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Ring of Fire
by Johnny Cash • Lesson #134 • Sep 4, 2021
Description
Hey, friends! Here’s a series of videos teaching you how to play the Johnny Cash song “Ring of Fire” from 1963. Typically, Johnny Cash played this with his full band, benefiting from their drum / bass / electric guitar – but this lesson will teach you how to play the distinctive lead riff while strumming at the same time – which roughly approximates the sound of multiple instruments. Note, my licensed song sheet (linked further down this page) includes notes & tabs for all video lessons on this page.
Part 1: Song Basics
This is my original video tutorial (lesson #134), where I teach you how to play the chords and strumming (2:04); then give a careful explanation how to mimic that Mariachi horn sound with your acoustic guitar (6:25).
Part 2: Strumming & Rhythm
Here’s my follow-up video (lesson #387), where I dive deep into this song’s deceivingly simple rhythm, chord progression, and strumming patterns. This comes years after my original video lesson for this song, which is very popular – but has lead to lots of viewer feedback on this exact topic. I’ll break down the exact chord progression Cash’s album version uses, in addition to showing you a simplified progression chart for the entire song (e.g. if you don’t want to carve out time for the mariachi horn sections during the verse).
Part 3: Play-along Covers
In this final video, available only members of Song Notes Premium, I play through the entire song (start to finish) twice: one using the chord progression heard in Cash’s album version, and the other using a simplified strumming pattern that removes the horn sections.
Print-Friendly Song Sheet 5 pages
Follow along with my print-friendly guide for this song! It’s available for purchase at Musicnotes.com, the web’s leading provider of licensed sheet music.
On the fence? Here's a guide I made showing the purchase & print process, including answers to common questions about my song sheets.
Buy at Musicnotes.comMy other Johnny Cash guitar lessons
I’ve got plenty others, most of which have my licensed sheet music available for purchase – here they are!
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Hey there! My name is David Potsiadlo, and I'm the creator of the 400+ weekly lessons here at Song Notes, going back to 2013. Here’s my guitar story »
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