The First 3 Chords The Beatles Ever Learned
In the 1950s, long before the internet made lovely guitar learning sites like this possible 
, it was a little trickier to learn the guitar chords of your favourite songs on the radio.
So imagine the young Paul and John tearing their hair out trying to work out what chords Little Richard was playing on Good Golly Miss Molly. Or what Fats Domino was playing on I'm Walkin'.
According to the history books, they eventually got two chords nailed. E and A.
What was missing now was the elusive 3rd chords. After all, you can't play rock 'n' roll with only two chords. Not the songs the Beatles wanted to play anyway. What was the 3rd chords to compliment E and A and complete the puzzle.
They worked out it was B7. But none of them knew ho to play it. According to Paul they had heard of a guy on the other side of town who knew how to play B7.
So they all hopped on a bus and headed across Liverpool to gather apostle-like around the guy who knew B7 and pleaded to him to show them it. This he did and it turned out to be a little trickier than E and A.
But now that they had it, their arsenal of chords was complete and they were able to play virtually every rock 'n' roll song on the radio . . . and start writing their own. Consider Love Me Do for example, one of their earlier songs. It's a simple "3 chord trick" involving only E A and B7.
So here they are. The first 3 chords the Beatles ever learned.
E7 ---------------- A7
Love, love me do.
E7 ---------------- A7
You know I love you,
E7 -----------------A7
I'll always be true,
A7 E7
So please, love me do.
E7
Whoa, love me do.
(repeat)
B7
Someone to love,
A7 ------------ E7
Somebody new.
B7
Someone to love,
A7--------------- E7
Someone like you.
E7--------------- A7
Love, love me do.
E7 --------------- A7
You know I love you,
E7 --------------- A7
I'll always be true,
A7 E7
So please, love me do.
E7
Whoa, love me do.
So that's how you play Love Me Do. And you didn't even have to get a bus across town to learn it.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how to play chords I can highly recommend Jamorama.
The Jamorama program includes a chord training game. You'll be amazed at how quickly, just by playing this game, you'll train your ear without much effort and eventually you'll be able to recognize all 36 major, minor and seventh chords.
It’s also a complete step by step guitar learning system and all you’ll need to become a great guitarist.