Neil Diamond Package

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Forever In Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond - Guitar Lesson

  Forever In Blue Jeans is a song Neil Diamond wrote with long-time guitarist Richard Bennett, who probably came up with the opening fingerpicking part that Neil added lyrics to.
  
  This lesson covers a basic way to play the accompaniment, adding in a few embellishments based on the orchestration, as well as a detailed look at the catchy intro.

• Lesson 2: Solitary Man

  Solitary Man was Neil Diamond's first solo hit, released in 1966, although it was rereleased in 1970 and had better chart success. The song uses the five open chords in the key of G and the basic folk strum.

• Lesson 3: Song Sung Blue by Neil Diamond - Guitar Lesson

  In 1972 Neil Diamond’s album Moods included Song Sung Blue, his second #1 hit in the US following Cracklin’ Rosie. The song is unusual in its simplicity, only one section, two verses and a very basic progression.
  
  This lesson includes a strumming version, pretty much the way Diamond plays it, as well as guitar transcriptions of the intro, originally done on electric piano, and a short solo for fingerpicking guitar.

• Lesson 4: Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond - Guitar Lesson

  Sweet Caroline is one of the greatest sing-a-long songs of all time. It was released as a single in 1969 then subsequently added to Neil Diamond’s album of the day, Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show, as an afterthought.
  
  This lesson goes over the chord progression and shows a relatively easy way to play it in the key of A, as well as a more embellished version bringing in many of the other instruments’ parts. It also covers different voicings of common chords and barres from families other than E and A.

• Lesson 5: I’m A Believer - Neil Diamond - Guitar Lesson

  As sometimes happens, great songs can be better remembered by bigger covers than the original. I’m A Believer was an average Neil Diamond song (which still means better than 90% of what else was out there at the time) that will go down in history as one of the best tunes The Monkees did.
  
  Their arrangement, which was pretty close to Neil’s with a little more emphasis on the organ part and killer vocals by Mickey Dolenz, put I’m A Believer in legendary status. This lesson has an ear-training component, goes through both versions, in different keys, and incorporates the organ lick into the strumming as well.

• Lesson 6: Play Me

  In the early 1970s Neil Diamond released three huge albums, with the third being Moods in 1972. Play Me was the first single from the album and went on to be a standard at his concerts for years. The guitar part, played by Richard Bennett, is a basic arpeggio pattern in 3/4 time with just a few embellishments and bass runs, which should not be too difficult for beginning to intermediate players.

  The song is in the key of D Major but played with a capo at the second fret using chord shapes in the key of C.

• Lesson 7: Stones

  Stones is a beautiful ballad from Neil Diamond's album of the same name. It uses only a few easy chords in the key of C but is done with a complex arpeggio fingerpicking pattern. The lesson approaches this in increments, building up to playing it as done on the original recording, with elements of live versions added in.

• Lesson 8: I'm A Believer (Slow Version)

  Neil Diamond resurrected the hit he wrote for The Monkees in 1966 and reworked it into a soulful ballad. His 2010 album, Dreams featured covers of some of his favorite tunes, along with this rearrangement of I'm A Believer. His record had the guitars tuned down 1 step and had a nice vamp over a G chord as an intro.

  This lesson includes tab to all the parts but encourages the student to take the ideas and techniques and mix and match them to their heart's desire.