I Saw Her Standing There (The Beatles) Guitar Lesson with Backing Tracks + TAB

I Saw Her Standing There Guitar Lesson + TAB

In this Guitar Lesson, you get TAB for all sections, with plenty of ideas you can use to make this classic your own as the only guitarist in a band - Try it with Backing Tracks!

I Saw Her Standing There | TAB

Let’s go through the TAB that will work as a starting point for your own arrangement. It’s important to have a place to start, stick with it until you feel comfortable, and then start improvising around the parts to find your own voice.

You can change the chord shapes and licks, but begin by learning these simple parts.

Intro

This is a hint of what’s to come. On beat 2 of bar 1, the quarter note has a dot above it, which means “play short.” The following lick uses the E minor pentatonic in a Cm shape.

Once you feel comfortable, you can experiment with similar licks to make it your own.

Verses

I’ve got two ideas for the verse, here’s idea 1:

We start using the C-shaped chord and stay disciplined for the first 8 bars until the build.

Moving through E – E/G# – A – C, the intensity grows because of the chord changes and an added rhythm on the 4+. Towards the end, a variation of the intro lick appears, which you can eventually develop.

I Saw Her Standing There TAB, verse idea 1.

For verse idea 2 we play a more intense rhythm using open-position chords. The build is more legato, with larger chord shapes. The final lick is another variation on the intro lick.

A few notes on this example: the first A chord is now a dom7; the next one isn’t, even though it’s written that way. The C chord includes an open string at the end, but it’s not called Csus2—it’s just a transitional note to E7.

Once you can play this, start developing and improvising your part—this concept keeps the song fun for decades.

I Saw Her Standing There TAB, verse idea 2.

Bridge

The bridge section is repetitive for clarity. Only for the B7 do we modify the root on repeats, moving from the A-shaped to a G-shaped chord.

Solo

Next is the solo rhythm (for bands that have a sax or another solo instrument). Most bands play the verse progression during the solo; check with them before you start.

If they’ve learned the original recording, this is the progression to keep your part simple without distracting from the soloist.