anyonecanplayguitar

Needle in the Hay by Elliott Smith (Patreon)

Published:

2026-09-19 10:35:56

Imported:

2026-09

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Hi all,

This lesson is on Needle in the Hay by Elliott Smith, from his 1995 self-titled second album. He's long been one of my favourite songwriters, and this is one of his better-known tunes.

It's a deceptively simple-sounding track with some lovely double-stop voicings and a potentially quite tricky pushed rhythm running through it. This is quite a detailed lesson in which I take my time trying to get to the bottom of what is going on.

Full tab can be found below. The only parts I didn't really discuss in the video are some of the variations that you hear in the third verse, but hopefully the tab will help if you want to get every last detail of this one together.

And if you're in the mood for more Elliott, you might like to check out the lesson I did on his great instrumental Kiwi Mad Dog 20/20 quite a while ago. You can find it here.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend, everybody.

-Adrian

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Needle in the Hay by Elliott Smith | Guitar Lesson

Needle in the Hay is one of Elliott Smith's most powerful songs, and there's a lot going on in the guitar part despite how sparse it sounds. In this lesson I break down the whole tune: the double-stop shapes that outline the main chord progression, the syncopated rhythm that pushes ahead of the beat throughout (the main thing that makes this tune tricky to feel), the three-note voicings with the melodic line woven into the chorus and verse, and the bridge section with its bigger open chord shapes. Standard tuning, key of A minor. I'm playing fingerstyle rather than with a pick, but a pick will work fine too. Guitar used: Martin D-28 Tab and backing track can be found on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/anyonecanplayguitar My in-depth course library: https://courses.anyonecanplayguitar.co.uk My latest album: https://zodiactoys.bandcamp.com/releases SUBSCRIBE for more: https://bit.ly/3Efy0W3 Check out my website: https://www.anyonecanplayguitar.co.uk Social blah: Instagram (occasionally I post here): https://www.instagram.com/acpgtr/ Time Stamps - Hi 00:00 Performance 00:42 About the song 02:20 Strumming technique 03:44 Intro, Part 1 04:19 Understanding the rhythm 07:52 Intro, Part 2 10:50 Verse Part 15:55 Chorus Part 17:23 Bridge 18:02 Verse 3 variations 20:04 End chorus 21:22 Outro 21:59 Gear used in this video 23:19 Bye 24:44