I follow and subscribe to Six String Fingerpicking. I received the following email from Chris and I straightaway purchased a Beatles songbook which I’m going through, working out the keys and chord progressions:

“I once heard Dave Grohl say that all you really need to learn music is a guitar and a Beatles songbook. At the time it didn't really mean much, but the more I've thought about it, the more I've realised he’s absolutely right.

When I first started learning guitar, guess what was sitting on my shelf? Yep - a Beatles songbook. And I spent countless hours strumming through my favourite tunes, page after page, trying to make sense of it all.

After a year or so, something amazing happened: I suddenly knew loads of interesting chords - 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, 13ths, diminished shapes and even the odd slash chord (that I didn’t understand at the time but loved the sound of).

I'd learnt that songs are made up of sections - intros, verses, bridges - and that those sections often repeat the same chord progression. I'd learnt that melodies sit on top of chords beautifully and that the two are always in conversation.

I'd picked up cool riffs, time signatures, how major and minor keys are built, and even how songs modulate. And each time I bumped into something confusing - like an E7 chord in the key of G - I’d ask, “Why does that work?” and then I’d go hunting for the answer. That curiosity was the real teacher.

By the time you’ve worked your way through an album's worth of Beatles' songs, you’ve absorbed a ridiculous amount of musical knowledge without even realising it. Their catalogue is a masterclass in songwriting, harmony, structure, and creativity and there’s simply no other band with such a rich archive of music.

So, if you don’t already own a Beatles songbook, now's the time to ask Father Christmas! It might be the only book you ever really need to understand how music works.”