Beat It Guitar Lesson (Instrumental Version) – Michael Jackson


In this Beat It guitar lesson video, I will show you how to play my instrumental arrangement of Michael Jackson's "Beat It".

The first video below will be a full performance video demonstrating how the arrangement sounds. I have taken all of Michael Jackson's vocal parts and transcribed them for guitar.

I have used the original Eb tuning. Those notes are (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb).

Those vocal melodies work really well on the guitar and are based mostly around the E minor pentatonic scale that we all know and love.

In the second video below, I will demonstrate how to play all of those vocal lines on the guitar.

The remaining sections of the song, including the intro and Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo can be found in my earlier "Beat It" lesson where I taught the song the way it was originally recorded.

I hope you guys enjoy this one! It is a lot of fun to play once you get it under your fingers.

Carl...

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Beat It Guitar Instrumental Performance - Michael Jackson

Beat It Instrumental Guitar Lesson

7 Comments

  1. GEORG on October 3, 2016 at 5:12 pm

    Carl, Thank you so much for doing this instrumental version. It is great, especially for those of us who can’t sing. I hope you will make more lessons like this. I see some version of Africa by Toto on the internet, but not with instructions like we are used to in your great lessons.
    There will be a donation coming because you did this version.

    • Carl Brown on October 3, 2016 at 5:38 pm

      Thanks a bunch Georg, I really appreciate it. In fact, I have many more instrumental versions of popular songs on the way.

      I am thinking of doing a new one every 2 weeks. Planning on releasing the next one this weekend but still deciding on the track. 🙂

      Glad that you like this type of stuff. It is really fun to play! Carl…

  2. Kevin J on December 18, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    Hey Carl, first of all thanks for all of those fantastic lessons. They really helped me to actually learn how to play guitar. And secondly, I’ve seen in many of your lessons that you mention pentatonic scales (like this one) but when I looked them up here on the site I found all these fancy scales but not the one you mention. Could you help me out?

  3. Gregor Ott on March 26, 2018 at 1:30 am

    Hey Carl,
    I realy enjoy your instrumental version. Great idea! Is there a chance you doing an instrumental version of “Rough Boy”, ZZ Top? That would be great for me. Thank you!

  4. Mariano Cardillo on September 15, 2018 at 7:43 am

    Ciao Carl, la tua versione strumentale è davvero stupenda, ti chiedo però se puoi dirci quali effetti usi .
    C’è il chorus?
    Uso la tua stessa Stratocaster, con un marshall 100w Valvestate, ma non riesco ad ottenere questo suono….
    Help grazie mille

  5. Edward Troy on January 10, 2019 at 8:17 am

    Hi Carl,
    I’ve really enjoyed your instrumental version of “Beat it”. Now I just have to get the solo!
    I have two questions for you: on your instrumental page you mention backing tracks, can you please tell me which one you used for this song? Second, what effects have you used in this song? Tone and effects are something that I’ve always struggled with.
    Many thanks!!!

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