Since 1968, I have always played “Blackbird” as a warmup on the guitar. I teach guitar students this song as an introduction to Finger Picking. The students learn to use the thumb on the bass strings and the 1st and 2nd fingers for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings. The song also teaches the student to slide up the neck and back down.
“Blackbird” was written by Paul McCartney, who was inspired to write the song as a reaction to racial tensions escalating in the U.S. during the spring of 1968. In England, girls were referred to as “Birds”. During later McCartney concerts, Paul sings the song with a background video playing of a black woman standing in a field of flowers, with her arms stretched upwards towards the sky.
The song was recorded on June 11th, 1968 in Abbey Road Studios. McCartney played a Martin D 28 acoustic guitar.
McCartney revealed that the guitar accompaniment for Blackbird was inspired by Bach’s Bouree in E minor, a well known classical guitar piece. As kids, Paul and George Harrison tried to learn Bouree as a “show off” piece. Bouree is distinguished by melody and bass notes played simultaneously on the upper and lower strings. McCartney adapted a segment of Bouree as the opening of “Blackbird,” and carried the musical idea throughout the song.
The clicking sound on the track (left channel) was Paul’s foot tapping, incorrectly identified as a methronome in the past, as the tempo fluctuates between 89 and 94 bpm throughout the song.
In the 2006 album Love, “Blackbird” was used as an introduction to the song “Yesterday.”
by Michelle Payne — Mon Mar 31, 2008 @ 11:17 pm
by Kendall Jones — Wed Apr 16, 2008 @ 1:43 am