Rating: 
Summary: Let It Be. . . Larger!!!
Review: Finally!!! The Holy Grail of rock music arrived on my doorstep, unlocking many of the musical and lyrical mysteries of The Beatles' music that had kept me guessing for the past 30 years!!All of the songs are here and are arranged in alphabetical order -- a much more user-friendly arrangement than publications that group songs by album or release date. The ONLY complaint I have with this particular publication is with the SIZE of the book. I wish the publisher would've used a LARGER page size, one more in keeping with the standard size of most printed sheet music. Due to the fact that a smaller page size was used, each song requires multiple pages for transcription, causing the book to be quite THICK. It is SO thick, in fact, that trying to use this book atop a music stand is a difficult task, indeed! Perhaps the publishers might consider printing a 2nd edition, with larger pages next time around. Larger type would also be welcomed. Put this book at the top of your "must have" list!!
Rating: 
Summary: Anti-ology
Review: WORTH THE PRICE? YES! PERFECT? NO. - But still a very commendable attempt to score the Beatle's music. Considering that this book was written in 1989, you would have to assume that most of the work was accomplished using only the sharpest of musical ears and an old 33-1/3 vinyl record-player. The sheer volume of the book (1100 pages) suggests that years of work and preparation were involved. The bad news is that there are mistakes here, so even though the scores appear to be hand-written, there are what we call "typos". For example: The ending of "Cry Baby Cry" is missing (Can you take me back weary people...). Also, if a song is written in "repeat" mode, you only get the guitar/bass notes for the first time around. Finally, the transcribers took the liberty to just "guess" what the notes were (such as the orchestral crescendo in "A Day in the Life", but that was an impossible task anyway). The good news is this book contains the most exhausting note-by-note transcription I have ever seen of any Beatles book. Infinitely many more notches above the "fake-books" (which only offer lyrics, a simple piano accompaniment and guitar chords, all in the wrong key). The guitar solos are there, the horns are there; it even includes the sitars and tablas in the George Harrisons compositions... Hell, they even score Ringo's drums! The great news is that the book is so close to perfect, it has achieved "nik-pick" status. In other words, the only ones that complain are the perfectionists (like myself); even though we know way deep down inside that there is no way to score the backward sound-effects in "Tomorrow Never Knows". The format is a little strange. Staves are almost always reserved for vocals, guitars, bass and drums (which works for most songs), even though they are not used sometimes (leaving pages and pages of "whole rest notes" for the contempory songs). Each page yields an average of 12 measures of music composed on 9 parallel staves. The main reason I bought this book was because I was curious how anyone could ever decipher Revolution 9. It was an expensive gamble, but I won! If the book was perfect, I would have awarded it the highest score possible. If only they would only re-edited it... A job well done by those 4 guys (not John, Paul George & Ringo but instead to the authors; Tetsuya, Yuji, Hajime and Goro)! CMcF
Rating: 
Summary: The Beatles Very INCOMPLETE and INACCURATE Scores
Review: This book is probably fine if you're not a professional musician and don't expect it to read as an orchestral score would. Since it's presented that way though it's very disappointing. Working on "Fool on the Hill" I found so many errors and inappropriate repeats it was faster and more accurate (wouldn't take much!) to transcribe the tune myself than it was to correct the mistakes in the book. Really, it's too bad since it's such wonderful and imaginative music. It deserves to be documented accurately and respectfully (and larger too please!) Better luck next time.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book of Its Kind - But Mis-Titled As "Complete"
Review: This book is as good as it gets - period. All titles from The Beatles catalog of British & American releases (during the group's career together) are represented. That's the first major plus of the book - you get The Beatles' arrangements of all their covers from Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, etc. They are great fun to play and many Beatles' versions are better-known than the originals. I know of no other source for these arrangements. As mentioned by many other reviewers, you get a pretty heroic stab at scoring all the instruments heard on every song. This admirable attempt gets you on the right track (in the right key signature, etc.), but falls short on detail of all but the simplest (usually from the early years) songs. Clearly The Beatles had extensive use of multiple 4 track machines and eventually 8 tracks as they matured. This book "scores" usually only 5 parts. It would be impossible to score ALL the over-dubs and extremely lengthy to include all instrumentation, notes and George Martin's orchestral arrangements. So, I pick a bone with the authors using the title, "The Complete Scores". To me, that term means something very specific which is not appropriate for these types of recordings. The Beatles, George Martin and his engineers were awsome craftsmen. The layers of sounds we hear on the finished records are a one-time snapshot of their creative process - often with somewhat muddy results. For example, "I Am The Walrus" does have a guitar part - pretty lost in the mix and not represented in the book. I just don't think it's possible to get the "Complete" details on these recordings. To save space, the authors often have you incorrectly play a single part for each verse repeat. I know this is getting picky, but the building bass line is the counter-melody in "Something" and the dualing guitar fills in "The Ballad of John & Yoko" change as the song builds. Both are important to each song's development and resolution... In fact, if you really really try, you can find little errors in many songs; mis-titled chords here, incorrect licks there. The non-standard guitar tuning referenced in "Rain" I believe is wrong...BUT, pop in a CD and open the book - you'll get an extremely good idea of what to play. By scoring all the main parts, the authors make this book good as gold for aspiring cover bands. It may not really be "The Complete Scores", but this book is surely a treasure map to some of the finest and most creative recordings in pop music. I love it!
