Stills-Young Super D Pack

Lessons

• Lesson 1: War Of Man by Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  War Of Man is an acoustic masterpiece by Neil Young that first appeared on his 1992 album Harvest Moon. It is played in Double Dropped D Tuning, like many of his songs, and features his signature style of strumming with his fingers, sometimes focusing on a couple strings, as well as picking out clean, single note melodies. This can be done just as easily with a pick, and that is how it is played in the lesson.
  
  The lesson covers the techniques and chord positions with a little talk about the advantages of the tuning.

• Lesson 2: Harvest Moon Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  Harvest Moon is a great example of Neil Young’s gentle swing style. Done in Dropped D Tuning, it features some very nice fills between many of the changes.

• Lesson 3: Cinnamon Girl Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  Cinnamon Girl appeared on Neil Young’s second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The arrangement featured heavily distorted guitars that now can probably be looked at as the roots of the grunge movement. Neil frequently performs an acoustic version of Cinnamon Girl with the guitar tuned to Double Dropped D (DADGBD). This makes for a lot of easy-to-play chords that are done with partial bars, sometimes across just the higher strings and sometimes just across the lower strings.

• Lesson 4: Cortez The Killer - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Cortez is another of Neil Young’s classic jamming tracks. It was released in 1975 on the Zuma album and remains a concert staple of his to this day. The rhythm part is a basic set of three chords, and although it is best to do in Double Dropped D Tuning, this lesson looks at playing it in standard as well. The real focus of the lesson is expanding the Pentatonic Scale to include the notes missing from the Major Scale when a particular chord includes that note. There are no attachments to this and it really encourages experiment rather than walking you through step-by-step instruction.

• Lesson 5: Daylight Again

  Daylight Again is a Stephen Stills tune from the 1982 album of the same name. It features Stills noodling around with melody notes in the key of D Minor and lightly strumming a droning D power chord, meaning just roots and fifths, no third. The strumming is a form of frailing, using the fingers to strum as well as pick out melody notes.

  Stills plays this with a lot of variations and improvising in live performances, but this lesson goes into great detail about the way it was done in the studio. There is a short look at some of the additions found in live versions.

• Lesson 6: Don't Let It Bring You Down Guitar Lesson

  Neil Young uses Double Dropped D Tuning for many songs. This acoustic guitar lesson is one of our most requested at TotallyGuitars: *Don’t Let It Bring You Down*. It first appeared on his 1970 album After The Goldrush, and was performed extensively during Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s tour that year that was released as the farewell album Four Way Street. Neil usually played this one step lower in those days and now tunes the guitar even lower for his voice, bringing the 6^th string all he way down to Bb. The tuning creates some new chord shapes but most of them are not too difficult and you really just have to work on keeping a steady strumming pattern going to make the song sound pretty good.

• Lesson 7: Down By The River Guitar Lesson - 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.

• Lesson 8: Dreamin Man - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Dreamin’ Man is from Neil Young’s 1992 album Harvest Moon and was recently suggested on our Recommend A Lesson page. It is done in Double Dropped D Tuning and uses very easy chords and shapes.
  
  Many of the chords have unusual names because of the tuning but the lesson really focuses on strumming through the progression and adding the short instrumental fill that follows the chorus.

• Lesson 9: Find The Cost Of Freedom - Guitar Lesson

  Find The Cost Of Freedom is a Stephen Stills song that is a staple at concerts by almost all incarnations of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The song is played in Double Dropped D Tuning and the rhythm part is really only eight measures long. This lesson goes over the basics but also goes into playing leads over the progression using different modes. It also includes a long, improvised Abstract by Neil that started out as a Play Through for the lesson.

• Lesson 10: Mr. Soul - Guitar Lesson

  Mr. Soul is a Neil Young song that has gone through many incarnations, not unusual for his songs. It started out as a rockin’ hit for The Buffalo Springfield in 1968 and later appeared as a darker acoustic tune on Neil’s Unplugged album. This lesson covers playing the song in three different tunings, Standard, Dropped D, and Double Dropped D, as well as a bit on improvising in different modes.

• Lesson 11: Ohio Guitar Lesson

  Neil teaches an acoustic version of this classic Neil Young tune. It is done in Double Dropped D tuning.

• Lesson 12: One Of These Days

  One Of These Days is from Neil Young's 1992 album Harvest Moon. It is in one of his favorite tunings, Double Dropped D, where the first and sixth strings are lowered a whole step, from E to D. The tuning slightly alters the colors of the chords making for some interesting sounds.

