Learn to play the classic Beatles tune We Can Work It Out from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction for how to play We Can Work It Out by The Beatles.
We Can Work It Out by The Beatles TABS
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. So this is a really cool song I think and it is also kind of a really weird song at the same time. So this song was co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and the parts that McCartney wrote are very happy and upbeat and then the parts that Lennon wrote are very dark and so they are really weird the way they go together, it almost sounds like two different songs kind of stuck together and I really kind of dig it, I think it’s really cool. So anyway be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at How To Play We Can Work It Out by The Beatles.
We Can Work It Out – Verse
All right so We Can Work It Out by The Beatles basically has three parts; it has a verse and a chorus and the verse and the chorus are the parts that McCartney wrote and then this other part that I’m just going to call the bridge, because I really don’t know what to call it, is the part that Lennon wrote. So we start off here with the verse and we’ve just a regular old D major chord and then D suspended four (Dsus4) which is if you just take that D chord and put your fourth finger down onto the third fret of the high E string and then a C and then back to a D again… So with this D the counting for it’s kind of weird; so it’s like one two and, and then on the downbeat of three it’s a sixteenth note, so it’s a quick strum of the D and then we hammer-on to the Dsus4 and that’s a dotted eighth note. So beat number one number two beat three and then beat four is back to D for two more eighth notes… so that’s like the first measure. Then on the second measure we basically do the same thing again, but the difference is here is that we do that hammer-on, it’s only a 16th note, and then we stay on that Dsus4 for three eighth notes. So that’s like the first two measures… And then we go to a C; one and two and D three and four and. So that’s basically the riff for the verse and you just play that twice… All right then from there it goes into the chorus so on that very last time when you go to that D it’s; three and four and, and then on the end of four you just kind of try to hit the D, G and B strings open and then that’s where it transitions us into the chorus for We Can Work It Out by The Beatles.
Chorus
So for the chorus for We Can Work It Out by The Beatles we have G, D and A major and it’s like one e and two and two e and… and then to the D. So back to A, G and then to the A so it’s… and then at the end of the a we hit those open strings again, it just makes it kind of a way to transition from one chord to the other without there being just dead silence… so that’s the whole chorus for We Can Work It Out by The Beatles.
Bridge
All right and then that leads us into this bridge section of We Can Work It Out by The Beatles, like I said this is the part that Lennon wrote, so when we go into this part you know we’re coming from this really happy major sounding thing and then it goes into this very kind of more dark minor sounding part. So we start off we’ve got Bm and unfortunately the only way to do this is with this barre chord; so I’m just barring my first finger across the first five strings of the second fret, my second finger is on the third fret of the B string, my third finger is on the fourth fret of the D string and my fourth finger is on the fourth fret of the G string… And then we’ve got a G, but instead of doing this G… it’s going to be a barre chord, but a little bit different. So normally you would just barre your first finger all the way across all six strings at the third fret, second finger onto the fourth fret of the G string, third finger onto the fifth fret of the A string and fourth finger onto the fifth fret of the D string. What we’re going to do is we’re going to kind of lift our finger up so that way that the first string is open. And then we’ve got F sharp major (F#); so we just move this shape down a half step and again with the open string on there, it’s kind of dissonant sounding, but it’s kind of signature John Lennon. So the first measure; one and two three and four and, and then the second measure one two and three and four and, and on the end of four we just try to hit those open strings again… Then to that G and it’s one and two three and four and on the and before we move down to the F# and then that fourth measure is one two three and four and with the open strings… so that’s like the first half and it’s the first four measures of that bridge section. All right and then that leads us into the second half of the bridge and the timing on this is kind of cool, it’s like almost this waltz kind of a thing. So we’ve got the Bm and we’re gonna pick just the A string and then strum the top end of the chord twice. So these are quarter note tuplets so it’s like… then we take our first finger off so that the A string is open, but you still want the top end here, so what I do is I just slide it up like this so that the A string is open and then do the same thing… so that’s the first measure, measure 13 on your transcription. Then we’re going to go to the third fret of the low E string, same strum, then to the second fret; so the rest of the cord stays the same and it’s like… and then it goes right back… just like that. So like I said the parts you know they’re both really great and then when they go together they just completely like opposite ends of the spectrum, but I think they just go really well together. I think they were great songwriters and We Can Work It Out by The Beatles is just a great example of the cool way they put stuff together.
Conclusion
All right so there you have it, those are all the parts to We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave me a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week like how to play We Can Work It Out by The Beatles. Well that is all i have for you today. Thanks for watching We Can Work It Out by The Beatles and have a great day.
