I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash Lesson

Song Lessons Grade 1 Songs
1

Learn to play I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash on JustinGuitar!


View the full lesson at I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash | JustinGuitar

3

4 bars each
E A E A D A E A

2 Likes
9

This is the first song I played where it became clear to me that the time feel is absolutely critical to nailing the sound. And if you get the guitar part right the guitar will carry the entire song, covering the bass and drums as well as the harmonic structure.

The boom-chick-a rhythm is not trivial and has to be solid. It’s also so prevalent in classic country and rockabilly that I believe it is worth spending the time to get it really dialed in. Does anyone have any advice for nailing this sound and practicing? I am totally open to external links (if they are allowed on this forum).

To be clear I am playing the pattern as I understand it to be played originally; with the BOOM on the lower strings as a bass note and the CHICK-A on the upper strings as a chord.

11

What tempo should a beginner be targeting? I have Justin Guitar tabs and it indicates 100+ bpm which seems a bit fast for a beginner

1 Like
12

I too would like to know the answer to this question.

13

Start at what ever bpm you can comfortably strum 1 down strum per bar. Try 60bpm as a bench mark. If that’s to slow go higher if it to fast slow down. Once you find the comfort zone you’ll need to start pushing yourself high by about 3-5 bpm each time you practice. If you find yourself making mistakes or struggling to keep up slow down a few bpm until you get it right.

Remember “Practice Makes Permanent” so if you are practicing mistakes your learning mistakes.

2 Likes
14

So I thought this would be one of the song for my 5 song basket to pass level 1. Got ready to play with the app and realized the cords are different. We need B7 E7 A7 as well. How do you guys deal with these differences as a level 1 learner?

1 Like
15

Welcome to the forum Daniel. Forget the app do Justins version using A E D it’s easier. If you need something to play with use the intro of Justin’s lesson video.

16

Yeah, with other songs I have done that, just follow the intro along. On this song, he suddenly starts speeding up and adding strumming. Not ideal to play along. I bought the app thinking it will help me playing songs. But I really don’t like it much I must say. So what are others do with this particular song?

1 Like