Hey rhythm strummers, here is really cool and easy way to play Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire.

[Demonstration]

I can only show you a few seconds of that in this free lessons. So I would like to save a little bit of it for later. But in the mean time let me show you some really cool stuff that is useful for this song and for a ton of others.

One of the most distinguishing features of Ring of Fire sis that mariachi band thing. That was two trumpets playing harmonies. So what I’d like to do is set a side Ring of Fire for a bit, and let me show you this basic idea of playing harmony on one guitar with yourself, it’s really useful it something that’s done in a zillion songs, this idea of playing in thirds that you will hear it on ballad of John and Yoko, you’ll hear on Margarita Ville, you’ll hear it on Santa Luchia. It’s all over music. And the basic idea is you got two strings happening at the same time and they’re playing harmonies with each other, your third and your second string are tuned to a major third. So you are already playing harmony with yourself just by doing that. This should be encouraging to you. I’m playing harmony with myself to make it a little bit more interesting, there are two left hand shapes that I want to show you that are going to unable you t play more than just that, because that is going to get kind of old for after while.

So here is what I want to show you. I’m going to do it a little bit up to speed and I’’ slow it down and show you exactly what I’m doing, and it’s really easy and really useful so stick with me [Demonstration].

So let us learn how to do that. The first shade doesn’t count, it’s just that. The third shade does not really count because it is just one little finger movement, I will get to that. But the second and third, the first and second shape really does count, it’s this one. All you do is you take your index finger, your first finger put it on the second string of the first fret and you put your middle finger on the third string at the second fret and you have this two notes right here.

So here is what I like to do now. Do that with me. If you want to play your forth string, fills it out a little bit. If you want to bring the first string into [Demonstration], gives it a different sort of new age sound. I prefer to just play forth, third, and second strings here. Ready to move on to the next position, it’s this. Right now, we’re there, all you do is you take that up and you slide it up two frets. You got that. So we go back to open position, slide it up two more frets, slide it back down. Let’s do that again. Back down, one more time. Okay, now you drop out, I'm going to keep going. I have just moved from this position here right with my index finger on the second string, third fret. My middle finger on the third string, fourth fret and I’ve slid my middle finger up one fret and I now put my ring finger down on the second string at the fifth fret.

Now if that’s a lot of numbers for you and your eyes are glazing over, all you need to remember is this shape right here, which is the same as this shape right here, that shape and then this shape where your ring and your middle are right next to each other. So once you know those two shapes, there’s a lot of music you can make. So let’s take another few seconds and learn that second or third shape. Whatever we’re calling this, right there. Make sure you’re with me on that because we’re about to move it up and if you’re not on this shape with me, you’re going to get frustrated. Ring finger is on the second string at the fifth fret and your middle finger is on the third string at the fifth fret. Now slide that up two frets, and back down to the fifth fret. Back up to the seventh fret. Okay, now let us go back down. We’re going down for the fifth fret. Now, let us go with that other shape that we learned.

So now drop out of second, here’s what I want you to do with me now. Not yet, you still drop that. Okay. Join me out on if you would [Demonstration]. Slide up, slide up, slide up. Now back down, back down, back down and open. Okay, now let’s do that one more time and when we get to the top, I'm just going to do one little thing to finish it all off. Okay, here we go [Demonstration]. And now, what I did was I took my ring finger from this position here and I slid it up one fret. Notice, I'm mainly hitting fourth, third and second strings here. So can you do this with me? Give me this position here. My ring finger is just slid up to the eight fret of the second string. One fret above the seventh, that’s what it is right there. Now, without moving your middle finger, slide your ring finger back down, back up.

Now, let’s go back down to the fifth fret. Let’s go back down, back down and open. Now, let’s do it one more time all the way up to the top really slowly. Again, I'm playing four, three and two. And if you want to strum the first string too, that’s fine. Here we go [Demonstration]. Down we go, and the way that would work is [Demonstration].

And that will work in Ring of Fire. So if you want to learn the rest of the tune after you have had a chance to practice that a lot, come on over t Rhythm Strumming and let’s jam unto the tune a lot.

Thanks, I’ll see you down the road.