 Hi guys, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this tutorial, I'm excited to teach you one of my favorite Beatles songs, Day Tripper. It's a very groovy song, pretty much a bluesy song, blues, rock and roll kind of song, a great bass line, an incredible melody, some amazing vocal harmony, chords are beautiful. Wow, I can go on and on. Now, to encapsulate all that on the piano, and as you probably know, there's no real piano in the song. It's just guitar and bass guitar. There's an incredible bass guitar line, amazing vocals, backing vocals, drums are incredible. So I've just tried to figure out a way to play this entire song on the piano, and I have two versions for you. One will be an accompaniment version, which you can use with your bandmates or with you singing, perhaps, or with someone else singing. And another version would be where we play the melody in the right hand and the bass line in the left hand. It's almost like two melodies or what two people would do. So stick around till the very end, and to supplement your learning, you could consider becoming a Patreon on our Patreon page, Patreon.com slash Jason Zach. On this particular portal for $5, you'll get the handwritten notes, the staff notation for everything I do on YouTube, including this lesson. And you could also bump up the tires and look at other options like workshops, some monthly workshops with me, and also courses, video content, other resources, classes, and whatnot. So do consider giving our Patreon page a check, and that'll also support our channel a great deal. And before we get cracking, please consider hitting the subscribe button and hit the bell icon for regular notifications that'll give you a ring whenever we go live, whenever there's a new premiere or a riff or a new lesson which will come your way on our YouTube channel. Let's start. So first off, the bass riff, let me play it for you and then share it. So for the most part, this is the main riff and it gets transposed a bit. Even at the bridge, it gets transposed. But for the most part, you're gonna play this riff with E as the pivot. This is the main riff. You know it's this song. In fact, the song starts like this. And being a bass riff, you'd wanna play it in your left hand. Let me guide you with the fingering which I use. That's E, G, G sharp. So that's a bit kind of tricky to play both those notes. So I go, my ring finger is needed. Otherwise, I will run out of fingers. So ring, pinky on the E, ring on the minor third, G, G sharp, B, which is the perfect fifth. E, D, so E, G, G sharp, B, E, D. And then bring your pinky back here to play B flat. B, F sharp, B, D, E, B, D, E. I end with my thumb so that I can flip over and repeat it and loop it. Index, middle, thumb, back, one. The first one is a dotted crotchet which is lasting for one and a half counts. One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and. Otherwise, it's just a continuous set of notes, also between the bars. And two and three and four and one and. There's nothing at the one and. Instead, it's a sustain from the previous four and. One and two and three and four and. Two and three and four and. Another pause happens. One and two and three and four and one and. Two and three and four and. Those are your hits. One and two and three and four and one. Two and three and this goes over the E seventh chord. So to voice the E seventh chord. I'm using this voicing which is a very minimal and a cluster of notes. I'm doing B, D, E. I could even do a full on E seventh but that's not what we are really hearing in the song. We're hearing a more minimal guitar voicing. So I'm doing B, D, E in my right hand. That's the bass line on the right hand. Supports it with chords. And whenever you get confident with this as our head moves with the track. We try to bring the pulse in our right hand. Ta, ta, ta. One, two, three, four, five, two, three. Start, move your head. Now this might be tough until you get the bass line very well. So till then, just play whole notes. Semi briefs. Get the correct fingering. And then maybe after a couple of days, if you're not so sure, you can then bring in the pulse of the right hand and try it a bit staccato. Dynamics. Some could be legato. Some could be staccato. Vary a volume to create different articulations around the music. Lazier, choppier. All you have to do throughout the rest of the song, what you can then do when the next chord is A major, by the way. So he goes. Got a good reason. Still. Take it the easy way out now. So that whole two lines will be on the same E riff, which is copy pasted twice. Got a good reason. Take it the easy way out. Whole story copy paste itself, but transposes and then copies. On the A. So you're going to the four chord. So we are kind of on a blues progression. So you play the one chord four times. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three. And then one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Almost like a 12 bar blues shape. So we go. Got a good reason. Second line. Take it the easy way out now. And then we go to the A. Got a good, you're just gonna pretty much copy paste itself. So let me take you through the riff, transpose to the A and then the chord voicing of A in the right hand. So I'm voicing A seventh without the A. I'm just playing like a C sharp E G, which is kind of a C sharp diminished chord. And I'm transposing the same riff, same fingers, same intervals. A C C sharp E A G E B E G A A, same fingering. Versus A, it's almost like a carbon copy. Just remember to loop it and come back. And the chord there would be, and this is just for one round because it's a blues form and then you need to come back to E. So, got a good reason now. Take in the easy way out now. A, back to, take in the E. Then goes to the D-tripper part, which is a new set of chords. So I hope the first riff and then the transpose riff on A is sorted out for you. That's pretty much eight bars of the song, isn't it? So that's a lot of work already done. Okay, so the chords first of all, let me break down the chords so you get your right hand voicing quite intact. The chords in the right hand would be, I'm voicing F sharp seventh, four times of F sharp, by the way, four bars. D-tripper, one way to get in. It took me, it took me, so that's A seventh, B-flat seven to find out. I found out. And then, let me break down the chords. She was a