Harvest by Neil Young

Harvest is an acoustic country song off the 1972 album of the same name.

The Harvest album was recorded while Young was recovering from a back injury. He was almost completely bedridden for two years which affected his playing ability, hugely influencing his songwriting and the mellow sound of the album. The three electric songs, Words Between the Lines of Age, Alabama, and Are You Ready for the Country, were recorded after a surgery that allowed Young to stand and play electric guitar once again.

This song is unique in that it was recorded as a live two track mix, while most of the other songs on Harvest required a lot of mixing. Young has said that it is one of his best songs, and the best track off the album.

Harvest has a slow, dreamy feel to it, and is made up of simple chords that are easy to master. The strumming pattern is a mix of strumming and finger picking, and creates the distinct country shuffle sound of the song. It is best to play this just with your thumb and finger - no pick.

Pluck the bass note of each chord with your thumb and strum up down up with your finger. Many of the chords change halfway through each bar and therefore its good to try and master this pattern with one chord before you try to change between them.

There are some interesting chords used in this, for example D/A means a D chord played with an A bass note. Young alternates between D and D/A, which gives playing the same chord a more interesting sound. There is a slight variation on the D/A in the second verse, instead using a Dmajadd9/A which is much simpler than it sounds.

Dmaj7add9/A, played with your 2nd finger on the 3rd string 2nd fret, 3rd finger on the 2nd string 2nd fret,

It can be helpful to strum each chord once whilst learning the chord changes and to practise singing along while you play.

Here is a chord sheet I made…

Watch the full lesson here…