Chords for The Beatles - Taxman Bass Lesson

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Hey everybody out there in Vanderbilt land Simon Buckner here, Mr.
Joshua, gonna be recording _ Taxman by the Beatles for you from the request file.
Gonna be going through my bass pod on the floor, _ _ [Gb] going through an acoustic B100,
got [B] most of these settings _ _ _ _ rolled _ down from the [E] highs to give it a
_ very very flat sound using [N] the Marcus Miller bass.
I am active and I'm just
boosting the mids just a little bit.
I've been still looking for a very flat sound
on the bass.
_ _ So let's get started with this one, _ _ _ Taxman by the Beatles.
I'm
gonna go through and play just a little bit of it for you, get a feel for it, then
I'll come back and explain it for [D] you. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [Am] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [E] Okay so that's the basic outline of the
song.
So what we're doing here is we're up on the D on the 10th fret of the E
string.
So one [D] note here, _ [E] _
two notes up here on the 12th fret, _ _ [D] back to the 10th
fret on [G] the A [A] _ [C] and _ _ _ _ [B]
down to the 10th fret [D] D string.
_ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ That's the primary riff. _
Occasionally Paul will throw in a single note here up on the 12th, [D] the A _ _ _
instead of two.
_ _ [Am] _ _ [D] _
_ _ [A] _ [C] _ _ [E] So you have to compensate for that by playing two on the _
_ [G] G here [Am] _ to
keep the timing [Ebm] the same.
But [Ab] for the most part he plays it with two notes for
the octave on the [D] D. _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Ab]
Okay so we play that four times through then you [D] go _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [F] for
the simple little riff there.
That's the part where they say, Tax me Mr.
[Gb] Wilson,
Tax me Mr.
Heath.
I think it comes up in the next one.
_ [D] So _ _ [C] _
_ [B] fairly simple right
there. _
[N] _ _ Let's see here, the next part of this one, _ there is one variation where
they go, if you tax the car, _ _ if you drive a car or tax the street, I think of the
lyrics.
[B]
This is a little bit faster this one here.
_ [N]
I've seen it tabbed a
number of times.
I don't think I've seen it tabbed correctly.
I've listened to it
quite a few times and this is what I think Paul's doing.
I think he's just
[Bb] playing this and I'll play it for you then I'll slow [D] it down.
_ _ [A] _ _
[A] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [N] _ Okay so _ what I think he's
doing is, [D] on the 10th fret, he's playing [A] 10, [Ab] 12, [D] _ 12 and then we've got a [C] couple of
a _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ little bit of a [A] slide. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Ab] So you can [Dm] see that's going [A] 10, [F] 12, _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ [Abm] _ _ _ something like that.
I
think one of the times he actually just stops it dead on the 12th fret
here on the A.
[D] _
_ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[N] _ Other times he slides down a little bit.
But that's one of
the variations.
He'll also throw that same riff in _ to the main riff.
I think
it's about 215 in the song or so.
So he'll play the normal [D] riff, then _ he'll _
_ _ [Am] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ throw in the third time [D] through.
_ _ _ [N] _ _ So like that.
So a little [D] bit faster.
_ _ [Am] _ _
[D] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _
[G] _ _ So he'll
throw that one in there.
I think it's about 215.
_ _ _ Let's see here, the only
other variation to the song that's going on here is the part of the song
[Eb] where he says, you know, working for no one but me.
And [N] that's simply just the
[F] the F here. _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _
So just _ [E] F, _ [Eb] E, [B] E-flat and then down to the D which will be the next
[D] chromatic note [A] which is the actual start of the [D] riff again. _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [B] _ I think that's about
it for the song.
A nice little song, a [N] good little workout.
_ Bye bye. _ _ _