J. Now, again, how I'm playing it would be E F sharp, A sharp, also known as B-flat, F sharp seventh, twice, third time, fourth time, now A seventh, I'm playing. As E, G, A, C sharp, I like that voicing. That's A seventh, A-flat seven to find out. That's C sharp, or D-flat seven. Ends on a B-dominant seven, which is a beautiful chord, beautiful chord construction because in their head, how do they turn around or how do they re-loop the song? Play the five. So, the five of the scale, which is E, is B seventh. So, I found out, I found out, I found out, I found out, back to the root. So, let me just do the second part or the chorus part of the song. D-trip-up, one way to get in. It took me, so A seventh, or A-flat seventh, to find out, D-flat seven, I found out. Every chord in this song are dominant seventh chords. So, you may want to brush up how to form the dominant chord in the first place, see my hand written notes, and also the way we've notated it in our staff notation. So, a dominant seventh chord in a nutshell is a major chord in some inversion and then you add a flat seven, which is also called as a minor seventh or a dominant seventh interval to it. So, if you take it, let's say all your chords or just one chord, E major will be E, G-sharp, B. It's seven will be with a D, which is actually seven flat, and then you add, you can play it wherever with four inversions. So, that's E, G-sharp, B, D, or D, E, G-sharp, B, or B, D, E, G-sharp, or you could do G-sharp, B, D, E. A lot of inversions for these chords. So, to make it easy, I've kind of removed one note and then it's a bit easier to shift. So, see the notation as well and also the formation of the dominant seventh chords. So, let's roll this from the top and then I'm gonna, let's do this day tripper chorus and then I'm gonna show you what the bass does. We've done the bass of the chord of the reason. Then we transposed it, but we haven't yet done. I'm gonna show that, hang on. So, day tripper. Get the count. One way ticket, yeah. It took me so A seventh, oh, oh, long. One bar of A seventh, one bar of A flat seventh. So, oh, oh, long. To find out. I found out. To find out. I found out. Now, coming to the bass line of the B section or the chorus. She was a jam. That's pretty much all that's going on. Now, the way I like to play it, the original is beautiful bass line, which is one, three, five, seven flat, major sixth octave. So, you slide your hand inside, your thumb finger rather. Come back down. This is how I like to play it. You could also do your index there. So, your index is kind of flipping between the C sharp and the D sharp. The way I like to play it, sometimes at gigs, I'll do. I'll leave out the one and go a bit later. And two and three. I like that variety. So, it goes well with the chord in the right hand. Let's do that. Day tripper. Day tripper, one way ticket here. That part will be one more time. Copy, paste it. It took me so... Now, so long will be very similar to the F sharp bass line. That's one. Get your intervals going. That would be one, three, five, seven flat, six octave, one, three flat. Sorry, one, three normal, five, seven flat, six natural, and then octave. So, it's the same story you're going to do with the A and then the A flat chord. Kind of reserving my index finger for that F sharp and my thumb will go from G to A to the octave when it comes. So, that will work for the so long. Long is again the same intervals, same fingering, but a bit tricky because A is a white chord and A flat is a black chord. It's quite easy once you practice it. That's your F sharp. Then A coming up. A, A seventh, first of all. So, I'm playing like this. Sliding my entire hand by one semitone or one step chromatic step down to accommodate the A flat. And try to play the pulse in the right hand in as much of a staccato way as possible. So, how am I playing that? The bass line kind of simplifies itself to do That's one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. We don't do any kind of sevens. It's just the chord. One, three, five, five octave. One, three, five, five octave of the two chords namely C sharp seventh and B seventh. I'm playing the right hand like this. B, you can even hold it. So, let's try and do this entire comping technique with the chords in the right hand with the bass line in the left hand and then see how it goes. E seventh with that riff verse F sharp A coming up We do it once without talking normal speed and then a bit slow. Lightly slower. Right guys, so that was an accompaniment version which you can use with your band or you could sing if you can develop that independence which is already quite tricky with the left hand doing the bass line and the right hand doing the chord comping pattern but I thought we should go one step further and get the vocal line also on the piano and I've arranged it in an exciting way where I've got the lead vocal and at times we are also going to fool around and bring in the harmony because this is an incredible duet. You hear always two singers or two voices in the song sometimes three and the Beatles are known for their vocal harmony. So let me first teach you the melody and the way I've arranged it in the right hand and the exact same thing which I taught you all through in the bass clef will remain. It's just going to be a lot of work to coordinate the two hands as even I found out when I ended up learning the song for myself. So if you take the right hand let me first walk you through the melody so you want to choke that in of reason, that's a staccato and then I'm taking a gap because that's how it is in the song a whole bar of no vocals got a good reason this will go So when you do this got a good reason again it goes over the A chord so I'm just kind of skipping the taking the easy way out because I've harmonized that I'll teach you that later so the got a good reasons if you will so bass, the second time when the bass is A7 you end on the A that's what we do in the song when you do A and now the taking the easy way out the first time we sing that I'm doing a harmony so if you want to just do the melody taking the easy way out just that second time now we add the now second time second time now with the harmony with the harmony I'm doing this is actually the vocal harmony in the song so easy way out now all way out thirds and ends on a third diatonic thirds but the middle notes are not thirds