How much music theory did The Beatles know? 

I don't know what adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections, or past participles are, but I can still talk pretty goodly.

*George plays Fadd9* Paul: What's the name of that chord? George: Arthur.

Reminds me of an early interview in which they were charged with having "unresolved leading tones and a false modal frame ending up as a plain diatonic" to which John immediately replied "we're going to see a doctor about that" 😅

I am a college music theory teacher, and I always remind mu students that "The Sound Came First" and the theory rules were added later. There's something innate in humans to make us think in beats and chords, even when we don't know the names.

Imagine being the guy that taught the Beatles how to play a B7

Driving across town to learn B7. Life before the internet.

My guitar teacher in 1966 when I was 13 years old taught me music theory. He said these are the rules but rules don’t make the music, music makes the rules. “Do it first and we will figure it out later.” Enough said…

The Beatles knew the basic necessary theory in order to function as a band but their songwriting clearly came from 'across the universe'.

RU-vid is like having one of those really good sleepovers when you're younger. You're like: "aight, well, I'm going to sleep" and then a second later, in the darkness, your friend goes: "dude, I wonder how much music theory the Beatles knew" and you stay up all night discussing random shit

The Beatles are a great example of how mere developed intuition can lead to the conceptual understanding of music theory even without the formal training to articulate using proper terminology.

One of my favourite quotes from Paul is 'I play the notes that like each other'. As a classically trained musician trying to shake off the shackles of having to play from dots, now in my 60s, I'm going back to the beginning and my natural ability to play by ear. Paul McCartney and his ability to just play without needing to know any of the 'rules' has really helped me with this. Your videos are helping too. Thank you so much.

I'd been playing, improvising and composing for decades before I learned chord theory. I was genuinely afraid when I started that knowing the theory would destroy the magic, but I was completely wrong. Being able to know that a piece of, say, Mozart, was built on such a limited set of chords, and hearing how he was able to take those basic materials and fashion such divine beauty out of them opened up a whole new world and brought my own compositions to life. We all speak music, theory is the meta-language.

Imagine being the “bloke” who taught the Beatles B7.

Dogs can analyze trajectories to intercept flying objects, but they're crap at explaining physics.

As a trained musician, I recognized their lack of formal training, but by not being limited by rules, they stumbled, but relied on creative lyrics, solid tonal memories and a trusted mentor and clever producers to achieve fame and money to continue their musical education. There are many paths to creativity and one you point out is their curiosity to learn and develop! Nice production and excellent summation...Thanks for your work!

They all had one thing in common. Natural feeling for audiance/ear/pitch like most ppl with a musical ear... Notes is something you learn with time... They were natural talents.

Internet: The Beatles didn't know music theory, they just did what sounded good. Music Theory: I just describe what sounds good.

Q: How much music theory did the Beatles know? A: Enough.

All four of the Beatles' preternatural, instinctive understanding of music theory (if not its semantics) is what made them so brilliant. They truly were the most musical band of all time.

They initially heard musical ideas in their heads - and then transposed this to their instruments and voices. They also experimented with trial and error trying out various chords - typically looking for the unusual because they knew that what sounds odd at first, quite often sounds "good" once you get used to it. They loved breaking boundaries, exploring, going off on tangents, breaking new ground, breaking with convention. It seemed to work which gave them confidence to keep on doing that with every new albumn. They weren't afraid. They knew they could rely on inspiration and imagination. They were quick decision makers and exellent judges of what was good and what was not - unhampered by prejudice or adulation for any existing artists or style. They didn't always get on but ironically, one of their greatest strengths was their ability to collaborate. This is unusual with great musicians. It was probably because they were such a tight knit unit. They were so close and had mutual love and respect.

“A musicologist said I was using Aeolian, I don’t even know what that is. It sounds like some kind of exotic bird.” John Lennon

Guitar George, he knows all the chords.

Some of the Beatles knowledge of theory was touched upon in the recent "Get Back" documentry, as it shows the creative process of their song writing. Much insight was revealed of how naturally intuitive every one of the Beatles were musically. This look into their Musical vocabulary only fortifies the depth of the Musical genius the Beatles had as they discovered and created BY EAR some complex musical concepts. I would not be suprised if they all had perfect pitch.

