Fingerpicking Classics Series (7 of 10) The Beatles – Blackbird

Paul McCartney (and Wings) by slagheap, licensed under (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Welcome to the Guitar Domination Fingerpicking Classics Series. This is song number 7 in the series of 10 songs and today we are going to learn to play Blackbird by The Beatles.

Blackbird is definitely one of the more popular fingerpicking guitar songs amongst my students. It’s a great track that features on the absolute gem of The Beatles 1968 record the ‘White Album’. It’s a sophisticated piece and I can imagine it took a bit of thought and time to compose. McCartney said it was inspired by J.S. Bach’s Bouree In E Minor which is a famous lute piece.

You can definitely hear the classical inspiration on the track particularly the counterpoint style of Bach. You can also hear the similarity with the intro to Blackbird as with the intro to Andantino by Ferdinando Carulli which is another of the 10 songs in this list.

I love this song and I think everyone should learn how to play Blackbird on the guitar. It’s definitely one the most distinct Beatles guitar songs and I think it’s a pretty fantastic example of great pop song writing infused with the elegant guitar playing of 18th century classical ideas. Blackbird is also very distinguishable when played as a solo piece.

Yes, of course the vocals help, but you will still impress others (and yourself) when you can master it instrumentally. If you want the Blackbird guitar tab, then leave a comment and I will see what I can do for you all.

Take it steady with the song, and have lots of fun. It’s awesome.

If you enjoyed playing this one, you may want to learn some more cool fingerpicking patterns and increase your repertoire of ‘go to’ patterns. Also, leave a comment if you enjoyed the lesson and let me know what other Beatles songs you want to learn.