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I don't understand the "II" notation in measures 4 and 5. How do you finger that? Is that a middle string bar with a bent finger? What is the advantage?

Hmmm... I don't recall Neil doing a lesson on this one. Do you have a link?

brocker wrote:

I don't understand the "II" notation in measures 4 and 5. How do you finger that? Is that a middle string bar with a bent finger? What is the advantage?

Hi Brocker and welcome to TG. You must be referring to the transcription from my album A Beatles Collection. In those measures where the chord is Bm, the open E in the melody must ring as you change chords. This requires a hinge barre where you are barring the 3rd, 4th & 5th strings with the 1st joint of your index finger. It has to be bent back a bit (hyper-extended) to clear the 1st string and let the E ring.

The Roman Numeral II denotes a barre at the 2nd fret, the dotted line shows how long to hold it down.

there are other ways of fingering this but most either don't sound as good or are very difficult at speed. This is a very important technique to master and will be useful in many places.

Neil

P.S. Yes, a middle string barre with a bent finger.

thank you so much for answering that post. I love your site and have shown it to many aspiring guitarists. I also enjoyed your Beatles arrangements and am having fun going through them.