When I was a little kid and had taken formal piano lessons for a year, my parents took me to a classical concert. One of the pieces the symphony played was Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov). When I returned home I started playing it by ear, the main theme. I remember feeling it was weird that I could do that. I also started to improvise and my improvising was technically more advanced than the pieces I played. But I could not control the improvisations. I would modulate in and out of keys and not know how and why. When I later learned theory I knew to hit a secondary dominant to go into another key, etc. 50 years later I still improvise and play by ear. I used this skill to get into a college I did not get into with my Sats and grades. But I did not pursue music - cause I can not sing a lick despite having perfect pitch. A waste to have perfect pitch and be a piano player.

i feel like music theory is one of those things that you can know without even realizing it but also is something you can have studied for years and still not know what to do with.

Tons of comments here, but not enough folks giving you any credit for your time, research, and insight in making this video. Nicely done, and I definitely learned something new about the Beatles today. Cheers!

Probably one of the most well thought out and presented video's I've ever seen!

As someone who has just began to seriously learn music theory at an advanced age, I can't begin to properly express how much it has helped me. There are those who just "Know" about music, without really understanding why. Then, there are the rest of us.

Dang! Not too many youtubers do their own research to present an original argument.

They were extremely fortunate to have George Martin around to help them . He definitely was the 5th Beatle! What a great meeting of minds!

Many comments say they were just naturally talented... These boys surely practiced A LOT, otherwise explain the B7 quest. Amazing video!

Interesting thanks David. The Beatles were the reason I learned to play. I had been hopeless in music lessons in school until aged around 12, I decided to learn to play like the Beatles. I taught myself to read music and quickly gained confidence and knowledge about both playing the guitar and music theory. They kind of came together, not least from buying sheet music of Beatles songs and other bands of the 60s and 70s. Long ago I read an analysis of Beatles tunes by one Wilfred Mellers. All aspects of music theory were initially tantalising puzzles for me. I got a lot of things wrong before getting my head round them. Since then I've had a lot of experience and met some kind and wonderful musicians who all gave me a lot of help. One thing many said and I found myself also is that you often had some of your best ideas before you knew too much, the quirky chord shifts or memorable little phrases that you probably wouldn't write if you were following the conventions too closely. I can write formulaic stuff easily but the best ideas come when you're not trying to do that. Whether or not the Beatles knew what they were about, in my view they were uniquely talented musicians, each in their own way, even self-effacing Ringo. /// For me the Beatles seem like instinctive music theorists who buzzed from each other's creative vibes. Even if they didn't have the vocabulary they absorbed music around them and created their own. For example lots of their earlier hits contain things like 2 5 1s and standard cadences which if they didn't know the theory, they must have just naturally grasped from hearing and synthesising other kinds of music. Later they became much more idiosyncratic and I always love the odd length bars and odd chord progressions they began to use on say Revolver and Sgt Pepper. Obviously they had the input of people like George Martin and no doubt other special people they met when they became famous, people from whom they would have learned a lot. //// But I also think it's significant that first they grew up in Liverpool, a port city with a special mixture of both UK and world heritages in its population. There were sailors bringing records from across the world into Liverpool. before I got into music, I went on a school trip to the port of Liverpool. It impressed me immensely as a 10 year old boy seeing the docks in their heyday, the huge cranes and big ships from far away places. I remember seeing whole tree trunks being unloaded and smelling things like raw sugar on the dockside. I was too just young to ever see the Beatles live, but they inspired me to learn guitar. I've since been privileged to see great players like Segovia, John Williams and Pat Metheny. But it all started with singing along to Hard Days Night! Thanks Beatles!

That's how you Googled the B7 chord in the early sixties.

I think musicians eventually learn music theory on their own throughout their musical journey by experimenting

This guy looks like he is 14 yet has such an incredible way of explaining music theory like an aged old professor. Great video!

"Music theory is a way of describing what is there to be used" great line

One of my college teachers always said "Theory only explains want your ears already tell you." The Beatles had good ears. If something sounded good, they did it.

