Heart of Gold

Song Title: Heart Of Gold

Artist: Neil Young

Key Of Original Recording: G

Harmonica Key Suggested: G – first position

You can’t chuck a rock without hitting a Neil Young song with harmonica in it, and Heart Of Gold is no exception. The song itself has three short harp solos in it. While you can get away with playing this song without the harmonica, it’s not something I’d recommend. If you can learn how to strum the guitar part of Heart Of Gold while playing the harmonica at the same time, well done, it can be a bit tough. Alternatively, have a friend play the guitar part while you play harmonica and sing.

Heart Of Gold is originally recorded with a G harmonica in first position and it sounds very good way down there. G is one of the lowest harp tunings, and it suits the song well. I say “it’s in G,” but it’s more in E minor (the relatively minor of G); there’s some theory behind this that I’m not going to go into.

Of course you can move it to another key, but it loses some of the tone that you can only get with a G harmonica.

Heart Of Gold only works in the first position. I used my harmonica position changer to quickly see if it would work in a different position, and it doesn’t. That being said, you wouldn’t really need or want to play Heart Of Gold in any other position. It’s not really a song you jam on!

Heart Of Gold First Harmonica Solo

If you can’t bend, you may have trouble with the first opening solo for Heart Of Gold, especially for the draw 6 bend. The good news is you can mostly get away with not doing the bend or at least trying and failing the bend.

4       5       6       -5       5       -4/       -4      4      23
6       7       -6       6       -6/      6       5
34       34       34       45       45     45       56       56      56       -45       45       34

Heart Of Gold Second Harmonica Solo

Personally, this is my favourite of the three harmonica parts from Heart Of Gold. What’s yours?

4       5       6       6       -5       5       -45       45       34
67       78       -56       56       -56       56       -56       56       45
67       67       56       56       45       45       34       34       -23       34       -34       45       -45       56       45       -34       34

Heart Of Gold Third Harmonica Solo

This final bit gets a bit trickier because of the rhythm. Practice it and you’ll nail it.

67      67      7      -6      6      7      -6      6      -6/      -6      -6/      -6      6      4
56       56      56      56      56      34      56      34      -23      -34      45      -45      45      45      45      45
7      -6      6      7      6      -6      6      -6/      -6      6      5      -4      4