Lauren Bateman leads a beginner-focused guitar lesson demonstrating the intro to Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line." The instructor breaks the intro down string-by-string (starting on the high E string, then A, D, and low E), emphasizes left-hand fingering (use 1st and 3rd fingers for frets 2 and 4; pinky optional for arthritic learners), shows a B7 chord transition, and explains right-hand picking strategies (alternate picking and directional picking). The lesson includes slow and faster playthroughs and notes that the tab will be posted on the instructor's website.
Chapters
Hey, guitar enthusiast Lauren Bateman here and I'm going to be showing you a great intro to Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line. It's going to sound something like this.
So this intro features a lot of great walk downs and a lot of great walk ups. It's got a lot of open strings, which makes it great for beginners. We're primarily going to be using our first finger and our third finger to play the second and fourth frets on our guitar. Alright, so we're going to start on this high E string, second fret, fourth fret. Okay, so whenever you see the number two, we're going to use our first finger. Okay. Whenever you see the number four, we're going to use our third finger. And there's one part later, we're going to have to adjust fingers, but we'll get to that when we get there. So the first three notes are open E string, second fret, fourth fret on the top string. Now again, I teach a lot of older learners. If you're someone who has arthritis in that stretch right now you're a beginner, maybe it's too much. You could use your pinky if you want to. If that's a little bit more comfortable and perfectly fine with that. Ideally I would use my first and third work on stretching out those hands. But again, if you're an older learner that does have a little bit of arthritis, sometimes that first of pinky is a little bit more comfortable. So that is our first three notes. If we go to our next measure, we've got a few more notes. We've got an open A, we've got an open E. And then we're back to open A. We're going to play that twice and then 2, 4 on the A string. All right, so so far we've got.
Okay, so it's.
Again.
Okay, so you see, we just basically did the same thing just on a different string.
Okay. And now we're going to be doing something very, very similar on the next one. So we're going to be playing open D string. Okay, open A string and then we have 2D strings.
Now we're going to take those same notes and we're going to go backwards. We're going to go four, two, open. Okay, so again we're starting on the open D. Open A, two open Ds.
And then four, two, open. Okay, that gets us back to an A. Let's try that from the beginning. So we've got.
After this we're going to go to the second Second fret on the D string.
Sorry, I used my first finger to keep it consistent. And then we're going to do double A, Open a string.
4, 2 on the E string.
And then open E there. Okay, so again, starting at the second fret on the D string, then open A twice.
4, 2 on the high or this low E string.
Because it has a low sound. High E, higher E. And then we're going to drop our first finger down to the A string on the second fret. Play that twice.
And then open to open on the E string. Okay, let's play what we've got so far. Okay, Back to the beginning. So we've got.
Okay, so that's where we are. We got two measures left here. We're switching over to a B7 chord. So this is where the change is going to happen. So we're going to take our second fret, our second finger on the second fret of that A string. We're going to play that with our second finger so that we have our first finger to reach the first fret on the D string. So it's going to be two, one on the D string. Okay, back to two on the A string. Open A string. Now you can adjust your hand back. Four, two on that low E string open. And then two on the A string, open. Two, open. All right, so let's take this from the very, very top again. Okay, so we've got. I'll do it very slow with the timing, and then I will do it faster so that you guys can practice along with me. We'll go very, very slow. And then after that, I'm going to talk a little bit about what I'm doing my picking here. But first, we just want to get a feel for the music. Okay, so let's take it from the top. One, two, read.
Now, you may have noticed on that one, because I had time I went very slow. The fifth measure, I move my second finger in place to get ready for that B7 chord. Now, would I do that if I were playing very fast? I don't know. I guess we'll find out. But I want to talk a little bit about the picking. So we're going very slow, but this song is very fast, this intro.
So what am I doing with my picking hand? So a lot of students, when they start off, they do all down picks, and you could probably. This song isn't that fast that you could probably get away with it. But eventually, if you start feeling like you're rushing, we're going to do something Called alternate picking. Alright, so when I play on the same string, take these first three notes as an example. Instead of just going down, down, down.
I might go down, up, down, down, up, down. And then the next note, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up.
Now, you saw there were a couple spots where I didn't strictly stick to alternate picking. There were a couple times where I did a couple downs in a row, couple ups in a row. But for the most part it does stick. Stick. Now, the rule of thumb, the rule of thumb that I was taught, if you're playing the same string, alternate pick.
Okay? If you're moving between strings, move. We call this directional picking. Move in the direction of the picking. So for example, let's take these first four notes. If I were doing strictly alternate picking.
I would go down, up, down, up.
But I went down, up, down, down.
My pick is already moving down. So why go below the string and then have to pick up? You might as well just go through the string. You're already passing through it.
Down, up, down, down, up, down, up, down, up.
Now this D, it just happens. I'm supposed to do down next and I do want to move down in the string.
So I'm going to play down, up, down, up.
Right here, this is a double up. I'm coming up to the four.
So see, I'm moving. So you see I'm coming from this low E string. So I'm doing down into that second fret, down into the first fret, back up to the second fret, and then.
Down, up, up, down, up, down, up.
And my pick kind of ends up between the E and a string on the end here. So if you're ready, let's try playing through at a faster speed. But if you need to pause and practice what I've showed you, feel free to do that. You can also check out my website where I'll have this intro tab posted for you to follow along with. But let's take it from the top. Ready? We got 1, 2, 1, 2, here we go.
Now, if you enjoyed this lesson and want to learn how to strum along and throw some walk downs into the song, I'd highly recommend you go check out my walk the line lesson right over there.