they are fourth intervals that's the harmony taking the easy way out now so you could get that on the piano do a little bit of finger crossing and flipping to help you along the way just follow my fingers sometimes I go I do this rather annoying looking technique but it's very effective I just flip out fingers you see the sound is not dying so in my book it's fine because it sounds good to me I don't want to choke it I don't want it to be like a shock so I'd rather go I have to come all the way down there that's the song could flip out your middle and bring in your pinky there and I want to make one point noted that I'm playing the entire melody an octave higher because otherwise it will really clash with the piano remember we are just trying to do justice to the song the original song is incredible you should definitely go and listen to that if you haven't already but to accommodate the notes on the piano logistically the left hand is already low the right hand comes low they will clash so I'm playing the right hand higher for more separation and to even be able to play it in the first place so the whole story now line one without the riff yet just melody wait for that bar and then again okay with the riff slow it remember you have gaps so in that gap you are not going to mentally be fried so much because it's only left hand and no right hand so whole thing one more time slowly moving forward to that A bass line what did I tell you for the A variation melody goes to A there good reason over the A7th and and taken the E there's a syllable added there got a good reason taken the E there's an extra syllable with the word for got a good reason at that third line so at the end of the four you go for taken the E and then back to the normal harmony for taken the EZ way out now you add the word now and you add the word for which precedes the bar so whole line three got a good reason don't forget the A change and for at the end of the four for taken the EZ way out now and then this ends with the she was a day tripper so she was a she was a so let's put that whole line three and line four into context only melody first got a good reason for taken with the harmony for taken the EZ way out now she was a she was a so we do the natural D there so makes it very bluesy got a good reason gap easy way out now and now she was a she was a with the whole base ensemble now for take then you have to come back to the E which is a bit tricky let's do that again so she was a she was a bit weird because the base line naturally will go but she was a is B D B end of the fourth line so one more time the third line and the fourth line again okay so we've let me show you through the first four lines now as best as possible play along or follow along at least and then play along maybe later if you haven't built the coordination yet was a okay now coming to the day tripper chorus part first of all the left hand is just going that as we learned earlier in the base line okay and proceeding that she was that I taught you earlier now she was a day a a tripper she was a day a a tripper one more she was a day a a a tripper then one way take it yeah one way take it yeah again she was a day a tripper stop again one way take it yeah it took me so it took me so to find out I found out okay so again she was a slowly she was a day tripper one way take it yeah it took me so long as e-flat it took me so e and then e-flat it took me so long to find out I found out now the ending I have I found out with the harmony I found out which is higher F higher D sharp with respect to the B with the bass let's attempt the at least the F sharp part so let's do that again with some vocals she was a day a tripper one way okay let's only do the day tripper she was a she was a day a a a a a a again moving on off beats there pretty much the end of the two end of the three and end of the four just get that one way ticket quite tricky one way ticket here it took me the whole four bars of the F sharp dominant seventh part again with this bass riff which you're familiar with I guess and then goes into the turn round which we learned earlier so last time again just the F sharp part she was a day tripper so let's do the it took me so long to find out part which is A seventh and A flat seventh and the bass line goes which we have discussed earlier it took me so let's do that later let's break the last line into two it took me so okay one more time slowly do the ending the melody will go two dotted quavers there so whole story only that last line again you can even see the notation slightly slower whole melody line again with everything with the bass line as well let's give it an attempt actually let me do it in two phases before we end one is only melody with just the chord roots and then we'll do the melody with the actual bass line and then we pack up the lesson E pulse in the left harmony way out now A coming up don't forget that A in the melody now she was F sharp Zanz it took me so to find out I found out with a harmony there now let's try this with the bass line and see how that goes throughout the lesson we've kind of tried to increment our study of the song we started with just the bass line the iconic bass line then we fueled up the chords in the right hand to play a nice staccato pulse with the song with the lyrics as a nice accompaniment version then we looked at a rather challenging ordeal which would be the melody in the right hand and the bass guitar line in the left hand almost like two instruments playing together which is probably how the Beatles performed it in the first place you'll have Paul McCartney playing the line and then singing it so well something they do or they did rather and something you should probably strive to do eventually and all the best with this guys hope you find the notation useful as well if you don't read you still have my handwritten notes where I've pointed out the hit points and stuff like that it's all available on our Patreon page do consider heading over there and for a five dollar subscription you'll get all this stuff and more lots more actually on the Patreon page thanks a ton for watching the lesson hope you enjoyed it do share it around do leave us a like a comment and anything else you'd like me to teach and as always this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music I look forward to catching you in the next video too cheers