I jam with my dad and his friend. I play bass, mostly, and my dad plays guitar and his friend Tom plays mandolin (or sometimes guitar). Tom's five year old son likes to play with us as well. Usually he just plays percussion, but today he played piano. I asked if Rowan was taking piano lessons, because I was genuinely impressed by what he was playing (remember: he's five). His dad said he didn't, he just plays whatever sounds right. We were playing the song Runaway by Del Shannon, and during the solo part, with the solo played on mandolin, what Rowan was playing worked really well. He was playing repeated melodic lines, and even had a vague mapping out of what the vocal melody in the previous verse was, and played little embellishments off of it. When the mandolin was doing something fancy, Rowan didn't play something fancy, he instead played a more complex counter melody during gaps of mandolin. He could feel the structure, feel that this was the peak of the song, and he had figured out already what keys on the piano sounded good. All just by messing around while his dad jammed with us. Best way to learn in intuition. I can't wait for Rowan to grow up and see how great of a piano player he'll become.

Watching this after viewing the Get Back doc, and really appreciating your in depth look into knowledge and feel of theory

Paul's father was a devoted musician, and he probably learned a lot from him. Not every self-taught pianist uses a phrase like "arpeggio."

I want to watch a dramatisation of the young beatles going on a quest for b7

This was a beautifully put together video. Thank you David!! And btw, knowing music theory does not mean someone is a good songwriter. Music theory is just a way to communicate music more easily to someone else.

I played guitar by ear almost every day for about 15 yrs, knew most of my chords, had been in a few bands, before I ever took Theory I or II. I already knew most of it (at least beginner theory) ...but I didn't KNOW that I knew it...I didn't know the correct NAMES for stuff...and how they were categorized/ arranged .....that was the biggest key. Looking back I'm glad I took these classes on the GI Bill (we had literally NO music classes except for band in my (large HS) small AL town. It helped me understand a lot and was key to unlocking some deeper understanding and enjoyment from playing and listening. The Beatles were, and are, well...The Beatles. Everyone's been influenced by them, yet there's no one quite like them. As a rock/blues guy mostly when I was younger, and getting more into mellower/different/jazzier/more experimental music I've waxed and waned with my love affair with the 4 lads from Liverpool.

Lol the question of the video is, “Did they Beatles have a clue what they were playing? Or were they just Vibin’”

This story solidifies the fact that George Martin was the 5th Beatle.

your research is incredible, makes for such a richly layered and thoughtful video. absolutely wonderful, thank you!

Such a brilliant video. Perfectly paced, fantastic editing.

Summary: 1. The Beatles consisted of 4 extremely talented artists, who didn’t really understand formal music theory + 1 genius producer who supported them with great musical ideas. 2. Musically speaking, George Martin was truly “the 5th member of The Beatles”.

John, in the 2019 Abbey Road Deluxe book, about writing Because: “As for the harmonies,... I just asked George Martin, ‘what’s the alternative to thirds and fifths?’ As they’re the only ones I know, and he would play them on the piano, and we’d say, ‘Oh, we’ll have that one.’”

David, your "documentaries" are unbelievably perceptive. You have a tremendous ability to articulate these interesting "stories" that teach musical lessons.

In the Get Back movie I was surprised George was asking Billy Preston chord names.

Rick Beato answer this question by "Maybe they didn't knew, but I do ; and I'll show it to you !" Anyway thank you that was surprisingly interesting !

"There is no right way" is probably the best advice for life anyone can give.

I'm glad you did this one. I've always wondered about this, and even more so since I've been following your other music theory video's. I think you've summed it up very accurately, and the whole concept of how they did it somehow pleases me. It seems mind boggling to me that the Beatles lacked so much music theory 'as such'' yet had so much musical genius. I am a fairly old man now, and from the same Beatle era and area in Northern England, and I can personally relate to that bit about travelling for miles on the bus to find a B7th chord (or whatever). Now we can access people like you on the internet and learn anything. It's quite unbelievable. Thanks so much David. I really appreciate your lessons even though I no longer play (okay, well I diddle on my fiddle but,,).

Learning why and how a song or passage makes you feel a certain way is an important widget in a musical toolkit.

In simple words: they knew music theory from the heart, not from a book.

"How much music theory did The Beatles know?" _waltz time_

Your content is quite good and your delivery is very professional. You write clearly and use your voice well. Great job.

