Learn to play the classic Beatles tune Helter Skelter from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the tabs to go along with this free video lesson.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play Helter Skelter by The Beatles. I think this is a really cool song. A lot of people don’t like this era of The Beatles as much, but I like it all. I like the really early stuff all the way through when they you know got kind of weird. Anyway this is a pretty cool riff, kind of dissonant, but it’s cool; this is kind of like the a song that obviously really influenced an entire genre of music and it’s a real cool hard rock and song. 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 Helter Skelter By The Beatles.
Helter Skelter Intro
All right so we start off How To Play Helter Skelter By The Beatles with this intro and we got this minor third dyad here that we start off with. So your first finger is on the seventh fret of the high E string and third finger is on the ninth fret of the B string and you rest at the beginning of the measure this is like on the end of four and then you slide out of it. So when we slide out of this you want to slide down so your third finger stops on the third fret of the B string because that’s where immediately goes into the real recognizable riff from the song. So you’re going to be strumming the third fret of the B string and the high E string open and this is all 16th notes. So we have two entire measures of this; so one E & A, two E & A and then you just simply move the note on the B string down a half step to the second fret and play a whole measure of that… so that whole first part… and then from there it goes to a G5. So for this G5 if we just take our regular open G chord and we’re just going to eliminate this B right here because that’s the third, so what you’re going to do you can actually just put your fingers on for this chord but let your middle finger kind of droop down so it’s muting that fourth string and now we’ve got this… all eighth notes… So you do one and two and three and four and… then we switch to an E major and we have one and, and that completes the intro. So when you’re coming out of that last… and then that leads us into the verse for How To Play Helter Skelter By The Beatles.
Verse
All right so for the verse we start off with the E major and we’re gonna have one and two and three and four and, there is four measures of that… and there’s actually five measures, so after the fifth measure of that… we go back to the G5 for one measure and then to an A. Now this A is a double dotted half note so this is actually going to get one two three four and, and then on the end before you strum it again and then after that it goes back into another measure of E, but this time it’s a little different, we’ve got one and two and three and four and, then we come up to the ninth fret and we just hit on the low E and we just hit that note and we can slide out of it and that would lead us into the chorus.
Chorus
All right so for the chorus we’ve got this kind of a blues shuffle kind of a thing. So start off here you put your first finger on the second fret of the D string and you’re gonna play the A string open and we’ve got one and, and then you’re going to leave your first finger where it is and take your third finger and go to the fourth fret of the D string for two and; so one two and, and then we’ve got this little run. So this is starting on beat three and its 16th notes, so three E & A, four E, so the very last note is an eighth note, open four two open four two open, so… so that’s the first measure of the chorus and now we’re going to do the same exact thing, we’re just going to move it down a set of strings. So now we’re going gonna start with our finger on the second fret of the A string and the low E that’s open and then we’re gonna go to the the fourth fret and this time until the timing is just slightly different. So we have one and two E, so that it’s like two eighth notes, one eighth note and then two sixteenth notes and then that same little run except now it’ll start on the D string. So the D string will be open to the fourth fret of the A string to the second fret, open A string to the fourth fret of the low E, second fret and then it just goes back to the first one again. So back to the A and then we’re going to go to an E7. So this is a kind of a different voicing of an E7 than you you’re probably used to. So if you just take your regular E major chord so the low E is open and I’m on the second fret of the A string with my second finger, second fret of the D string with my third finger, first fret of the G string with my first finger and then the B and E strings would be open, but we’re gonna make it E7, so we’re gonna take our fourth finger and put it on the third fret of the B string… and then that’s a whole note and then it just goes back into the for two measures. So the whole chorus… So that’s basically all the parts to the song, everything’s just repeated a lot. Now that you know the separate parts like the main riff, the verse and the chorus it’s really easy to piece it together and play Helter Skelter By The Beatles.
Conclusion
Alright so I hope you enjoyed How To Play Helter Skelter By The Beatles and got something out of it. If you like this video be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or any other guitar related topics. If you have any suggestions for future lessons I always like to read through the comments and so your input is greatly appreciated. If you have 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. Anyway that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching How To Play Helter Skelter By The Beatles and have a great day.
