 Recording began at Ascot Sound Studios , Lennon 's newly built home studio at Tittenhurst Park , in May 1971 , with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant , in New York City , during July . <unk> and patient , the sessions began during the late morning , running to just before dinner in the early evening . Lennon taught the musicians the chord progression and a working arrangement for " Imagine " , rehearsing the song until he deemed the musicians ready to record . In his attempt to recreate Lennon 's desired sound , Spector had some early <unk> feature Lennon and Nicky Hopkins playing in different octaves on one piano . He also initially attempted to record the piano part with Lennon playing the white baby grand in the couple 's all @-@ white room . However , after having deemed the room 's acoustics unsuitable , Spector abandoned the idea in favour of the superior environment of Lennon 's home studio . They completed the session in minutes , recording three takes and choosing the second one for release . The finished recording featured Lennon on piano and vocal , Klaus <unk> on bass guitar , Alan White on drums and the <unk> <unk> on strings . 