This is one of my favorite YT videos of all time . . . a subject which greatly interests me, meticulously researched and brilliantly presented. Have just liked, subscribed and requested notifications!

In other words, they knew music theory, they just didn't realize they did.

As a non-musician, I'm finding that becoming aware of music theory makes me a better listener, making listening to music more impactful and fun.

One of the best edited, produced videos online. Thanks for making this!

I'm barely a Beatles fan but this is like the 10th time I've watched this video. One of the best videos I've ever seen.

“If you want to get an idea of what makes your favourite Beatles song sound the way it does, and why your music doesn’t sound like that...” Why, thank you, David, that has to be the kindest description I’ve ever heard of my so-called music.

I hate when people say “I don’t need to know music theory, the beatles didn’t need it” except they are totally wrong. The Beatles knew music theory, they just didn’t really learn the terms. (P.S, I know lots of music theory, I write my best stuff when I don’t use it, but it’s still incredibly helpful for after I’ve written a progression or melody and I need to add a progression or melody to it respectively)

Your commitment to understanding what these artists are trying to 'actually' say when they speak is inspiring

Great analysis and excellent final observation. Thanks David.

"If it sounds good, it is good"

After being a musician for over 60 years, studied music theory in college, getting a degree, the first step I have come to know is an inspiration, the next element in composing music is your inner ear, then your own ear to listen, then creation begins. The math comes later. That is what it is.

Nice one David, as a fan and grew up on the Beatles whose music played a very important part in my life, this very interesting video has served only more to re-enforce that in terms of popularity, the pure emotive reaction, worldwide reach in terms of so many cultures and just basic enjoyment the Beatles were by far the best ever, even beating Beethoven and Mozart whose music I love as well. Your last very relevant point especially to non musicians like me in regard to how well they knew musical 'theory' in that it is mainly a 'language' for a creator of music to tell a player of music how to play what they have written. Beethoven's V. Carina Burana, Nesa Dorma can bring tears to my eyes as does many Beatles songs not because they are fantastic songs but because they captured in time my youth, my friends and moments of the sixties. I now 69 over the last 3 years have learnt to oil paint and I have watched many RU-vid tutorials in regard to how to paint i.e. the language of art which as with understanding sheet music is really the same and as such I have produced to my surprise some very good copies of Vincent van Gogh and other Impressionists who many as the Beatles chose not to go to or were asked to leave art Schools because they chose not to learn the skills of painting. But now their magic, emotive and colourful paintings sell far more than the masters before them. This knowing musical theory is really irrelevant and anybody who uses such a word to judge the Beatles has no idea what music truly is and that is when it goes in our ears and is able to tap our innermost feelings and those four guys were the masters. If we do manage to survive, which unfortunately I don't think we will, for another 10,000 years the Beatles' music will still be known and played.

I love this! The Beatles' music has been such an inspiration to me on my musical journey. I love analyzing their music and I keep getting blown away by their awesomeness, only to learn that they had no formal music education! It's pretty encouraging to me, since I know some music theory, but not a ton of fancy language to explain what anything means. I *do* plan on taking college classes and stuff (just enough to get me started), but it's just encouraging that some of the greatest influences in modern music were just messing around producing the sounds that they liked. Great video!

They knew it all; they just didn’t know they knew.

Just ask Paul McCartney. He's still alive, you know.

I know you made this a while ago, but this was so absolutely well thought out and so well said. I can imagine how much time it must have took, well done mate, well done!!

I love the fact that theory and knowledge lets you travel back in time and actually play the ideas that the old boys had. To have the sheet music is fantastic it's as close as possible to their thoughts.

5:23 "I remember once hearing about a bloke who knew B7..." Imagine getting all the way up to that guy's house just to learn one damn chord and you don't even know if it's right or not. He presses a few strings and calls it B7. You just hope it sounds good.

As an Austrian from Vienna, the word "German Waltz" made me fall from the chair and weep for hours.

That was wonderfully done! Thank you so much for the intelligent and thorough way that you explored the topic. I have loved music my whole life and I don’t have much understanding of music theory. But there are things I understand about songs just from being immersed in them for so much of my life. This was interesting, educational and fun! It only deepens my respect and appreciation for the Beatles.