  
  The lesson goes into some theory behind the chords and shows various fingering possibilities for many of them. As it is, there are not a lot of chords involved and the strumming is fairly basic. It can be done with a pick or the fingers (like NY does). There are some barre chords and hinge barres (partial barres across some of the middle strings) which may be difficult for beginners. Nonetheless, this is a fun song to play.

• Lesson 13: The Loner Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  From Neil Young’s first solo album, The Loner is one of many tunes Neil does in Double Dropped D Tuning, along with Cinnamon Girl, Down By The River, and Don’t Let It Bring You Down, to name a few. The chords in this tuning are unusual but not particularly difficult.

• Lesson 14: The Old Laughing Lady

  Neil Young's first solo album was quite a departure from his Buffalo Springfield sound. Many of the songs had lush arrangements and complex interludes. The Old Laughing Lady is played in Double Dropped D Tuning, features a very basic set of chords for the verses with connecting interludes that are different every performance. This lesson goes into the three from the studio recording in great detail and include some tips on solo improvising as well.

• Lesson 15: This Old Guitar - Guitar Lesson

  This Old Guitar is from Neil Young’s album Prairie Wind. It uses a very simple progression with a short solo section, or interlude. The lesson is done as an ear training exercise, so don’t print the chart until you have given it a listen. The strumming is done using fingers, thumb to hit bass notes and strumming with the index or the invisible pick.

• Lesson 16: Treetop Flyer

  In 1991 Stephen Stills released Stills Alone, an album that was stripped down versions of mostly new tunes. Treetop Flyer became a staple of his and CSN's concerts for the next couple decades.

  The song is played in Dropped D Tuning and is really just a 4-measure progression. Of course, it is extended by Still's improvising, and he never plays it exactly the same.

  This lesson breaks down the studio intro and then shows lots of the ways that Stills plays through the progression, including a look at his first interlude and thoughts on the D Minor Pentatonic scale, which is used for all the improvised sections.

• Lesson 17: You Don't Have To Cry

  You Don't Have To Cry is a Stephen Stills tune that really brought the three superstars together and start the band. It was featured on their eponymous debut album in 1969. The accompaniment featured Stills' fingerpicking/fingerstrumming technique backing up the three part harmony that came to define their sound.

  The guitar is tuned to Double Dropped D, with both 'E' strings tuned down a whole step. The lesson goes into a few different approaches to the guitar part, even including some of the fills that Stills added in overdubbed parts.

• Lesson 18: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes - Guitar Lesson

  Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is probably Stills’ most recognized song and the one that really brought them into the spotlight, particularly after their appearance at Woodstock in 1969. It was written for contemporary songstress Judy Collins and consists of multiple sections (hence the ‘Suite” part of the name), all of which include complex guitar parts and lush vocal harmonies.

  Stephen Stills used an E Modal Tuning (EEEEEBE), but this lesson does it in D Modal tuning (DADDAD) and uses a variety of strumming and picking techniques. A Capo at the second fret would put the guitar in the original key. Some of the lesson addresses improvising in Stills’ style in this open tuning.

• Lesson 19: Carry On

  Carry On is a Stephen Stills composition that kicked off the CSN&Y Deja Vu album in 1970. It is actually a medley with a rearrangement of an earlier song by Stills: Question, which appeared on the last Buffalo Springfield album in 1968.

  
  The acoustic opening and main guitar parts are played in a modal tuning that Stills used often, and at various pitches. It consists of only roots and fifths and in this lesson is done as D-A-D-D-A-D, although the original was done 1/2 step higher at Eb.

  
  The lesson also covers the way they typically played it live, in the key of E and in standard tuning. There is also a short look at the Buffalo Springfield version in D, technically D Dorian.

  There is also an audio file in the key of D for the student to download and play along with.

• Lesson 20: Love The One You're With

  *Love The One You’re With*is a Stephen Stills song that dates back to the early CSNY days and is frequently done with electric guitars or as a big production. Like many of Stills’ songs, it started out as an acoustic tune in the D Modal tuning. Stills used CCCCGC but DADDAD is a more efficient and harmonically rich version that is used in this lesson. We also introduce a new twist with this lesson- that we are calling a ‘Work It Out Lesson.’ In the first segment Neil plays through the song and gives you hints about figuring it out yourself. The next segments present the ‘Answers’, with Breakdowns of the chords, the strumming, and the vocals.

• Lesson 21: Singin' Call

  Singin' Call is one of Stephen Stills' delicate fingerpicking masterpieces, similar to 4 & 20. It is in the same tuning D-A-D-D-A-D, although Stills unnecessarily tunes the 5th string down to D as well, and uses essentially the same right hand picking patterns. There are only a couple chords and the picking should vary randomly, but we have tabbed out the entire first verse along with intros from the studio version on Stills 2 and the CSN Demos album.

