Arrangement

The primary sung melodic line of the song.

Drum kit – bass, snare, toms, hi-hat, cymbals.

Electric bass guitar.

Background sung lines layered behind the lead vocal.

Solid-body or semi-hollow guitar amplified through a pickup.

Generic percussion – unspecified instruments.

Guitar voiced for melodic or solo lines rather than rhythm.

Guitar voiced for chordal accompaniment.

Acoustic upright or grand piano in a prominent, defining role

Hollow-bodied guitar amplified naturally rather than electrically.

Hand-held frame drum with metal jingles.

Percussion is present on the track that the sources do not name; the note carries what is known.

Hammond or pipe organ adding body, sustain, and churchy or psychedelic texture

Recorded clapping used as a percussive layer.

Pair of shaken gourd or plastic shakers filled with seeds.

Speech embedded in the recording as a textural element.

Guitar strung with twelve strings in six pairs, producing a shimmering chorused tone.

Non-musical recorded sounds used as part of the arrangement.

Bowed cello providing deep, warm string resonance beneath the arrangement

Bowed orchestral string instrument, soprano range.

Solo or ensemble trumpet – most memorably used on 'Penny Lane' with the piccolo trumpet

A Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer electric piano rather than acoustic – intimate, slightly gritty

Bowed orchestral string instrument, alto range, lower than the violin.

Pair of small open-bottom hand drums tuned a fourth apart.

Blues harmonica – played extensively by Lennon on early singles and BBC recordings

Non-musical sounds, effects, or found objects used as intentional sonic elements

Large bowed orchestral string instrument, lowest in the section.

Metal cowbell struck as a rhythmic accent.

Slide brass instrument in the tenor-bass range.

Coiled brass instrument with mellow tone.

Pre-recorded tape loops used as a sound source within the arrangement.

Free-reed keyboard pumped by foot bellows, producing a sustained drone-like tone.

Saxophone providing R&B flavor, jazz texture, or raw rock and roll color

Pitched orchestral kettledrums.

Tenor-range single-reed brass-bodied woodwind.

Clarinet bringing warm woodwind color – associated with the music hall style of McCartney's arrangements

Side-blown woodwind instrument with a pure, breathy tone.

Nylon-stringed acoustic guitar of the Spanish/classical tradition.

Concert harp adding classical elegance or ethereal, heavenly texture to the arrangement

A keyboard instrument playing back pre-recorded tape loops – most famously the flute intro of 'Strawberry Fields Forever'

Long-necked Indian drone instrument.

Six-string bass guitar, typically the Fender Bass VI.

Pair of tall Afro-Cuban hand drums.

North Indian plucked string instrument – introduced to Western pop by George Harrison on 'Norwegian Wood'

Electronic synthesizer voicing one or more parts.

Low-pitched single-reed brass-bodied woodwind.

Plucked keyboard instrument giving a baroque, quill-toned, historical character

Upright piano with tacks set in the hammers for a tinny honky-tonk sound.

A vocal choir or chorus supplementing the Beatles' own voices for grandeur or contrast

Pair of struck wooden sticks producing a sharp click.

Percussive sound made with the body (claps, snaps, stomps); the specific action is in the note.

Larger, lower-pitched trombone.

Pitched metal-bar percussion with motor-driven tremolo.

North Indian hand drums used alongside sitar in Indian-influenced tracks

Pitched metal-bar percussion instrument played with mallets.

Tuned hanging metal tubes struck with a mallet.

Keyboard percussion instrument with bell-like steel-bar tone.

Conical-bore brass instrument, mellower than the trumpet.

Double-reed woodwind instrument with a piercing, reedy tone.

Whistled melody or part performed on the track.

Double-reed woodwind in the tenor-bass range.

Lowest-pitched brass instrument.

Indian box zither used as a melodic and ornamental color.

Lowest-pitched clarinet, an octave below the bass clarinet.

Smallest, highest-pitched flute.

Larger, lower-pitched flute.

Large, low-pitched harmonica used for bass lines.

A small, high-pitched trumpet – played by David Mason on 'Penny Lane'

An everyday object or non-instrument used percussively; the specific object is in the note.

Quiet keyboard with metal tangents striking strings.

End-blown duct flute, typically wooden or plastic.

The low, dark, reedy tone of the bass clarinet – rarely used but distinctive when it appears

Small Hawaiian four-stringed guitar-like instrument.

Low-pitched double-reed woodwind sounding an octave below the bassoon.

Bellows-driven free-reed keyboard.

Indian double-reed conical woodwind with a nasal, reedy tone.

A small lamellophone held against the teeth and plucked, its twang shaped by the player's mouth cavity.

Mid-range single-reed brass-bodied woodwind.

Bowed Indian string instrument with sympathetic strings.

An early valve-driven monophonic electronic keyboard with a buzzy, reedy timbre, a forerunner of the synthesizer.

Stringed instrument with a drum-like skin head – bright, percussive tone.

A banjo-ukulele hybrid: a ukulele neck on a small banjo body, giving a banjo's bright twang at ukulele pitch.

Indian transverse bamboo flute.

Small vessel flute, usually clay or ceramic.

Handheld shaker giving a continuous grain of rhythm rather than a struck accent.

Fretless Indian lute with a metal fingerboard.

A tenor flute (a lower member of the flute family) used in a track's arrangement.

Tenor double-reed woodwind, sounding a fifth lower than the oboe.

Two-headed Indian barrel drum.

A guitar played flat with a slide, giving a sliding, vocal-like line.

A simple six-hole metal fipple flute (tin whistle) with a bright, piercing tone.