How to Play "Harvest Moon"

[KDepew]

Here's a lesson on acoustic guitar. A great tune by Neal Young!

[DavidE]

I'll check it out. I'm playing the song at my niece's wedding, coming up quickly, and played it out a couple of times in the last week. Need a refresher!

[DavidE]

Well, your lesson is wrong in several ways. It's in drop D tuning. You're fingering for the intro is wrong (though the notes are right). Your chords under the first half of the verse are wrong. Instead of G to A, it's Em7 to A, but to get the voicing of the Em7 correct, you have to tune to drop d and play the second fret on the low e and a strings only. The voicing is a bit of magic to my ears.

Check out this video to see how Neil plays it. Try playing along with it and you'll hear that G-A are not the chords on the first half of the verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMjDc8MJotU

[Denny B]

Originally Posted by DavidE

Well, your lesson is completely wrong. It's in drop D tuning. You're fingering for the intro is wrong (though the notes are right). Your chords under the verse are wrong.

Check out this video to see how Neil plays it. Try playing along with it and you'll hear that G-A are not the chords on the first half of the verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMjDc8MJotU

I thought Kevin was very polite and respectful with his responses when you critiqued him on YouTube about this...

I'm guessing that if he responds, he'll be the same here...

[GCWaters]

Originally Posted by DavidE

Well, your lesson is completely wrong. It's in drop D tuning. You're fingering for the intro is wrong (though the notes are right). Your chords under the verse are wrong.

Check out this video to see how Neil plays it. Try playing along with it and you'll hear that G-A are not the chords on the first half of the verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMjDc8MJotU

Tunings and fingerings are choices, not issues of right or wrong....

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by KDepew

Here's a lesson on acoustic guitar. A great tune by Neal Young!

If you care to, try changing the G to Em7 on the first part of the verses.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by DavidE

Well, your lesson is completely wrong.

Well, not completely.

Originally Posted by DavidE

It's in drop D tuning.

Yes, but it's playable in standard.

Originally Posted by DavidE

You're fingering for the intro is wrong (though the notes are right).

Whoah. He's playing the exact same shapes Neil plays in your video. He's using different fingers, but so what? In fact, his fingering is argably more economical than Neil's (less hand movement).

Originally Posted by DavidE

Your chords under the verse are wrong.

Yes, this is more important. It's not just that the first chord is Em7/A (not far from G, but on top of an A bass)*, but that A he sticks in after the D is clunky.
At first I thought it was totally wrong - I originally thought it was D all the way between each line (with the intro pattern after lines 3 and 4), but having checked, Neil does play embellishments a little like that. Just not quite like that. And the D bass swings along all the time, which is why his A sounds clunky. If you're trying to keep it simple, better to stick to a plain D all the way there; and use a plain Em for the first chord.

I also think it's silly to try to get those harmonics in if you're just playing on one guitar - They're pretty, but it disturbs the flow of the rhythm; and is more likely to do that if you're a beginner.

If you tune to drop D, this is actually a very simple beginner song (or just post-beginner maybe), not really "intermediate". It might take a while to get used to the rhythm of the D6-maj7 riff, but that's the only challenge.

EDIT: Apologies, the first chord is Em7, as DavidE says. The Em7/A comes later.

[Pine]

Hi Kevin. I'm an older late stage beginner. Your target audience, in other words. I always look forward to the lessons you post here.

Keep 'em' coming!!

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by JonPR

...and use a plain Em for the first chord.

I also think it's silly to try to get those harmonics in if you're just playing on one guitar - They're pretty, but it disturbs the flow of the rhythm; and is more likely to do that if you're a beginner.

Absolutely yes on the Em7 at the start of the verses and the harmonics, while they can work with the right execution, are actually more of a distraction from the song than a welcome embellishment.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by GCWaters

Tunings and fingerings are choices, not issues of right or wrong....

It's really presenting wrong chords in a TUTORIAL.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by Nama Ensou

Absolutely yes on the Em at the start of the verses and the harmonics, while they can work with the right execution, are actually more of a distraction from the song than a welcome embellishment.

It's actually an Em7. Played in drop D, the specific voicing is playing the second frets of the E and A string. Not your typical Em7 voicing.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Well, not completely.
Yes, but it's playable in standard.
Whoah. He's playing the exact same shapes Neil plays in your video. He's using different fingers, but so what? In fact, his fingering is argably more economical than Neil's (less hand movement).
Yes, this is more important. It's not just that the first chord is Em7/A (not far from G, but on top of an A bass), but that A he sticks in after the D is clunky.
At first I thought it was totally wrong - I originally thought it was D all the way between each line (with the intro pattern after lines 3 and 4), but having checked, Neil does play embellishments a little like that. Just not quite like that. And the D bass swings along all the time, which is why his A sounds clunky. If you're trying to keep it simple, better to stick to a plain D all the way there; and use a plain Em for the first chord.

I also think it's silly to try to get those harmonics in if you're just playing on one guitar - They're pretty, but it disturbs the flow of the rhythm; and is more likely to do that if you're a beginner.

If you tune to drop D, this is actually a very simple beginner song (or just post-beginner maybe), not really "intermediate". It might take a while to get used to the rhythm of the D6-maj7 riff, but that's the only challenge.

It is playable in standard, but a tutorial should point out that standard is not the original tuning.

The way to play the opening chords is a choice, but Neil's fingering allows the vibrato he plays a good bit in the song.

Agree with you on the part in between verse lines. But remember, this is presented as a tutorial!

I agree it's not a tough one to play in drop d. Hitting the high notes is harder. ;-)

[DavidE]

"Yes, this is more important. It's not just that the first chord is Em7/A"

I don't think that's correct. In Drop D tuning, Neil plays E (second fret) on the low E and B on the A string and that's it. No A in the chord.

[GCWaters]

Originally Posted by DavidE

It's really presenting wrong chords in a TUTORIAL.

Different issue....

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by DavidE

"Yes, this is more important. It's not just that the first chord is Em7/A"

I don't think that's correct. In Drop D tuning, Neil plays F# on the low E and B on the A string and that's it. No A in the chord.

Actually he plays E on the low E. You mean he plays 2nd fret, which would be F# in standard tuning.

You're quite right about the A though: it's a plain Em7. I was thinking of later in the song, the phrase "because I'm still in love", which is Em7 with an A in the bass, aka A9sus4 (going to A7).

That's after the two lines (3 and 4) which do start with G.

I agree with you that in a tutorial he should at least say that he is not showing how the original is done, and explain that he is presenting what (I presume he thinks) is a simpler version for beginners in EADGBE. Then viewers won't be confused about why it sounds different, or why his chord shapes look different. (Although they might still be confused about the use of G instead of Em7...)