In the decades since his passing on December 8, 1980, John Lennon’s legend has continued to grow, both for his contributions to the Beatles and his accomplishments as...
In the decades since his passing on December 8, 1980, John Lennon’s legend has continued to grow, both for his contributions to the Beatles and his accomplishments as a solo artist.
Even so, he is rarely singled out for his acoustic guitar playing. This is perhaps due to the spotlight-grabbing abundance of “stand- alone” acoustic Beatles cuts written by Paul McCartney, such as “Blackbird,” “Yesterday,” “Michelle” and “Mother Nature’s Son.”
But Lennon—wielding his Gibson J-160E or Martin D28—is the man behind many other Beatles acoustic classics, including "Norwegian Wood," "Julia," "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and "Dear Prudence."
Let’s look at what makes these tracks tick. Lennon used a version of Travis picking, a somewhat country-flavored fingerstyle approach named after session musician Merle Travis, to shape much of his acoustic output.
FIGURES 1a–d deconstruct Lennon’s favorite pattern via an open C chord, beginning with bass notes, to focus on the pick-hand thumb’s activity (FIGURE 1a). With the C chord held down, use your fret-hand’s ring finger to alternately fret C (A string, third fret) and G (low E string, third fret), on beats one and two, respectively. These notes, and the E note at the second fret on the D string (struck “between” each bass note), are plucked with the thumb (p).
As FIGURES 1b–d unfold, one note is added at a time—plucked on the high E string with the ring finger (a), on the G string with the index finger (i) and then on the B string with the middle finger (m)—until the entire pattern is pieced together (see FIGURE 1d). Once you have this pattern down, you’re ready to tackle a host of Lennon’s acoustic Beatles songs, like “Julia” (from The Beatles, a.k.a. the