Down By The River Guitar Lesson - Neil Youngby Neil Young

Down By The River was one of the first jamming tunes from Neil Young. Others in the same vein would include Cowgirl In The Sand, Southern Man, Like A Hurricane, etc. Neil frequently plays an acoustic version, sometimes as part of a medley that includes Cinnamon Girl and The Loner. He uses a Double Dropped D tuning (DADGBD) for this, which slightly changes some of the chord fingerings. The song is in common (4/4) time and revolves around the chords Em7 and A, making it in the key of D major. However, the tonic note is E, putting this in the Dorian mode. The lead can be played using the E minor pentatonic scale.