• Lesson 22: 4 + 20 - Guitar Lesson

  Steve Stills’ basic fingerpicking song is done in a D Modal Tuning- every string is tuned to either D or A, the root and fifth notes of the D Chord. The tuning used for this lesson is DADDAD, slightly modified from Stills’ DDDDAD but since he never plays the 5th string it doesn’t matter and is easier on your guitar and strings.

• Lesson 23: Word Game

  Stephen Stills has done a bunch of songs in a modal tuning, one that only has roots and fifths as open strings. He calls it his Bruce Palmer Modal Tuning after the original bass player in the Buffalo Springfield. Even though Stills has 5 roots and 1 fifth, it can be done with 2 fifths just as well, which is easier on the guitar and more efficient from the student's perspective. This lesson is done with the guitar tuned to DADDAD, as Stills does on his second solo album, Stephen Stills 2. There are live versions where he is tuned up to E, and plays it much faster.

  The lesson covers the main riff using a percussive strumming technique, as well as the progression and even a short look at improvising a little.

• Lesson 24: Guinnevere - Guitar Lesson

  A feature of many David Crosby tunes is the use of altered tunings. *Guinnevere*is an great example of how he changes the pitch of a few strings, starts messing around with chord shapes and sounds, adds a somewhat abstract melody with complex harmonies, and creates beautiful music. The tuning is EBDGAD and uses an arpeggio-style picking pattern over some fairly simple, but unusual chord shapes. He also is never concerned with playing anything exactly the same way twice, and as such recreates each song every time he plays it. We take that approach in this lesson and start with some specific patterns but look at changing and varying them on the fly.

• Lesson 25: Deja Vu - Guitar Lesson

  *Déjà Vu*is another David Crosby tune that uses the EBDGAD (Em11) Tuning, like the one used in Guinnevere. This one opens with a cross-picked intro before settling into a series of colorful chords that are mostly strummed, in an improvising manner. Translation: We don’t talk about strumming specifics, just a few thoughts about keeping a steady rhythm but creating a mysterious mood, as called for in the song.

• Lesson 26: Wooden Ships

  Wooden Ships was a huge part of Crosby, Stills & Nash's grand entrance to the world of music in 1969. The tune was written mostly by David Crosby with parts done by Stephen Stills and Paul Kantner (the song also appeared on the Jefferson Airplane's 1969 album, Volunteers).

  This lesson looks more at the way CSN, and even just C&N, did it acoustically over the years. Many of Crosby's compositions use alternate tunings but this one is in standard tuning but uses many chord shapes with open strings to create a similar effect. 

• Lesson 27: Country Girl - CSNY - Deja Vu

  Neil Young left the Buffalo Springfield in 1968 and released his first solo album in 1969. He had dozens of songs he was performing regularly, generally at solo acoustic guitar shows. He joined Crosby, Stills & Nash for their 1970 album Deja Vu bringing many of these songs.

  The band added their magic to Country Girl, a medley consisting of Neil's tunes Whiskey Boot Hill, Down, Down, Down and added a short closing section which became the title.

  This lesson looks at how he performed it solo during the 4-Way Street tour at the time. The chords are an interesting combination of progressions used in many of his songs, some just 3 strings moving up the neck.

• Lesson 28: Helplessly Hoping

  *Helplessly Hoping*is a classic fingerstyle tune by Stephen Stills that was released in 1969 on the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album. Stills’ playing is generally very free form and he never plays this song exactly the same way twice. The lesson covers the chord progression and presents a ‘Campfire Version’ that is easy to strum, as well as great detail on specific licks and additions that Stills uses and how to add your own variations to fingerpicking patterns, making the arrangement your own.

• Lesson 29: The Lee Shore - CSNY - Guitar Lesson

  This David Crosby song has been requested and suggested for so long that I finally had to get to it. There are many versions available out there and this lesson follows mostly the one from Four Way Street, although some of David’s variations and attempted variations from other performances are worked in. There are only a few chord shapes but the picking includes a slightly unusual pattern. The lesson starts with a ‘Watch & Listen’ segment for you to decipher as much as you can before going into the specific details and techniques.

• Lesson 30: Long May You Run - Guitar Lesson

  Long May You Run is song that Neil Young wrote in early 1974 about his 1948 Buick Roadmaster (really designed as a hearse), which provided him ample transportation for many years until it broke down in Blind River, Canada in 1962 (or 1963, or 1965, depending on the authority). In any case, it was the inspiration for a song that was performed in 1974, documented with a CSNY show in Oakland that summer. This lesson goes a bit into the early version but mostly covers the official release in 1976 on the only album by the Stills-Young Band. A few unusual chords are analyzed as well.