I Walk The Line

[KDepew]

Another great Johnny Cash Intro to learn for those Spring campouts! Part 2 coming!

[The Bard Rocks]

As I recall, as Johnny played it, it changes key 5 times. Remember how he hums before starting a verse? Thats to get the new key fixed in his head.

[Crazyguitardj]

All of the chord sheets I've found have it all in the same key...

[RickRS]

Originally Posted by Crazyguitardj

All of the chord sheets I've found have it all in the same key...

It should be as follows, assuming starting in key of E (video capos up one fret to key of F while playing E):
1st verse key of E
2nd verse key of A
3th verse key of D
4th verse key of A
5th verse key of E

each key change signaled with a bass run, and Johnny humming before starting the verse to reinforce the changes and maybe center himself in the key, as the Bard said.

[Crazyguitardj]

Originally Posted by RickRS

It should be as follows, assuming starting in key of E (video capos up one fret to key of F while playing E):
1st verse key of E
2nd verse key of A
3th verse key of D
4th verse key of A
5th verse key of E

each key change signaled with a bass run, and Johnny humming before starting the verse to reinforce the changes and maybe center himself in the key, as the Bard said.

Interesting. Do you know where I can find the chord sheet that has the key changes? It would make the song a lot more interesting than just playing it in G

[mr. beaumont]

If ya really want to sound like Johnny and Luther, tune up to F!

This is a deceptively tricky tune...on the original, the electric guitar BARELY strums, and on some later versions, doesn't strum at all. And Johnny's got the ol "paper under the strings" thing going too...throw the key changes in, and ya got a doozy, with lots of variables.

One thing thats not a variable though, and you might wanna fix, is that Luther always went up to the 3rd on the lick over the B(7) chord, instead of down a fifth to the F#. That D# is pretty clear on every version.

[RickRS]

Originally Posted by Crazyguitardj

Interesting. Do you know where I can find the chord sheet that has the key changes? It would make the song a lot more interesting than just playing it in G

Try this at Ultimate Guitar https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab...-chords-278859

Note that if you follow the tab intro and tab bass "walk up"/"walk down" you're suppose to finish in a chord that is omitted from the chart. In effect, you come out of the intro and are in an E chord. It's not shown on the chart. Then follow the chord changes shown for first verse.

Bass "walk up" tab after 1st verse takes you from E chord to A chord. Again, A chord is omitted from the chart, but is mentioned by the author as "(Then walk up to A)".

And so on.

If this doesn't jell, PM me and I'll get you a straight fore chart.

[Crazyguitardj]

Originally Posted by RickRS

Try this at Ultimate Guitar https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab...-chords-278859

Note that if you follow the tab intro and tab bass "walk up"/"walk down" you're suppose to finish in a chord that is omitted from the chart. In effect, you come out of the intro and are in an E chord. It's not shown on the chart. Then follow the chord changes shown for first verse.

Bass "walk up" tab after 1st verse takes you from E chord to A chord. Again, A chord is omitted from the chart, but is mentioned by the author as "(Then walk up to A)".

And so on.

If this doesn't jell, PM me and I'll get you a straight fore chart.

Makes perfect sense. I will definitely be practicing this one a lot lol been playing for 2 years and still haven't ever mastered B7... I've always capoed around it... I guess laziness catches up to you after while

[Crazyguitardj]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

If ya really want to sound like Johnny and Luther, tune up to F!

This is a deceptively tricky tune...on the original, the electric guitar BARELY strums, and on some later versions, doesn't strum at all. And Johnny's got the ol "paper under the strings" thing going too...throw the key changes in, and ya got a doozy, with lots of variables.

One thing thats not a variable though, and you might wanna fix, is that Luther always went up to the 3rd on the lick over the B(7) chord, instead of down a fifth to the F#. That D# is pretty clear on every version.

Do you mind explaining what you mean by tuning up to F? I'm a fairly new guitarist...

[BlueStarfish]

Just guessing he meant apply a capo at the first fret to take the keys from E/A/D/A/E, to F/Bb/Eb/Bb/F.

