They are great fun to play and many Beatles' versions are better-known than the originals. I know of no other source for these arrangements.

As mentioned by many other reviewers, you get a pretty heroic stab at scoring all the instruments heard on every song. This admirable attempt gets you on the right track (in the right key signature, etc.), but falls short on detail of all but the simplest (usually from the early years) songs. Clearly The Beatles had extensive use of multiple 4 track machines and eventually 8 tracks as they matured. This book "scores" usually only 5 parts. It would be impossible to score ALL the over-dubs and extremely lengthy to include all instrumentation, notes and George Martin's orchestral arrangements. So, I pick a bone with the authors using the title, "The Complete Scores". To me, that term means something very specific which is not appropriate for these types of recordings. The Beatles, George Martin and his engineers were awsome craftsmen. The layers of sounds we hear on the finished records are a one-time snapshot of their creative process - often with somewhat muddy results. For example, "I Am The Walrus" does have a guitar part - pretty lost in the mix and not represented in the book. I just don't think it's possible to get the "Complete" details on these recordings.

To save space, the authors often have you incorrectly play a single part for each verse repeat. I know this is getting picky, but the building bass line is the counter-melody in "Something" and the dualing guitar fills in "The Ballad of John & Yoko" change as the song builds. Both are important to each song's development and resolution...

In fact, if you really really try, you can find little errors in many songs; mis-titled chords here, incorrect licks there. The non-standard guitar tuning referenced in "Rain" I believe is wrong...BUT, pop in a CD and open the book - you'll get an extremely good idea of what to play. By scoring all the main parts, the authors make this book good as gold for aspiring cover bands.

It may not really be "The Complete Scores", but this book is surely a treasure map to some of the finest and most creative recordings in pop music. I love it!


An Outstanding Value   June 29, 2000
Rick (Detroit, MI)
34 out of 35 found this review helpful

The front cover of this book proudly proclaims, "Full transcriptions from the original recordings. Every song written & recorded by the Beatles." Think about it: the complete scores for every Beatles song--and all for such a affordable price. Wow! What an incredible deal!

Although I have managed to find a few mistakes, I believe that the overall quality of the transcriptions is very high. The copyright page reveals that they were completed by Tetsuya Fujita, Yuji Hagino, Hajime Kubo and Goro Sato. These gentlemen are to be congratulated for completing such an immense work of over 1100 pages! I believe it when it states that "a great deal of effort has been put into presenting these performances in musical notation that is as faithful as possible to the original recordings." (p. 11) Some have suggested that there may be some other individual transcriptions that are more faithful to the original for a few songs, particularly those involving orchestral instruments. Perhaps. I ask, what will it cost you to amass the entire collection of Beatles scores individually, and how much effort will it take to locate them all? For all of the people who have criticized this book, not one single reviewer to date has provided an alternative recommendation that includes the complete scores to all Beatles songs. That's because one does not exist.

I've got a number of guitar transcription books to The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Creedence Clearwater Revival, etc. These books all fall short in one way. What are you going to do for the bass guitar and the drums? You have to go out and try to find a book for those parts--if they even exist, which they probably don't. Does anyone know of the complete scores to other major artists like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, or the Rolling Stones? I don't think they exist either, and if they do, they probably cost a lot more than that what this book does.

Friends, I cannot think of a better music book for a rock musician to have than this book. According to "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Albums" (Revised & Enlarged 3rd Edition) by Joel Whitburn, the Beatles are the number one artist of the rock era (according to Billboard's ranking system). The Beatles achievements include most weeks at number one, and most number one albums. This book is not to be underestimated in its importance. Growing up, I was never a really big fan of the Beatles, and there were a lot of other groups that I liked better. But when I started taking up the guitar, I decided to pick up "The Beatles Complete Scores" simply for educational purposes. After studying these scores, my appreciation of their talents has grown immensely, and these scores have provided me with many hours of enjoyment. I recommend this book highly.