Rating:
Summary: Every song you know and then some.
Review: I was given this book as a gift and was amazed at both the quality of the work as well as the quantity of information contained. Any Beatles fan MUST own this book. If you can sing or play an instrument there are hours of enjoyment to be found. If you only want to sing along with your CD's, you'll find whatever song you want in this marvelous collection of scores. I had no idea how many Beatles tunes I had never heard. Grab your instrument and your MIDI and there is nothing you can't do. This book is great for ALL Beatles fans, whether they just want the sheet music for reference or plan to play covers of the songs with their bands or solo. If you want your Beatles collection to be truly complete, don't miss out on this great buy. On top of that, if you follow Beatles memorabilia, you know that the value of this book will increase greatly with time...
Rating:
Summary: Monumental
Review: I have to marvel at the reactions of many Amazon reviewers to this book. Here we have an attempt to transcribe nearly every sound put on to record by The Beatles offered at a very fair price and people are giving it one star ratings. Meanwhile another Hal Leonard offering, The Beatles Complete - Volumes 1 & 2, which is an arrangement for piano, guitar, and vocals bearing little resemblance to the original recordings receives nothing but positive reviews. I understand that these transcriptions are not wholly accurate and the use of repeats often glosses over subtle variations in the actual recordings, but this is still a work of monumental proportions. One must not lose sight of the fact that there were no original scores kept with the desired level of accuracy. Any scores needed to come from transcriptions of the original recordings. The fact that four musicians were able to sit down and reverse engineer complex studio tracks to this level of detail is impressive. While these transcriptions are not perfect, they are quite good. It would be easy to get the impression from reading these reviews that this book was so inaccurate as to be useless. This is simply not the case. I have owned this book for over 10 years and still find it remarkably useful. I have learned a great deal about the construction of pop songs from this book. I have been able to create my own arrangements using these transcriptions as a starting point. I have even been able to create reasonable facsimiles of some of the original recordings using these transcriptions in a home studio environment. I understand 3 and 4 star ratings for this book but anything less than that really seems like an overreaction to me.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Beatles Resource!
Review: This is one of the best, if not the best, songbooks that I've ever come across. It has the musicial notation for virtually every instrument played on all Beatles songs, including tab for bass and guitars. I've found it to be amazingly accurate, though not perfect. I have only two complaints: 1. It is not 100% accurate; in some songs when the verses repeat, I have found differences in the recorded version from what's in the book; 2. The print is very small. Both these complaints are very negligible relative to the work as a whole. It's still the most accurate songbook of any rock and roll music that I've ever found, and the small print is quite understandable considering the sheer volume of Beatles songs. I highly recommend this book for any Beatles fan or serious musician.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic collection, meticulously transcribed
Review: This is an amazingly complete and accurate collection... musicians attempting to learn and to replicate the Beatles sound will not be disappointed. Included are all instrument parts, all vocal parts, and chord names above the staff, with tablature for the bass and guitar parts. What a bargain! At times, the authors were able to capture some subtlties in the music which had gone unnoticed by me... but a careful re-listening to the song revealed the score to be surprisingly correct. Regarding some of the complaints in other Amazon reviews, which made me a bit hesitant to buy: 1) Size of the print: it really is not that small, and it is quite legible. 2) Supposed inaccuracy of chord names: it appears that there is a general chord name above the staff, but more detailed guitar-part scoring in the staff... they were not trying to name the exact chord every time... in some cases not every string is being played. 3) Complaints about the inclusion of 'tab' for 'musical illiterates': tab actually includes, concisely, information which standard notation cannot show easily... like exactly which string/fret to use, out of several options on the guitar. And, by the way, Paul McCartney STILL does not read or write standard notation himself. NOTE: I also compared this book to Hal Leonard's "The Beatles" (21 songs, in their "Transcribed Scores" series), and was amazed how much better The Beatles Complete Scores is.
Rating:
Summary: The Beatle Bible
Review: If you have a love for the Beatles and really want to learn what they did and how they made it so good, this is the book. It's been my constant musical companion over the last three years and has made me a better guitar player as well as given me insight into the secondary parts that made the songs so great. I recommend this book to anyone into music and especially other musicians and Beatle nuts. Throw out all your other Beatle song books and buy this. There's none better. cheers!
Rating:
Summary: My Bible
Review: I have read some of the negative feedback for this book, and I am pretty disgusted. This is the best book I have EVER SEEN. It has identified 95% of the instruments on every Beatle song. People say that they have seen better stuff off the internet. They must be CRAZY!!! I have been getting crap off the internet for years. Most songs are incomplete. They say they will "tab the rest later". Yeah right! and some are even in the wrong key. Yes, I will admit that there are typos, but you like the Beatles enough to buy this book, then you will know if its a G minor instead of a G major and that type of stuff. People also complain about the typos in the lyrics. If you know the Beatles enough to purchase this book, then you know the lyrics anyway!! People also complain how "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" isn't in there. Well Hello!!!! This book wasn't even published until 1993, while the two songs mentioned came out in '95/'96. Bottom line, this is the best you'll ever get. Yeah, the type is small, but it's not invisible. I have a blast dusting off any album and playing along, because it's all there.
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