That was fascinating. I learned so much about songs that were new so long ago when I was new too! Thank you!

“And I love her” ends in a Picardy third, unbeknownst to Paul, who just wanted it to end in Major

Impeccable research, logical presentation. This must have taken quite a bit of work but it's nice to find someone willing to make the effort and not just give some off the cuff opinion. Thank You.

On George Martin: From the moment I first learned of his importance in the Beatles' creative process, George Martin has always been the only true and legitimate "Fifth Beatle" in my mind. He's the only one that deservedly shares composer credits on a number of albums and, as David points out, probably had his hand in composing, or at least refining, almost everything they did. On Music Theory: I think a lot of students and teachers accidentally conflate rules for specific forms with music theory, generally. Sonata Allegro is a specific form with specific rules, but those rules don't apply outside the form. I didn't get that when I was a first year music major. I just thought I was breaking "rules" that no longer applied to modern music. I'm glad David is out there helping to disabuse people of that notion. Theory is just a language. A wonderful and esoteric language that I'm still only partially fluent in, but is well worth the price of admission.

WOW this video is amazing. Thank you for the time, effort, and attention to detail. Music Theory gives us tools to experiment with (modes, I'm looking at you!). Music Theory helps us talk about music in a coherent way!

I remember a clip of McCartney talking about how excited they were when they learned to change the IV chord to minor. I've said for years that if you only learned about music by studying Beatles tunes you would have a pretty solid education. It's all there.

Chet Atkins was asked if he could read music. He said, 'Not enough to damage my playing'

Thanks for an incredible video! This is one of the best videos on youtube, seriously.

iconic. And very well demonstrated by you, young man. Bravo. It explains the delicate chemistry of fine composing.

I never appreciated how much George Martin added to The Beatles, how his music knowledge enriched The Beatles songs.

“I remember once hearing about a bloke who knew B7” 😂

I appreciate how you respected the Beatles' music and introduced the fact that their manager filled in the knowledge needed. Excellent thoughts and examples!

Brilliant job, thank you for this great video! As a studied jazz pianist and composer, I do completely agree with your very convincing explanations! And with the fact, that creativity should be free to sometimes even break the rules, like also the grestest classical composers did. To my mind, the Beatles' originality and authenticity make their songs so immortal. It just came from the depth of their hearts. Thanks again!

I had a course at Berklee on the music of John Lennon, every time they learned a new chord, they'd write a song incorporating it.

This is fascinating. They may not have known the language of music theory, but they had a gut understanding of some pretty innovative music theory applications, because their music was doing vastly more complex things in an era when everyone else in rock and roll was basically doing I-IV-V chord doo-wop.

I'm no expert on any sort of musical evaluation, but it's obvious you've put a lot of Good work into this video. Great Job! Thank You!

As I played my first songs on the guitar and listened to "All along the watchtower", the last part of "Stairway to heaven" and many others, it reminded me on Spanish songs and Flamencomusic with their chordprogression Am G F E (without the E). So I called this progression "Spanish-Chord-Progession". This made me able to recognize it in other songs and to write songs in that progression. So I think music theory follows music listening and playing in natural way. It is something like confidence in music that helps to understand and creat music. Thank you for your very interesting and good videos.

I've been a full time musician for 20 years - can't read or write sheet music - but to understand chords (all chords), time signatures and inversions is ESSENTIAL to all musicians - not knowing the correct names of certain scales or being unable to transcribe your own music is not the same as not understanding music theory.

that b7 story is amazing

Great video. George Martin was a conservatory trained classical musician who suggested changes. He was sometimes called the 5th Beatle. This is why Beatles songs have chord progressions that resemble jazz standards. All this was well known by professional musicians back in the day.

Watched this after watching Howard Goodall's wonderful analysis of Beatles music. I questioned how much music theory The Beatles knew. It seemed they knew a lot intuitively but didn't know from a formal study. Thank you for this, it compliments what Howard did on his programme perfectly!

I have a George Harrison book, ‘I, Me, Mine: Extended Edition’ that has scans of the original papers he wrote lyrics and chords on.. there’s also a few songs where he wrote sheet music arrangements, so I think it’s fair to say George knew some music theory