Learn to play The Needle And The Damage Done by Neil Young on JustinGuitar!
View the full lesson at The Needle And The Damage Done by Neil Young | JustinGuitar
I love learning this. It has a great vibe to it when playing. I do have some problems with it when the D note at the 3rd fret on the second string is played with the Bb note at the 1st fret on the 5th string. I would normally be pressing with my 2nd, 3rd & 4th fingers to form the D chord in the starting position, then leave the 4th finger holding the D note at the 3rd fret on the second string while playing the walking bass note sequence finishing with my first finger pressing the Bb on the 5th string. Unfortunately, in the open position, the stretch of 3rd finger at the 3rd fret 2nd string to 1st finger at 1st fret on the 5th string is to great for me to play cleanly in a timely fashion 
I’ve devised a workaround of playing the D chord using fingers 2, 3 & 5 instead of 2, 3 & 4. The stretch is much easier to manage this way. I am on a bit of a learning curve with this!
At the beginning of 2021 I set a goal of developing the ability to pick notes out while playing rather than strum everything and this song is one that fits the bill.
It’s a lot easier, for me anyway, to do this finger picking but I realise that doesn’t always give me the sound style I want, so have been pursuing the picking & strumming method. I started off with Father & Son, which has a little bit of picking variation, then picked up While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Lately I’ve added The Needle and The Damage Done, which is a very interesting style. These last two are grade 4 songs and I’m now going to research the grade 5 songs to try and push myself a little although, frankly, if playing songs of the calibre of the 2 last ones I mentioned are as good as I get, I should be happy! Compared to my previous ultimate goal of basic campfire strummer. Any suggestions for grade 5 songs that will push my string skipping playing?
Not sure this ramble is in the right place. I hope I’m not stepping out of bounds!
Absolutely beautiful song. The harmonic progression is particularly sweet.
One thing that is worth noting (for future learners)—Justin does not mention it in his lesson, but the rhythm is actually in swing time. This is true in both Justin’s and Neil Yong’s recordings / videos. I thought it was strange that Justin didn’t explicitly mention it, but he certainly played it that way.
The nerds out there might be interested to know that Justin’s recording (the one at the start of the lesson) has a 66.4% swing, whilst Neil Young’s recording (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYY87VEQtRM) uses a 65.7% swing, i.e. they are pretty much the same.
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This is the first time I’m attempting to transcribe a full song exactly (which is why the music is written out in full, instead of just indicating a repeat, as Neil Young makes small variations on each repeat). Do let me know if you spot any mistakes! The recording that I used was one issued in the “50th anniversary edition” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPyYyjFL_bs). A couple of interesting observations:
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Compared to Justin’s “mini-strum”, Neil Young seems to use a lot more single note picks. Personally, I think the mini-strums sound better, so I’m sticking with Justin’s version. (The transcription still show’s Neil Young’s version.)
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Neil Young does a “strumming push” (see https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/the-rhythm-push-bg-1007) on the Esus4 just after the F/C chord in the verses (end of bars 14, 22, 38, and 46), that wasn’t in Justin’s lesson. I think it sounds great, so I’m doing that too.
Hope someone else finds this useful! I seem to only be able to upload images on this forum; if you would like the PDF, just let me know.
