Easy Blues Guitar Lesson - Folsom Prison Blues

For more information from the source site of this video please visit: http://secretguitarteacher.com/youtube/intermediate/blues/Zv4akcNIWlI/83619867-easy-blues-guitar-lesson-folsom-prison-blues.php

This is a sample lesson from the Secret Guitar Teacher site (see link above).

It is a nice easy blues tune and can be learned by beginners or near beginners.

Here's the abridged transcript:

This is the best example I know of country blues. It includes one of the most infamous lines from popular music lyrics – “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”. Johnny Cash is quoted as saying of this line: "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind” – Powerful stuff!

There are a lot of special things about this tune – but one of the most notable attributes from our point of view right now, is that it is the only 12-bar blues I know that’s 11 bars long!

Let’s kick off with the intro lick.Here it is in close up. Notice I work this from the B7 shape – this is a good trick to help you remember the lick and also helps you understand how it relates to the chords of the song.The real trick is to get back to the E chord as you land on the open E note at the end of the lick and go straight into the strumming.

The rhythm of the song really comes from its steam train motif!
It’s a strong 16-beat feel with an accentuated offbeat. The right hand wants to move pretty fast on this. But the trick is to mute out all but those strong off-beats. This is done with the left hand and is itself a very crucial technique to learn.

Now, if you’ve not been playing that long – this may well be a bit of a challenge. It’s important to not get too bogged down in it – there are many ways to strum a song and it’s fine to settle on a simpler solution for the time being..for example.

Okay, so the sequence proceeds as normal until we come to the 10th bar where, instead of the half-expected return to the A chord commonly found at this juncture, it hangs on for an extra bar of B7.Then back to E for just one bar before the whole sequence repeats, the Vocals coming back in a bar earlier than we would expect in a 12-bar – that’s the effect of it being an 11-bar!! I think this again enhances the Train motif – and goes with the lyric ‘But that train keeps rollin’…

That’s about it really for the rhythm part except to look out for a repeat of the intro riff at the end of the song.

In the toolbox you’ll find the rhythm chart and a backing track for this one.

In the next lesson we’ll show you how to play the solo.
See you then!

Видео Easy Blues Guitar Lesson - Folsom Prison Blues канала New Secret Guitar Teacher