I don’t know for sure but we can assume Mr. Cash did that because he preferred those keys to sing in. The melody is simple enough, but because of the key changes, it actually requires a very broad singing range and is a challenging song to sing.

Unless you plan to sing it in the keys that Mr. Cash did, I wouldn’t worry about what key he used, and instead try to figure out what keys work for you. For my voice, that song works in A/D/G/D/A (with no capo). Vocal notes range from D2 to B3, I can do that and sound good. But not the keys Mr. Cash used. The keys that work for me probably aren’t your keys either, you’ll just have to play around to figure out what works.

[Crazyguitardj]

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish

Just guessing he meant apply a capo at the first fret to take the keys from E/A/D/A/E, to F/Bb/Eb/Bb/F.

I don’t know for sure but we can assume Mr. Cash did that because he preferred those keys to sing in. The melody is simple enough, but because of the key changes, it actually requires a very broad singing range and is a challenging song to sing.

Unless you plan to sing it in the keys that Mr. Cash did, I wouldn’t worry about what key he used, and instead try to figure out what keys work for you. For my voice, that song works in A/D/G/D/A (with no capo). Vocal notes range from D2 to B3, I can do that and sound good. But not the keys Mr. Cash used. The keys that work for me probably aren’t your keys either, you’ll just have to play around to figure out what works.

Okay gotcha. I knew it was Capo 1 but was confused cause he said to tune it up...

[mr. beaumont]

Yeah, sorry, wasn't trying to be confusing, but Johnny literally tuned up anywhere from a bit sharp to even more than a half step. E was "relative" to where his voice felt best. Back in the day, no capo. Makes a bigger difference in the electric guitar sound, the open notes especially.

[Crazyguitardj]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Yeah, sorry, wasn't trying to be confusing, but Johnny literally tuned up anywhere from a bit sharp to even more than a half step. E was "relative" to where his voice felt best. Back in the day, no capo. Makes a bigger difference in the electric guitar sound, the open notes especially.

Ahh okay I'll have to try that sometime

[mr. beaumont]

I don't necessarily recommend it for long periods of time, unless maybe you go down a gauge on strings. But it is a different sound than capo-ing, everything is tighter, stiffer, twangier...

I did it for this gig, which I've shared here before...the guy who's "Johnny" is a bit of a historian, he wanted to do this one in a little later style with drums to keep the energy up a little, so he had me play just the riff, no strums in between. He was originally strumming the acoustic open with the drums playing brushes, but the crowd was into all the historic stories he was sharing, so he decided to do the paper under the strings thing, but keep the drums, which I thought might have been a little too percussive, but it still worked. I was tempted to throw in a couple of the chords though!

Anyway, super fun gig, and really made me immerse myself in the style of Luther Perkins, which is deceptively tough...it's a very different way of playing, kinda stiff, very subdued, works just perfect with the music.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

I don't necessarily recommend it for long periods of time, unless maybe you go down a gauge on strings. But it is a different sound than capo-ing, everything is tighter, stiffer, twangier...

I did it for this gig, which I've shared here before...the guy who's "Johnny" is a bit of a historian, he wanted to do this one in a little later style with drums to keep the energy up a little, so he had me play just the riff, no strums in between. He was originally strumming the acoustic open with the drums playing brushes, but the crowd was into all the historic stories he was sharing, so he decided to do the paper under the strings thing, but keep the drums, which I thought might have been a little too percussive, but it still worked. I was tempted to throw in a couple of the chords though!

Anyway, super fun gig, and really made me immerse myself in the style of Luther Perkins, which is deceptively tough...it's a very different way of playing, kinda stiff, very subdued, works just perfect with the music.

Jeff,
That was awesome!
This guy is a dead on mimic. Not only the vocal timbre and inflections, but the whole body movements.
And great playing from you on the Luther part. Ditto the comment.
Really enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing that
(And yeah, this song is nowhere near as easy as it sounds).