How much music theory did The Beatles know?

George plays Fadd9 Paul: What's the name of that chord? George: Arthur.

I don't know what adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections, or past participles are, but I can still talk pretty goodly.

Reminds me of an early interview in which they were charged with having "unresolved leading tones and a false modal frame ending up as a plain diatonic" to which John immediately replied "we're going to see a doctor about that" 😅

I am a college music theory teacher, and I always remind mu students that "The Sound Came First" and the theory rules were added later. There's something innate in humans to make us think in beats and chords, even when we don't know the names.

YouTube is like having one of those really good sleepovers when you're younger. You're like: "aight, well, I'm going to sleep" and then a second later, in the darkness, your friend goes: "dude, I wonder how much music theory the Beatles knew" and you stay up all night discussing random shit

The Beatles are a great example of how mere developed intuition can lead to the conceptual understanding of music theory even without the formal training to articulate using proper terminology.

My guitar teacher in 1966 when I was 13 years old taught me music theory. He said these are the rules but rules don’t make the music, music makes the rules. “Do it first and we will figure it out later.” Enough said…

One of my favourite quotes from Paul is 'I play the notes that like each other'. As a classically trained musician trying to shake off the shackles of having to play from dots, now in my 60s, I'm going back to the beginning and my natural ability to play by ear. Paul McCartney and his ability to just play without needing to know any of the 'rules' has really helped me with this. Your videos are helping too. Thank you so much.

Driving across town to learn B7. Life before the internet.

Internet: The Beatles didn't know music theory, they just did what sounded good. Music Theory: I just describe what sounds good.

I'd been playing, improvising and composing for decades before I learned chord theory. I was genuinely afraid when I started that knowing the theory would destroy the magic, but I was completely wrong. Being able to know that a piece of, say, Mozart, was built on such a limited set of chords, and hearing how he was able to take those basic materials and fashion such divine beauty out of them opened up a whole new world and brought my own compositions to life. We all speak music, theory is the meta-language.

The Beatles knew the basic necessary theory in order to function as a band but their songwriting clearly came from 'across the universe'.

Imagine being the “bloke” who taught the Beatles B7.

i feel like music theory is one of those things that you can know without even realizing it but also is something you can have studied for years and still not know what to do with.

As a trained musician, I recognized their lack of formal training, but by not being limited by rules, they stumbled, but relied on creative lyrics, solid tonal memories and a trusted mentor and clever producers to achieve fame and money to continue their musical education. There are many paths to creativity and one you point out is their curiosity to learn and develop! Nice production and excellent summation...Thanks for your work!

They all had one thing in common. Natural feeling for audiance/ear/pitch like most ppl with a musical ear... Notes is something you learn with time... They were natural talents.

Q: How much music theory did the Beatles know? A: Enough.

Tons of comments here, but not enough folks giving you any credit for your time, research, and insight in making this video. Nicely done, and I definitely learned something new about the Beatles today. Cheers!

idk i kind of call bs on that proposition , I'm sure a lot of this is true but if u think these dudes just sloshed around a bunch of random chords your out of your mind , there's so much in there songwriting that isn't even traditional music theory, these dudes might not of known the names of every chord when they wre young but im pretty sure were highly dedicated to their craft and were always learning

They initially heard musical ideas in their heads - and then transposed this to their instruments and voices. They also experimented with trial and error trying out various chords - typically looking for the unusual because they knew that what sounds odd at first, quite often sounds "good" once you get used to it. They loved breaking boundaries, exploring, going off on tangents, breaking new ground, breaking with convention. It seemed to work which gave them confidence to keep on doing that with every new albumn. They weren't afraid. They knew they could rely on inspiration and imagination. They were quick decision makers and exellent judges of what was good and what was not - unhampered by prejudice or adulation for any existing artists or style. They didn't always get on but ironically, one of their greatest strengths was their ability to collaborate. This is unusual with great musicians. It was probably because they were such a tight knit unit. They were so close and had mutual love and respect.