8 Beatles Riffs (Easy to Hard)

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Here are the harmonica tabs for the Beatles’ I Should’ve Known Better, and these get repeated:

-23 -23 34 -34 34
-23 -23 34 -34 34

If today’s your first day here are the harmonica tabs for Love Me Do:

-45 45 -34 -12 -12 -12

If you know how to play single notes, let’s get into how John Lennon plays the harmonica part to Love Me Do on the recording.
Here’s the first line of Love Me Do harmonica tabs:

-5 5 -4 -2 -2 -2 -2
-5 5 -4 -2 -2 -2 -2
Wah wah wah Wah wah wah
-5 5 -4 -2 -2 -2 4 -3
Tongue roll
-2 -2 (pause) -2 -2 -2 4 -3

We’ll return to this song in level 8 to give you advanced players a great bending workout in the 2nd section of this song. But for now, let’s move onto level 3:

From Me to You
This song is originally in the key of G and was likely played on a chromatic harmonica with a button, but we can pretty easily play this in 12th position in the key of F.

Here are the harmonica tabs for the Beatles’ From Me to You:

-5 6 -6 6 -5 6 6 -4.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da
Released on the white album in 1968, this song has a fun Jamaican ska feel and the melody is super-easy if you can isolate notes.

4 5 6 4 5 6 4 5 6 7
-5 5 -5 5 -5 5 4

Yesterday
This is the C major scale ascending is: 4 -4 5 -5 6 -6 -7 7
This is the C major scale descending is: 7 -7 -6 6 -5 5 -4 4.

If you memorize that scale,???????? it will help provide context for you to learn this song.
-4 4 4
5 -5 6 -6 -7 7 -7 -6 -6
-6 -6 6 -5 5 -4 -5 5 5
-4 4 5 -4 -3 4 5 5

If you’re digging this stuff, I teach of these Beatles songs very slowly and methodically in my Beginner to Boss course (as well as providing you with all the fundamentals you need to become a harmonica boss.????)

Let it Be
Here are the harmonica tabs in C for the Beatles’ Let it Be:

3 3 3 -3” 4 3 3 4 -4
5 5 5 -4 -4 4 4
5 5 -5 5 5 -4
5 -4 -4 4

5 -4 4
5 6 -6
6 6 5 4 4 -3” 5
5 5 -5 5 5 -4 5 -4 -4 4

And here’s a cool little riff we can throw in at the end, that kinda mimics the piano bit on the original recording:

-56 56 -45 45 -34 34 -23 23 1234

Hey Jude
Released as a single in 1968, Hey Jude sold over 8 million copies, went to #1 in multiple countries, and is on many critics’ lists of the best songs of all time.

This song is originally in the key of F (again I’d recommend a Low F harmonica to play along with the recording.)

The reason this is level 6 is because there are lots of skips and lots of -7’s and -8’s which can be challenging for beginners. These are the tips for getting good clean high notes.

1.) Let gravity lower your jaw so that it's totally relaxed and in a nice "aw" vowel shape, your teeth should be far apart from each other

2.) Keep the back of your tongue down, like it is when you yawn. Make sure it's not in the "Kk" zone (how your tongue is when you say a "Kk" consonant.)

3.) Nice steady, GENTLE, airflow. Most beginners (and many intermediate and advanced players) use WAY to much pressure.

Here are the harmonica tabs for the Beatles’ Hey Jude:

6 5 5 6 -6 -4
-4 5 -5 7
7 -7 6 -6 6 -5 5
6 -6 -6 -6 -8 7
-7 7 -6 6
4 -4 5 -6 6
6 -5 5 -3 4

For the classic outro here are 3 options:
You can play this in the lower octave (requires a bend)
1 2 3 -4 4 -4 4
-4 4 -4 4 -3” 3
You can play this is in the upper octave
4 5 6 -8 7 -8 7
-8 7 -8 7 -6 6
For advanced players you could also do splits
14 25 36 -48 47 -48 47
-48 47 -48 47
And for the final 2 notes you can end with double-stops like this:
-56 56
Or if you wanna be super-advanced you can try Splits-with-a-bend. I first attempted trying this technique after I heard the queen of harmonica Indiara Sfair do it on here C Minor Improvisation. ❗Caution: these tabs look weird!

-3”6 36 -3”6 36

Love Me Do (pt. II)
This was most likely played on a chromatic harmonica with a button on the side.

There is evidence in interviews with John Lennon where he implied that he played this on a chromatic (which would make sense because this is a very professional level of precision on the diatonic that’s require to play this.)

Still, we can play this on a standard diatonic harmonica, and for intermediate & advanced players, this is a fun and challenging workout.

Here are the harmonica tabs for the second half of the Beatles’ Love Me Do:

-3” -3” 3 -2’
-2 -2” 2 -1