Welcome to the guitar lesson for song 5 of the Andy Guitar Band Program - Twist And Shout by The Beatles!

In many ways, this is the EASIEST song of this whole program as it can be played with three simple open chords: D major, G major and A major. These chords and this song feature at Level 3 of my Beginners Course.

The solo and riff give the intermediate players a great reason to learn this song authentic to the way The Beatles played it!

Song breakdown

Easy open chords & strumming

This entire song can be played with three simple open chords: D major, G major and A major.

Intermediate players may wish to add the riff on the open A string which goes from open string to 2nd fret and 4th fret - it can be tricky but give it a go!

Main solo

Played by George Harrison, this is a deceptively tricky solo, but it is very short so can be quick to learn! There are many ways to play it, in the video I show how I believe George played it.

Andy Guitar Band - Live cover of Twist and Shout

Remember, to play in a live band you don't just practice till you can get it right, you need to practice till you never get it wrong! Therefore it is an essential part of this course that you revisit these pages and play along to the live covers like you're a in a real band and you're rehearsing your live set! Here's the live cover alone so you can jam along to the live band without having to search through the tutorial video - enjoy jamming along!

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The Beatles - live version

I used this video to check how George Harrison and John Lennon were playing the chords and the solo live. Note that the band are tuned down in this version, so you won't be able to play along to this version, but you can play along to the original recording - which I encourage!

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Get more help

Need more help than this tutorial provides? Check out some of Andy's recommended courses below.

Open chords and basic strumming help

>> Consolidate these skills with Andy's Beginners Course

Riff and solo

These require knowledge of riff playing, mixing single notes with chords and ideally triads.

These skills are all covered in depth in Andy's Intermediate Course