Neil Young - Heart Of Gold - A Super Pack

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Comes A Time Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  Neil Young is a musician with many hats. Comes A Time was part of his late 1970s country/folk sound. It is a fairly basic strumming pattern done over chords in the key of G (including the barre chord Bm).

• Lesson 2: Tell Me Why - Guitar Lesson

  Tell Me Why is one of Neil Young’s typical country/bluegrass strumming songs. It was the first track on his After The Goldrush album, which also featured Southern Man. This lesson goes over the chord progression and some of the variations and embellishments that Neil Young commonly uses.

• Lesson 3: Only Love Can Break Your Heart Guitar Lesson

  A great guitar song for beginners, *Only Love Can Break Your Heart*is from Neil Young’s third album After The Goldrush but was also performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young during their ‘Farewell Tour’, 4 Way Street in 1970. The song uses a simple 3/4 strumming pattern and mostly open chords.

• Lesson 4: 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 5: Southern Man Campfire Guitar Lesson

  Neil shows the chord progression and plays a rhythm track. You are invited to practice your lead playing in the key of D minor. Use the minor pentatonic pattern at the 10th fret as your starting point.

• Lesson 6: Birds

  Neil Young's 1970 album, After The Gold Rush had a bunch of compelling and beautiful songs, including rockers like Southern Man, flatpicking classics like Tell Me Why, country staples like Oh Lonesome Me, and the hypnotically captivating Birds. He normally performs it on the piano but the recent release of a 50th Anniversary Edition of CSNY's Deja Vu included a stunning guitar version with Graham Nash adding harmony in the chorus.

  This lesson follows that, going into double time strumming, hammer on embellishments on some chords, a very unusual time signature change, and even covers Nash's harmony.

• Lesson 7: 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 8: 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 9: Cowgirl In The Sand - Guitar Lesson

  Cowgirl In The Sand is a song of Neil Young’s that he presents in a few different settings, some acoustic and some electric. This lesson covers the acoustic techniques he used on albums like Four Way Street, the live, break-up album by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young from their 1970 tour. The main technique addressed is the palm muting that creates a very percussive sound.

• Lesson 10: Out On The Weekend - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Out On The Weekend is the opening track from Neil Young’s 1972 album Harvest. It starts with one of his signature sounds, muted bass notes followed by focused picking on the higher strings, much like the acoustic Cowgirl In The Sand.
  
  In order to play it exactly like Neil, it would be necessary to wrap your left thumb over onto the sixth and fifth strings. The lesson covers alternate ways to do this as most players will find this very difficult, if not impossible.
  
  There are some interesting chords up the neck in the chorus but other than that the song is pretty straightforward.

• Lesson 11: Harvest Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  Description coming soon

• Lesson 12: Heart Of Gold Guitar Lesson

  This is a short, basic look at Neil Young's Heart Of Gold, The chart and  tab should make it clear enough to most students.

• Lesson 13: Old Man - Guitar Lesson

  From Neil Young's Harvest album, Old Man can be played with a pick or in Neil's frailing sytle, using the right hand fingers to strum and pick out melody notes.

• Lesson 14: The Needle And The Damage Done Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  As Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were headed down their Four-Way Street, Neil put together a group of country musicians that he called the Stray Gators and recorded songs in Nashville with guests like James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. The Needle And The Damage Done is a pretty simple folk song in 4/4 time that uses an 8-measure progression. It is played with a pick in a chord-melody style where melody notes are individually picked out in the middle of strumming.

• Lesson 15: Words (Between The Lines Of Age) - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Words is another classic from Neil Young, being the last song on his 1972 album Harvest. It features a couple different time signatures and tempos and the lesson is done leaning towards the student figuring out the two main parts. Don’t panic, most of the answers are covered as the lesson progresses.

• Lesson 16: After The Gold Rush - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  After The Gold Rush is a song, written, composed, and performed by Neil Young and is the title song from his third solo album, released in 1970.
  
  The original is done on a piano and is easy to transcribe to the guitar, since it's just an accompaniment for vocals.
  
  The lesson covers the song in the key of D, like the original, but also discusses other keys in which it can be played. Neil himself has performed it very often in the key of C and in recent years even in the key of A, while playing it on the guitar.
  
  A very doable chord solo arrangement is included, but one needs to be familiar with Travis style picking patterns.

• Lesson 17: Unknown Legend - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  This is the first track from Neil Young’s 1992 album Harvest Moon. It is a great example of how you can take just two chords, add some time signature variations and a few well-placed bass notes as an intro, and create a compelling song. This is not too difficult but the lesson leaves a few holes in the explanation to encourage the student to discover as much as possible on their own, particularly by listening to the original recording.

• Lesson 18: 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 19: 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 20: 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 21: 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 22: Like A Hurricane - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Like A Hurricane is another of Neil Young’s classic screaming electric guitar songs, along with the likes of Southern Man, Cowgirl In The Sand and Cortez The Killer, and consists of a fairly basic chord progression with a very distinctive melody/lead line picked out. This lesson goes through the chords and rhythm patterns, the melody line, and takes you in the direction of incorporating the melody into the strumming, as well as generally improvising in the key of A Minor.

• Lesson 23: 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 24: My My Hey Hey Guitar Lesson - Neil Young

  My My Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue) was written by Neil Young around 1977 when he was playing with the Ducks, a Northern California club band. We have a simple set of chords in the key of A minor- Am7, Am, G, Fmaj7, F, C, and Em7. The use of minor 7 and major 7 chords helps give the song a soft, almost jazzy feel.

• Lesson 25: Pocahontas - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Rust Never Sleeps is one of Neil Young’s best albums and should be in everybody’s collection. Pocahontas is a fairly simple strumming song but it includes a few nice embellishments over chord connections. This lesson is presented as an ear training exercise with a lot of hints about what to listen for as you figure out how a song is actually played.

• Lesson 26: Powderfinger - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Here is a pretty basic song by Neil Young that was originally released on Rust Never Sleeps, although the song goes back a few more years. This lesson takes on a bit of the ‘Work It Out’ approach and encourages you to try it by ear first. Then it goes into versions in a couple different keys, including the real original way as it appeared in 1976 on the unreleased album Chrome Dreams.

• Lesson 27: Sugar Mountain - Guitar Lesson

  Sugar Mountain is one of Neil Young’s earliest songs, and a fairly basic strumming song at that. This lesson goes over a few different ways of fingering the chords, a little theory on chord additions, and some ideas on embellishing the song with the typical hammer-ons that he uses in many of his songs.

• Lesson 28: Thrasher - Neil Young - Guitar Lesson

  Rust Never Sleeps, Neil Young’s 1979 album included a side of gentle acoustic songs and a side of electric rockers. Thrasher followed My, My, Hey, Hey on side one and is a great example of how simple songwriting can be.
  
  He uses most of the standard chords in the key of C (although it is capoed up 2 to really be in D), and a simple strumming pattern picking out bass notes with occasional hammer-ons.

• Lesson 29: 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 30: Rockin' In The Free World Campfire Guitar Lesson

  Neil Young is the king of combining simple progressions with just a few chords, adding a ton of energy and enthusiasm, and producing rockin' tunes that are a blast to play, even for beginners.

  Rockin' In The Free World is all of that and this lesson will get you well on your way to opening lots of doors on your musical adventure.