Learn This Beatles Classic | Penny Lane Guitar Lesson for All Levels

Hey guitar enthusiasts and Beatles fans, we're going to be doing Penny Lane by The Beatles today. Great song, um, it does have some bar chords and I'll show you some ways to get around those if you're not great with bar chords. I wouldn't consider this a beginner song because there's a lot of different chords and the chord changes are very, very fast. So if you're an absolute beginner, might not be the best Beatles song to start with, but if you love The Beatles like me and you love this song, let's get into it by starting with the chords. So let's start with our open chords. We have A major, we have an E7 chord, which you can either play the 2-finger version or the 4-finger version, whichever one you want. I'm going to use the 2-finger here. G chord, C chord, an A minor chord, an E major chord, and a D chord. So that is a lot of chords already by itself, just open chords. Now let's talk about our bar chords. So So we have a few of them. We have F sharp minor, okay? We have F, okay? We have C sharp minor, and we have B minor, okay? So 4 bar chords. What can we do here? All right, so the easiest way I think on this one to accommodate the bar chords would be to play power chords because the strumming pattern we're going to be using has a lot of downs in it. So I think it's a little bit easier. So for F sharp minor you would either use your 1st and 3rd, or your 1st, 3rd, and 4th if you want a fuller sound for power chord. Okay, so we'd have F sharp, that would be 2, 4, 4 relative to the capo. I just want to make a note, I have a capo on the 2nd fret here, so that would be F sharp minor. If you move everything down one, you're on fret, um, strings 5, 4, 3, it would be frets 2, 4, 4. So that would be your B minor. C C-sharp minor, if you slide up 2, that is C-sharp minor. And then F is 1-3-3. Okay, so that's how you can get around those bar chords. Let me repeat again. So if we have F, 1-3-3. F-sharp, 2-4-4. B minor, move everything down one string, 2-4-4. And then if you slide up 2 frets 4, 6, 6, that would be C sharp minor. And if the 4, you know, the 3-finger version is too much, you just want to do the 2-finger version. 1, 3 for F, okay. 2, 4 for F sharp. 2, 4 for B minor, one string down. And then 4, 6 for C sharp minor, okay. So those are your fixes if you can't do the bar chords just yet. All right, so we're gonna have 2 strumming patterns here that we're gonna be using. We're gonna be using one in the verse and one in the chorus. Since there are a lot of, um, well, I lied. We're going to be mixing it on the verse, but we're definitely going to be using one on the chorus. So there are a lot of split measures in the verses, so that's where the first strumming pattern is going to come in. So on these split measures, each of the chords is going to be 2 beats. So in this first part of the verse, we have A minor split with F sharp minor, B minor split with E. So each one of the chords is going to be a down-down-up. So it's going to be 1, 2, and 3, 4, and 1, 2, and 3, 4, and. Okay, so again, 1, 2, and 3, 4, and. 1, 2, and 3, 4, and. Okay, and it's gonna be a little bit faster than that, okay? But that's it to start. And then the second line, we have A for half measure, 1, 2, and then F-sharp minor, and then it goes to whole measures, A minor. When we go to the whole measures we're going to switch patterns. Okay, so we're going to be going— if I just play an A minor chord, okay, we're going to be going down, down, up, down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. Okay, so we're gonna be switching from one strumming pattern immediately into another. Okay, so let's just talk about that second pattern. So it is a syncopated rhythm, meaning we're missing the down on one of our strums, and it's a third strum. So it's 1, 2, and 3, 4, and is our first strumming pattern. The next pattern is 1, 2, and, and 4, and. Okay, 1, 2, and, and 4, and. Now you're still gonna strum down for the count of 3, you're just not gonna hit the string. So it's down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up. So if I take that first verse, it's gonna sound like this. Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to have known, and all the people Fun fact: a couple years ago, I actually, um, I went to Liverpool and, um, I got to see Penny Lane, and I drove around the roundabout, and we saw the barbershop and where the bank used to be, and, you know, all the fun stuff that's, that's in this song. I think it's just really cool, um, that Paul was just writing about the stuff that he was seeing as you were driving around, um, kind of that downtown of Liverpool. Cool, super cool song. So that is how we're gonna handle the verses, okay? At the end of this verse, and that's sometimes at the end of the choruses, you're gonna see this note that says 1, 2, 3, stop, okay? If you're on my website, you can follow along with the lessons over there. We're gonna see this thing, 1, 2, 3, stop. So what does that mean? You're gonna do 3 down strums, and then you're gonna mute the guitar, okay? Now I like to do it with my left hand for this song, so you just go 1, 2, 3, and then you grab your strings to make them stop ringing.

Um, and the baker never wears a mat in the pouring rain, very strange.

And then we get into Penny Lane, we get into the actual chorus of the song. So you're going to see that it happens at the end of the, the verse section here, this first verse section, and it happens on the end of all of the choruses. All right, so you're going to hear that 1, 2, 3, and then mute the guitar. All right, so let's just try that a couple times with the D. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, mute. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, mute. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, mute. One more. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, mute. Which then brings us into the chorus, and we're going to use that second strum for the entire thing. Okay, so it's going to be down, down, up, up, down, down, down, up, up, down, down, down, up, up, down. Okay, on all the chords.

Penny Lane, you're in my ears, you're in my eyes, there beneath the blue suburban skies, and I sit and eat wamp back.

Okay, so there's that 1, 2, 3. At the very, very end. So that is the majority of the song, but we do have one part where it gets interesting. The outro of the song, um, the Beatles decide to change keys. The Beatles do this a lot, so they, they modulate to a different key. So on the outro is where we're going to introduce an A chord. Our C-sharp minor is now going to come into play, and the D chord. But we're treating it as any other chorus. Okay, we're treating it as any other chorus with the same strumming pattern. It's just at the end we've got Penny Lane and it ends on an A, and that's really it. So let's take this song from the top. If you— it is a fast song, so if you need to use the settings cog to slow me down to play along with me, please do that. All right, we're gonna take it from the top. Ready? 1, 2, 1, 2, here we go.

Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs of every hen he's had the pleasure to have known. And all the people that come and go stop and say hello. On the corner is a banker with a motorcar. All the children laugh at him behind his back. And the banker never wears a mask. In the pouring rain, very strange, penny lane. You're in my ears and in my eyes. There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit and meanwhile back Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass and his pocket is a portrait of the Queen. He likes to keep his fire engine clean, it's a clean machine. Interlude. 1, 2, 3. Penny Lane, you're in my ears, you're in my eyes. Afore of fish and finger pies in summer. Meanwhile, back behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout. I saw that! The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray, and though she feels as if she's in a play, she is anyway. Annie Lane the barber shaves another customer, and I see the baker sitting waiting for a trim. And then the fireman rushes in from the pouring rain. Very strange. Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes. There beneath the blue suburban skies, I sit and mean while— Penny Lane, you're in my ears and in my eyes. There beneath the blue suburban skies, Penny Lane—

That is such a fun song. How can you not be happy when you play that song? I love the Beatles. They're one of my favorite artists. And if you are a huge Beatles fan too, I have a whole playlist of Beatles songs just like this. Some of them are easier, some of them are harder. Go check out that playlist and find another Beatles tune that you can learn to play today.