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 audible on the record that no source names.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Large bowed orchestral string instrument, lowest in the section.

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

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

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

Tenor-range single-reed brass-bodied woodwind.

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

Pitched orchestral kettledrums.

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

Long-necked Indian drone instrument.

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'

Electronic synthesizer voicing one or more parts.

Low-pitched single-reed brass-bodied woodwind.

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

Pair of tall Afro-Cuban hand drums.

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

Percussion made with the body rather than an instrument, from claps and snaps to stomps and the sounds a singer makes.

Larger, lower-pitched trombone.

Pair of struck wooden sticks producing a sharp click.

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

Conical-bore brass instrument, mellower than the trumpet.

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

Pitched metal-bar percussion instrument played with mallets.

Pitched metal-bar percussion with motor-driven tremolo.

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

Tuned hanging metal tubes struck with a mallet.

Whistled melody or part performed on the track.

Smallest, highest-pitched flute.

End-blown duct flute, typically wooden or plastic.

Small Hawaiian four-stringed guitar-like instrument.

Large, low-pitched harmonica used for bass lines.

Indian box zither used as a melodic and ornamental color.

An everyday object played as an instrument, from a comb and paper to an anvil.

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

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

Lowest-pitched brass instrument.

Larger, lower-pitched flute.

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

Quiet keyboard with metal tangents striking strings.

Double-reed woodwind in the tenor-bass range.

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

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

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

Bowed Indian string instrument with sympathetic strings.

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

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

Small vessel flute, usually clay or ceramic.

Mid-range single-reed brass-bodied woodwind.

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

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

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

Bellows-driven free-reed keyboard.

Fretless Indian lute with a metal fingerboard.

Indian transverse bamboo flute.

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

Two-headed Indian barrel drum.

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

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