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Home ❯ Songs ❯ Neil Young ❯

Harvest

by Neil Young • Lesson #416 • Feb 16, 2022

Video lesson

Licensed Song Sheet 4 pages

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Editor’s notes

Hello, friends! New lesson today teaching you the Neil Young classic “Harvest”, released on his album of the same name in 1972. This is a song that uses the same repeating 8-measure progression for the entire song, though that can make it sound deceivingly simple. This is especially the case if you’re trying to capture Neil Young’s nuanced strum, which took me quite a while to get the hang of.

As usual, I’ll teach you chord shapes & the progression, while also walking you through 3 strumming options (a basic strum, intermediate strum, and “full” advanced strum) to be sure you’re covered, no matter your skill level. I’ll also teach you how to play the instrumental verse, with a tab included both in my video and in my 4-page song sheet.

Video timestamps:

  • 0:00 Preview & Lesson Summary
  • 1:40 Strumming Patterns
  • 5:27 Chord Shapes
  • 9:34 Verse Tab (Basic Strum)
  • 11:31 Verse Tab (Adv. Strum)
  • 14:37 Instrumental Verse Tab
  • 19:17 Full Playthrough

Neil Young’s album version

This is the original version of the song, played by Neil Young from his album Harvest. Key of D, 86 bpm.

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