Step-by-Step Guide to Learning 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away' on Guitar

If you’re a guitarist looking to improve your playing one of the best things you can do is learn Beatles songs.

Each one is jam-packed with golden nuggets that will help you level up your guitar playing and musicianship in so many ways.

In this post, I’ll break down the guitar style behind the classic tune “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.” So grab your guitar and let’s get to it!

Who wrote You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away?

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" was written and sung by John Lennon although it is credited to Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was released in 1965 on the Beatles album Help! The song is a beautiful blend of folk and rock that has captured the hearts of many music lovers. Lennon described where he was with his writing in an interview about the song as “That's me in my Dylan period again. I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever is going on. If Elvis can do it, I can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with Dylan."

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away Guitar Chords

Before you start playing "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," it's essential to understand the basic chords used in the song. The song uses four main chords: G, D, F, and C. However, later I will share a few variations of these core shapes when we get to them.

Here's a basic breakdown of how I would play the chords:

For G I would play this:

D from the 4th string down like this:

F I play like a standard F bar chord however here I omit the 6th string and just fret from the 5th string down like this:

And finally, C I play like this:

Note: all of these chords are in open position except for the F chord bar chord.

Strumming Pattern of the Song

One of the unique things about this song is the groove and strumming pattern.

The song is in a triple-meter time signature. In the lesson video above I use a typical 3/4 time signature but you could also feel this in 6/8 or 12/8.

The strumming pattern begins with a quarter note downstrum on beat 1. After this play a down and an upstrum using 2 eighth notes for beat 2, and then lastly 1 more quarter note downstrum on beat 3 like this:

Rhythmically you could count it like this:

1   2 +   3
D  D U  D

This strumming pattern and groove continue over and over throughout the entire song. To help you get the feel of this time signature and strumming pattern try accented the first downbeat of each pattern on the 1 like this:

> 
1   2 +   3
D  D U  D 

How to Play the Verse of the Song

Now that you know the correct chords and strumming pattern, next you’ll want to start putting it all together in the style of the song. There are only two main sections to know in this song the Verse and the Chorus. Let’s break the verse down into two manageable chunks. The first half of the verse is 10 bars long and follows this progression:

G (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

F (1 bar)

G (1 bar)

C (2 bars)

F (1 bar)

C (1 bar)

D (2 bars)

In each bar strum one strumming pattern from above. That’s the first half of the verse.

The second half of the verse repeats everything again but instead of 2 bars of D at the end, we’ll use a classic Beatles walk-down chord progression.

G (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

F (1 bar)

G (1 bar)

C (2 bars)

F (1 bar)

C (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

Csus2 (1 bar)

G/B (1 bar)

D/A (1 bar)

Notice the bass notes in the last 4 bars going from D, C, B, and A. This is descending down exactly the notes of a G major scale which is the key of this song.

This type of progression is used in millions of songs and launches the listener from the verse into the chorus where Lennon sings: 

“Hey, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away…”

These chord shapes are variations on a few of the ones we learned above and here is how I would play them:

Here is the entire verse all together:

G (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

F (1 bar)

G (1 bar)

C (2 bars)

F (1 bar)

C (1 bar)

D (2 bars)

G (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

F (1 bar)

G (1 bar)

C (2 bars)

F (1 bar)

C (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

Csus2 (1 bar)

G/B (1 bar)

D/A (1 bar)

How to Play the Chorus of the Song 

The last part of the song you’ll need to understand how to navigate is the chorus, and as mentioned above this is where the lyrics sing, “Hey, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away…”

This is an 8-bar chord progression and goes like this:

G (2 bars)

C (2 bars)

Dsus4 (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

Dsus2 (1 bar)

D (1 bar)

Again keep the same strumming pattern going from above however, we do have 2 new chord variations to know. The last 4 bars are all just making slight modifications to the core D chord shape and here is how I would handle those 2 new shapes:

The move going from the Dsus4 to the D, and then Dsus2 to the D creates a little moving melody on the 1st string and sounds great against the vocal melody. This is a nice addition when the melody is happening and it also provides interest in the guitar part instead of just staying on say a straight D chord for 4 bars.

Adding in Bass-Note Walk-Ups

Now that you have the verse and chorus sections down here is one last type that is really fun to add in with the rhythm, and that is bass-note walk-ups.

This can sound great in the second bar of the chorus and matches the melody notes in a lower register. Here I would play these 3 notes like this:

This is a fun exercise to try strumming and then switching to picking out a bass line. This will help develop accuracy with the picking and help you add contrast in your rhythm guitar playing.

Conclusion 

"Hide Your Love Away" is a timeless classic from The Beatles' catalog and is a must-learn for any guitarist looking to improve their triple time strumming. In this blog post, I have provided a step-by-step lesson on how to play this iconic tune on the guitar, covering everything from the intro to the chorus and beyond. Be sure to check out the video at the top of this page for more in-depth instruction and demonstration.

One interesting thing about "Hide Your Love Away" is that it sounds great on both a 12-string and a 6-string guitar. If you have a 12-string guitar, you'll be able to create a fuller, richer sound that's closer to the original recording. However, if you don't have a 12-string guitar, don't worry! You can still play this song on a 6-string guitar and it will sound just as good.

Start with the basic chords and simple strumming patterns, and once you've got those down, you can move on to the more intricate parts of the song, such as adding in chord variations and bass-line walk-ups. These parts may take a bit more practice to master, but they're well worth the effort as they add a beautiful layer of complexity to the song.

Once you start feeling comfortable, try playing the song along with the original recording. This is where things get really fun, as you can hear how all the parts fit together to create the full sound of the song. And who knows? Maybe you'll even want to start learning more Beatles tunes or try writing your own songs.

Overall, learning "Hide Your Love Away" on the guitar is a great way to improve your skills and add a classic song to your repertoire. Whether you have a 12-string or a 6-string guitar, this song sounds great and for another great rock lesson check out “No Particular Place To Go” next!