How to play Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond
Crowd sing-along favourite Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond may be an old-school banger but it seems to be more popular now than ever! With the original recording being in B Major (yuk!) it can be trickier to play than you may expect. So, we have raised it a semitone up to the good old, dependable Key of C (C for Caroline!) and, hey presto - it’s much easier for accompanying guitarists!
Chords: G7, G9, G13, C, C6, F, F6, G, C6/E [Original key of B version: F#7, F#9, F#13, B, B6, E, E6, F#, B6/D#]
How to play along with the original: Want to play along with Neil Diamond but still use the key of C to make life easier? Here’s a cool hack: Try using the chrome extension transpose. It can adjust the pitch of youtube videos. Just tune the song up +1 semitone and it’ll work!
Pick or Fingers? Use a pick; you need to really pump out the sound in the chorus, especially if there are multiple singers.
Acoustic or Electric? Acoustic steel-string will sound best but the Electric will also work well. If playing with a large group of people singing you will probably need to amplify your acoustic instrument.
Intro riff : this is an extended G7 phrase that builds up, over seven bars, to resolve to the C that starts the verse. If you find the suggested part awkward play the first two bars three times (you can sing the harmony part over this), and hold the simple G7 for one more bar before the first bar begins.
How do you interpret the rhythm? The verse sounds good with lightly muted down-strums but the chorus needs a strong, full rhythm sound. The underlying rhythm is based on Country/Folk swing-quavers. This doesn’t sound as swingy as jazz but has an easy bouncy feel on the down-up quaver strums; lots of old Country and Folk songs use this rhythm style. Listen carefully to the original recording and try clapping the rhythm to it.
Relevant pages in Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 : For more detailed info about the chords and rhythms in Sweet Caroline go to pages 8, 10, 12-13, 18-19 and 38-39.
Need a bit of help?
Modern Guitar Chord Styles 1 is the perfect companion for our song guides. It will teach you how to read the rhythm slash notation used in our charts (and in professional theatre and studio charts) and is specially designed to help beginners speed up their chord changes, master strumming patterns, and many other techniques.