A Hard Day's Night - Guitar tutorial (HD) - Epiphone J160e - Rickenbacker 360/12

On April 16, 1964, a recording session was booked at EMI studio two to record the title track of The Beatles' first movie. In attendance for this session were of course producer George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick and Norman Smith, but also journalist Maureen Cleave as well as the director Richard Lester.

All four Beatles were on their usual instrument lineup; Lennon on rhythm guitar, Harrison on lead guitar, McCartney on bass and Starr on drums/percussion. The vocals were recorded simultaneously with the rhythm track. Up to around take six however, McCartney still couldn't figure out his bass part or his vocals for the bridge. Not only that, but Harrison was having such a hard time with the guitar solo that he decided to stop playing it altogether and instead decided to overdub it later.

"Track One" of the four track master tape contained the basic rhythm track and "Track Two" contained Lennon and McCartney's lead vocals. "Track Three consisted of Lennon double tracking his vocals, McCartney double tracking his vocal part, and Starr playing bongos during the verses and cowbell during the bridges.

The final overdub sessions were for Harrison's guitar solo, which were set to take up "Track Four" of the master tape. After some discussion, George Martin decided to come down and double the solo on piano with Harrison on guitar. Engineer Geoff Emerick was told to roll the tape at half speed while Harrison and Martin recorded the solo simultaneously. The solo we hear on the recording is sped up by 50%; the original pitch was actually an octave lower.

THE GUITAR PARTS;

Lennon played Harrison's 1962 Gibson J160e (his own was stolen in 1963 and recovered in 2015). There is really not much to take note of here. Lennon just strums through the chords. However there are two things to look for...

He plays an Fadd9 with a prominent open "A" string in the opening chord. People seem to think he played a Dsus4 but I'm not hearing it whatsoever on the master tapes.
Pay attention to the strumming pattern during the bridges!

Harrison played his 1963 Rickenbacker 360/12. SERIOUSLY pay attention to the way George plays this. He doesn't strum all the way through the chords but instead plays individual notes inside the chords, with his main focus being on the D and G strings. His playing style during the verses is more on the staccato side of things. He does however strum a full Fadd9 for a split second at 2:06.

Harrison also plays an Fadd9 chord but unlike Lennon, he seems to have added a low G on the 6th string (3rd fret) and a low C on the 5th string (also 3rd fret) both with his thumb.