In his office, in 2016, Giles Martin asked Randy Bachman from Guess Who band, “What do you want to hear?” Randy didn’t have to think long to answer. “The opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night.” To satisfy the guitarist, Giles had to separate three tapes: one for George Harrison’s guitar, another for John Lennon’s and a third for Paul McCartney’s bass.
Total surprise for Randy Bachman. The beginning of A Hard Day’s Night is not made up of a single chord, but a set of three sound elements played simultaneously: two distinct guitar chords and a double bass note. On the tapes, the characteristic sounds of George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360/12 (12-string) guitar, John Lennon’s Rickenbacker 325 (6-string) and Paul McCartney’s Hofner double bass.
Three elements – Exactly that. And let’s go in parts:
1) John made a D sus4 chord (D4), that is, a D major plus the G note obtained with the little finger on the third fret of the first E string.
2) George made an F major chord plus the note G (little finger on the third fret of the first pair of E strings) and the bass on G (activated with the thumb pressing the third fret of the sixth pair of E strings). Let’s remember that George used a Rickenbacker 360/12, with six pairs of strings.
To top it off, a D note was added to the two chords, played on the fifth fret of the A string on Paul’s Hofner double bass. The combination of all these sounds resulted in the famous chord. Enjoy that great riff more one time.
