The Beatles – “She Loves You” Guitar Lesson

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Let's go back in time to the early 60s.

[00:00:03]Here's a tune that's one of the highest selling singles of all time and it really captures the early sound of the Beatles which led to Beatle Mania. And it was before they started doing a lot of studio overdubs and putting in lots of different tracks. This is really just like a simple band arrangement of what four musicians could play all at once.

[00:00:29]In this video, I want to break down the guitar parts on it. So, grab your axe and let's dive into this She Loves You guitar lesson. We're going to start off with the intro. And it sounds like this.

[00:00:41]One, two, three. She loves you.

[00:00:43][music and singing] Yeah.

[00:00:46]She loves you. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:00:49]She loves Yeah.

[00:00:53]>> [music] >> and we're into the verse there. So, some cool bluesy licks right at the top. Now, the chord progression just walks through a couple chords here. We've got an E minor, and then an A7, then a C.

[00:01:14]And I like this G6.

[00:01:18]kind of get the vocal harmonies in that chord. [music] And what it is is the third fret of the sixth string, second fret on the fifth string, then open open three. Got the open E in there. That's the sixth of the chord, E. That's why it's called [music] a G6.

[00:01:35]And then we play that blues lick. But before we break that down, let's look at the strumming pattern here. And here's a simple strumming pattern you can use over that progression. And it's going to go down, down, up, up, down, [music] up.

[00:01:48]It's very common. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

[00:01:51]And so we got this. She loves you. Yeah.

[00:01:54][music] Down, down, up, up, down, up. 1 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 2 and 3 and 4 and C. So I'm doing that [music] twice on each chord until I get to the G. Okay. [music] So, it's going to go 1 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 2 and 3 [music] and four and 2 and 3 and four and C 2 and 3 and four and 1 2 and 3 and 4 and G.

[00:02:22]Okay. Then on the end of four there, I'm going to play basically one strumming pattern there on G. 1 2 and 3 and four.

[00:02:29]And on the and of four, I'm going to come in on the third fret of the fourth and third strings, doing a little double stop. Then I'll [music] play the fifth fret on the fifth string. Back to that third fret, double stop. Then I'm going to slide [music] from five up to six and back down to five using a double stop.

[00:02:50]So I'm covering the fourth and third strings.

[00:02:55]Then I'll come back to three. It's all double stops there.

[00:03:00]Then five on the fifth string back to three and three. The double stop.

[00:03:05][music] So al together starts on the end of four. Three and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and five. [music and singing] Real kind of bluesy. [music] And that's coming out of the the G minor blues scale. And if you don't know how to play this scale anywhere on the neck, then go to john mcclennen.com/bluescales and grab my free blues scale PDF guide.

[00:03:45]This is one of the most important scales to know as a guitar player, especially if you want to play any music within the past, say, 130 years. Just go to john mcclennon.com/bluescales and you can grab my free guide. I'm going to show you the easiest and fastest way to play this up and down the neck and it's completely free. So go to john mcclennon.com/bluescales or you can use the link. I made it easy for you right down below. All right. So once you see that, then you [music] just go, "Oh, G blue scale." And then what chord are we going to next? We go to a G. So al together the intro is going to sound like this. A 1 2 3 4 [music] 2 3 and four.

[00:04:40][music] Okay. Now you can add this little melody which we're gonna get into later. You'll see how we end this song. But yeah, [music] she loves you. Yeah. Yeah. So what I'm doing is playing the third fret, second fret open on the first string. That's the melody. She loves you. [music] And then here I was playing that bluesy A7 [music] which is cool. Get gets a bluesy sound. You can also do it like this.

[00:05:09][music] and then C.

[00:05:13]We're going to do that later, [music] but I'm not really going to strum that melody there because it's kind of tricky to play both in this C position. I'm going to fumble my fingers. So, I'll just go E minor. Yeah.

[00:05:27][music and singing] Yeah. Yeah. Then A7.

[00:05:30]Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then C. Yeah.

[00:05:34][singing] Yeah. G6.

[00:05:37]riff.

[00:05:38][music] Okay. Then we hit the verse section, and that's going to go like this.

