I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash (Beginner Song Guitar Lesson BS-105) How To Play

In this very easy beginner song guitar lesson (Stage 1) we're going to learn a simplified version of Johnny Cash's I Walk The Line. How much fun can you have with just A, D and E? :)

The Justinguitar Beginners Songbook contains 100 songs specifically structured for beginners and there are 10 songs for each stage of the Beginners Course. See the web site for the beginner lessons and more info including full song list, sample songs and order details.

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

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To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

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Have fun :)

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I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

I keep my eyes

wide open all the time

I keep the ends out for

the tie that binds

because you're mine

I walk the line

I find very very easy to be true

I find myself alone when each day's through

Yes, I'll admit that

I'm a fool for you

Because you're mine

I walk the line

Okay, this is a very very simplified

version of "I walk the line" by Johnny Cash.

I'm Justin, in case you didn't know already.

Apologies to big Johnny Cash fans,

because I'm trying to get stick

it's just hard song to sing

So we're gonna look at few different versions

there's the actual one has bunch of other stuff going on

a lot more chords in the intro

single line things, key changes

But it's such a wonderful song to play for beginners

I've kinda simplified it down a little bit so that

you can play it just with an E, A and D chord

And even the strumming can be kept simple

or you can make it a little bit more fancier

Simple one first

We've got whole bar of E

followed by whole bar of A

meaning 4 strums

Back to E again

for 4 strums and back to A again

for 4 strums

and 4 on D

and back to A

because you're E

I walk the A

And that again

I keep an E watch

on this heart of A

I keep my E chord open all the A

I keep the D out

for the tie that A

Because you're E

I walk the A

So, that's it

You can play the tune like that

why it's such a great one

for beginner guitar players to play

nice simple chords

4 down strums per bar - job done!

But you can also take it a little bit further

So, as you progress a litte bit on the guitar

you might wanna try out

the "boom-chicka" strumming pattern

which is a classic kinda Johnny Cash thing going on.

And to do that you kinda hit

the first downstrum on the bass strings of the chord

and then down up on the thinnest strings

So bass down-up

Boom-chicka

So that one..... (counting)

As soon as you apply that to this pattern

I keep close watch on this heart of mine

I keep my eyes wide open all the time

I keep the ends out for the tie that binds

Because you're mine

I walk the line

So you can see straightaway it has

more of that kind of flavour if you want

Definitely not something that beginner guitar players

should be trying

so if you're on my Beginners Course

and you're doing the stage 1 still

just stick with that easy strumming

Worry about trying adding those

fancier strumming patterns later

It's really important

that you don't tryna

approach those things too earlier

Because it'll make your

it'll kinda mock up your strumming

because you'll be stopping for your chord changes

If you go like

You're teaching yourself that it's OK

to stop strumming and it's not

Once you started strumming

you gotta tryna keep that pattern going all the time

So that's there's such a strong emphasis on the course

on keeping the strumming real simple

on those early songs

until you kinda confident enough and fast enough

with your chord changes

that you can do a strumming pattern

and keep going.

So that's important.

And if you wanna..

If you're beyond that

you can do regular 4 bar strumming

you can do boom chicka thing

the other that you can do

is start alternating the bass part

the bass note that you play

so on the E

E

B

you play the 6th string

5th string

So you end up with that walking bass thing

If I just play without speaking

So you can hear it's suddenly a lot more complicated

going on when you get that alternating bass thing

but again that's kind of the end of the beginners course kind stuff

that you shouldn't...

Again, can't emphasize enoung

if you are beginner guitar player

just be really stoked with being

to get through the tune

and keep the strumming real simple

Make sure that you can get those

chord changes without having to stop your strumming

That should be the aim for the stage-1,2,3 guitar players

You know that's where you should be at

But it's such a great song

Apologies again to the Cash fans

for simplifying it it and trying to sing like him

but you know I'm tryna keep

Johnny Cash's music alive with the young generation

You should all go on and checkout his music

because it's the best

I'll see for another lesson

very soon, take care of yourselves!

Bye-bye!