The Beatles are one of the most successful groups in music history. Selling over a billion records worldwide. The songwriting partnership between Lennon and McCartney are legendary.
The Beatles collectively were also songwriting Ninjas, but they employed many songwriting tricks to add to their songwriter’s toolbox.

Recently, we reached out to Pioneer HOF ‘Ghostwriter’ Milliea Taylor McKinney, for the legends in Country Music to ask 5 questions to discover the secret behind the Beatles hits.

Our first question was, what made the Beatles songs so great? Milliea responded, MutatingThe Chorus. The Beatles often open up their songs with a chorus hybrid that previews the hooks and the title. For example; The song entitled HELP has the same chord progression as the chorus but, moves twice as much and features the title at least 4 times to the (chorus’s 3).

Why do this Milliea? Because by the time you reach your chorus the listener will be hooked by the reassuring feeling that they have heard the song somewhere before. When listeners can identify with the song they then they are more influenced in liking and supporting the song. It's a simblimial trick.

We can often expect to hear blue notes like the b3, b5, and b7 in ‘Rock’ songs such as BACK IN THE USSR why was that Milliea why do this ?To Bluesify Your Melody. Often to give it a more melodic feel I would imagine. Take the song BLACK BIRD the final phase uses b7 or INTO THE LIGHT and the b3 on DARK BLACK NIGHT.
This would be very tricky if you were not a confident singer. However, if you insert a blue note into your chord until you learned to pitch it correctly. Doing this will give you a more soulful edge says McKinney. (They also used this measure on songs TICKET TO RIDE and FROM ME TOYOU).

What other tricks did the Beatles use Milliea? The Beatles also, used a method called Delay The Root Chord. Starting a song on the tonic chord is a rut the Beatles managed to avoid a number of times. Take for instance ELEANOR RIGBY, it starts on C major (bVI of Em) before heading to the home chord. It’s one of the many things that gives the track such an immediate sense of tension. Using this trick will give your progressions more forward momentum. (They also used this on other songs such as ALL MY LOVING, and HELLO GOODBYE).

Another trick they used is called,UtiliseThe Outside Chord, Many of us employ ‘out of key’ chords (whether we realize it or not) But out of 186 Beatle compositions only 22 remain in key.
In STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER , Lennon pulls the rug from under the Bb major tonality by replacing the F major chord with the F minor. ( Bb let ‘me take you down ‘cos I’m going Fm to).
To give you an example it’s kind of like the stomach dropping when you experience the crest of a rollercoaster. Later you notice they create a disorientating momentary high by replacing Gm with G major. Outside chords will surprise listeners and refresh your melodies. Other songs they used this practice on was ( I AM The WALRUS, FOOL ON THE HILL).

Finally Restate Your Lyrics, The Beatles songs did this alot. The Beatles did not make their lyrics memorable by just repeating them. They also repeated and adapted words,phrase, and sentence structures. Take the song A DAY IN THE LIFE, 4 verses, a middle 8 only one repeated line and yet it is memorable. In part because lyrics like these. (I read the news/saw a film today, Oh boy. And though the news was rather sad/holes were rather small. Found my way downstairs/coat/way upstairs. I just had to laugh/look).
Using this subtle trick will make your lyrics sticky and give your song a sense of unity to your track.

Now that Milliea, has broke this down for us I personally can see why the Beatles are still one of music favorites. And are still one of the biggest memorable groups. Milliea closes out by saying, songwriting don’t have to be complicated. Write from the heart, keep it simple, and allow your music to be creative. Give your floor of the song a strong foundation and just enjoy writing it’s a journey of fun she explains to see your songs take on life and resonate with so many.
Just as a footnote: Milliea, has been noted as being one of the few noted songwriters of this era.

Media By:
Solutions News
Greg McCallister
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