Hey Jude Guitar Lesson (Beatles)

A few years back I got a call for one of the most exciting recording sessions of my life

It was here in a recording studio in Hollywood, California. As I walked into the studio carrying two guitar cases (one in each hand). I set them down and a guy walked up to me and put out his hand and said, “Hey what’s up I’m Jules.”

I shook his hand and that was when I first met and recorded with Hey Jude.

Jules is one of the nicest guys I ever worked with. If you want to hear the song we recorded that night I’ll link it up below. But today I want to share with you a tune that Paul McCartney wrote for him that has moved the world.

So grab your guitar and let’s dive into this “Hey Jude” guitar lesson.

Who wrote Hey Jude?

"Hey Jude" was written by the legendary English rock band The Beatles. It’s a timeless classic that was released as a non-album single in August 1968. While officially credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership, "Hey Jude" was primarily written by Paul McCartney. He originally titled it "Hey Jules" as a message of comfort to John Lennon's son, Julian, during his parents' divorce. 

Despite the personal inspiration, McCartney later stated that the song could be interpreted more broadly as a message of support to anyone facing challenges.

"Hey Jude" was recorded during the White Album sessions at EMI Studios in London. The song became a global phenomenon, topping charts in multiple countries and holding the record for the longest single to ever top the British charts at over seven minutes long. It received three Grammy nominations: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked "Hey Jude" as the #47 greatest song of all time.

What key is Hey Jude in?

“Hey Jude” is in the key of F major. All of the chords in the song fit the diatonic scale of F major except for two of them. Those two chords are F7 and Eb. The F7 just takes the I chord (or home key chord) and turns it into a dominant seventh. Paul uses this F7 to transition into the B section. It’s a common move. Then the Eb at the end borrows from the F mixolydian mode. You hear this chord come in during the “Na Nas” sing-along part at the end of the song. Despite those two digressions, the key for the song would still be considered the key of F major.

Is Hey Jude easy to play on guitar?

It’s important to realize that every instrument has keys and chords that fit that instrument more easily. With that said “Hey Jude” was primarily written by Paul McCartney on the piano. He plays it in the key of F on piano which is a great key to play on piano. It’s a great key to play on the guitar too. However, this does mean that we’re going to have to play a few bar chords. You could make it a little easier and use a capo as a workaround. But John Lennon didn’t use a capo when he played along with the band here:

Hey Jude Guitar Chords

There are 9 chords you’ll need to know to play “Hey Jude” on guitar, and those chords are F, C/G, C7, Bb, F7, Gm, Gm7, C/E, and Eb

Let’s break them down and look at some common chord voicings we could use. 

For F, we’ll use a bar chord in the 1st position and play all 6 strings like this:

C/G takes a typical open position C chord, but here we’ll add the note G on the 3rd fret of the 6th string to it. This gives us a 6-string C chord. The result is a very strong and big-sounding open position C chord.

For C7, we’ll play again what looks like an open position C chord. But this time add the note Bb to it with our pinkie finger on the 3rd fret of the 3rd string like this:

Bb is played as a bar chord in 1st position. Here I play just the middle strings muting the 6th and 1st strings like this:

Those 4 chords are all you need to play the Verse section and first part of this song. Going on we then bring in the F7 chord I talked about above. This is the first time we hear a chord that is not in the key of F and it starts building a little tension in the song.

F7 is played just like the F bar chord above but with one adjustment. Here we’ll remove the pinkie finger from the grip and bar that string with our index finger like this:

Gm is played as a bar chord in the 3rd position like this:

Then just like the F to F7, we can go Gm to Gm7 by simply removing the pinkie finger from the grip and barring with the index like this:

C/E is an inversion of a C chord. A chord inversion on guitar is when you rearrange the notes of a chord so that the root note (the bass note) is not the lowest-sounding note. This creates a different voicing and sound for the chord. Here we’ll play an open position C chord, and then put the low E in the bass like this:

And finally, the last chord you’ll need to know is the Eb bar chord. This is played just like the Bb bar chord we learned above. However, it’s relocated to the 6th position like this:

What is the strumming pattern for Hey Jude?

Now that you have the chord shapes down let’s next talk about how to strum “Hey Jude” on guitar. The strumming pattern is not too difficult and you can play the same two-beat rhythm pretty much throughout the entire song.

It uses a combination of eighth notes and sixteenth notes. We’ll play downstrums on all the eighth notes and we’ll use alternate strumming (down-up) on the sixteenth notes.

We’ll begin with two downstrums on beat 1 like this:

And then on beat 2, we’ll play an eighth note downstrum followed by a down-up strum of two sixteenth notes like this:

All together this two-beat pattern goes:

The main subdivision I am counting in my head is sixteenth notes. These can be counted like this 

1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a  

If I put the strumming directions on top of the sixteenth notes it would look like this: 

D   d    d    d u

1 e + a 2 e + a

It’s only a two-beat pattern. Then this repeats over beats 3 and 4.

D   d    d    d u  D   d    d    d u

1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a

Conclusion

There you have it! That’s how to play "Hey Jude" a song that has resonated with generations of listeners. It's a simple melody wrapped in a brilliant song with heartfelt lyrics. Having this one in your back pocket for parties or doing you’re own cover is a great idea. So keep practicing. And for more great Beatles-style lessons check out this Yer Blues guitar lesson, or this While My Guitar Gently Weeps guitar lesson next!