[00:05:50]Same strumming [music] pattern, but we're going to play a bar of G to a bar of E minor. Then we've got a bar chord here, B minor. This is from the fifth string down. 2 4 [music] 4 3 2. And then I go to a D chord from the fourth string down. Open two three two. So one bar each. G [music] E minor B minor D. That goes twice.

[00:06:22]All right. Then we go to the pre chorus.

[00:06:24]She says she loves [music] you and I know that can't be bad. [music] Okay. So great little change here. We're going to go to G for two bars, [music] then E minor. And we've got this lick.

[00:06:42]What it is is it's from the fourth string down. Five open three.

[00:06:48]And then we're going to walk down. This is an octave.

[00:06:51][music] And it's again that melody. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:55][singing] Yeah. That's kind of the hook of the song, right? So, [music] but I'm going to strum it.

[00:07:04]I love that chord, right? Especially over the E. What a beautiful [music] sound, right? That's just sneaking in there. It's kind of jazzy. E minor 9.

[00:07:15][music] And then we go to C minor.

[00:07:25]Back to the blues lick. So C minor is like B minor just one fret up. This is another common chord the Beatles used all the time. We're going to play two bars of that. Then go to D for a bar.

[00:07:38]Then the lick comes in on the and of four just like we did before. So one and two and three and four. [music] We go back back to the verse. [music] Everything goes again.

[00:07:56]>> [music] >> She loves you and you know that can't be bad.

[00:08:07]C minor.

[00:08:10]Okay. The [music] second time we're going to go to D and just stay there.

[00:08:14]Okay. So, no blues like the second time.

[00:08:16]Then we go to the chorus.

[00:08:19]Yeah. [singing] Yeah. Yeah. which [music] is the same. Starts the same way as what we did for the intro, but now we're going to go a love [singing and music] like that.

[00:08:33]Okay. So, what I played here is E minor, two [music] bars, A7, two bars, and then we hit three hits on this C minor. I love like that. And then we rest. That's just 1 2 [music] 3 4. and then D 2 3 4 G 2 3 bluesy lick.

[00:08:54]Okay, so that blues [music] lick keeps coming back over and over. All right, then everything goes back. We repeat it again. We do the verses. We do the choruses. Then when we end the song, we've got that last chorus. She loves you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She loves you.

[00:09:10]Yeah. Yeah. [singing and music] Yeah.

[00:09:12]And we're going to play what's called a tag. So we're going to go with a love like that. You know, you should be glad.

[00:09:18][music] And we repeat that with a love like that. Okay. So, what I'm doing here is I'm going to that C minor just like we did in the previous choruses. I'm going to go 1 2 3 [music] rest then play D then G. Okay. Now, we're going to go to E minor. And that's going to sort of turn us [music] around within this tag which goes three times. A love like that. You know, you should be glad.

[00:09:45]Okay. And then the last time we go a love [singing and music] like that. We hit that C minor and then we play a D and we just sort of hold that D. Now this is called a formata. So basically you just hold that D chord and then on Q we're going to play this ending. Know you should be glad.

[00:10:05][music] [music] That's how it ends. So [music] what I played here is G for the first two bars, but we're going to combine it with that descending lick we did earlier. So it's 1, two, [music] see, and then E minor. Then I'll grab that melody.

[00:10:33]Then on C, I break down the chord and just get these little triads on top.

[00:10:45]So [music] C here. Then I play on the top three strings. Open one 3 and then open one two [music and singing] open one open. So it's like [music] [singing] yeah and then go to the final chord which I play as a G6.

[00:11:06]That's just [music] 3 2 open open 3 open. So one more time after that fora holding [music] that D and we're going to go on Q. You know you should be glad.

[00:11:20][music] >> [music] >> So there you have it. Those are some insider tips on this classic Beatles song, early Beatles tune from the 60s.

[00:11:41]If you really want to understand how this stuff connects so you can play anything you want on guitar and come up with cool bluesy licks just like this song, then go to john mcclennon.com/bluescales and grab my free blues scale PDF guide.

[00:11:57]This is going to show you the easiest and fastest ways to play this scale up and down the neck. And then when you see it in songs like this, you'll immediately [music] connect that to the chords and everything's going to click together. Just go to john mcclennen.com/bluescales and grab that now as my gift to you. As always, hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, you might like this one next.