Day Tripper

Day Tripper is a classic blues inspired rock song, and it’s definitely a “good reason for taking the easy way out” and learn what could be your first Beatles song!

The main riff

To play the main riff, we start with the open low E string, followed by the third and fourth frets on the same string.

We then jump to the second fret on the A string, then the second fret on the D string. We finish with the open D string.

After that, we play the second fret on the A string, followed by the fourth fret on the D string.

We then jump back to the second fret on the A string, followed by the open D string and the second fret on the D string.

The verse

Once the vocals come in, we play the main riff twice, and then play the exact same riff in A, but only once! We then go back to the main riff in E, which we only play once.

Good news, if you know how to play the main riff in E, you also know how to play it in A! To play the riff in A instead of E, all you have to do is shift it up a string, starting the main riff from the open A string instead of the E string.

The chorus

To play the chorus of Day Tripper, we only need one chord shape! We’re going to need that shape to play F#7, A7, Ab7, Db7 and B7.

The structure is pretty straightforward. We start with F#7 that we’re going to play for four bars, before moving on to A7, Ab7, Db7 and B7 which we’re going to play for just one bar each. At the end of the chord progression, we jump back to the main riff!

The goal for this chord progression is to play it with a steady pulse, strumming down on all our eighth notes.

The alternate theme

This part of the song could be called a bridge, and it’s very similar to the main riff we’ve seen, but this time in B! To play this part, we’re going to start with the second fret on the A string, followed by frets 5 and 6 on the A string.

After that, we land on the fourth fret on the D string, followed by the fourth fret on the G string, and the second fret on the G string.

We then play the fourth fret on the D string, second fret on the B string, back to the fourth fret on the D string, second fret on the G string, and we end on the fourth fret on the G string.

The last section

After the riff in B, we have six bars of B7 to play. The shape we’re going to use is the same as the one we’ve seen on the chorus, and the strumming pattern is the same as the chorus too!