Learn 4 fab Beatles guitar chords (including A Hard Day's Night) today

(Image credit: David Redfern / Getty)

Guitar skills: Inspire your own playing and songwriting with these four chords from the Fab Four's songbook…

1. G7sus4

(Image credit: Future)

The most famous Beatles chord of all has to be the very first one heard at the beginning of A Hard Day’s Night, and most people approximate the dense ensemble sound heard there with this G7sus4 chord shape. 

However that’s not quite it…


2. DM11/A

(Image credit: Future)

The original track actually features John’s open Dsus4 chord and George’s Fadd9 (with an added low G) washing over Paul’s D bass note – the G7sus4 misses out a crucial A note. This alternative works well, especially on a 12-string.


3. E7♭9

(Image credit: Future)

You might not expect many jazzy chords to crop up in the Fab Four’s back catalogue, but how about this jarring E7 b9 that’s used on I Want You (She’s So Heavy)? It works well as the V chord in a rather stretched blues in A.


4. F9

(Image credit: Future)

You don’t see this 9th shape used very often, but it works nicely with fingerpicking – listen to John’s playing on Julia to see what we mean. That song also gains from the surprising chord changes he uses (this F9 is followed by Fm9).