In this lesson, we’re going to look at Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” (that’s the YouTube link if you want to view there). It’s a great song and also a pretty easy one to learn.
The neat thing about Ring of Fire is that it only uses three chords, and those chords happen to be the most popular chord progressions known to man. That progression is called the 1-4-5 chord progression, and it is a staple of Rock n’ Roll, the Blues, Country, and just about every genre. So let’s jump in and get started. Further explanation is below the video…
Okay, so “Ring of Fire” was originally written and recorded by Johnny Cash in the Key of G Major, and it uses the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of that key. If you want to know more about understanding keys in music, visit the link. Basically, what you need to understand is this:
Every Key will only have 7 letters. It will start on the Root, or 1st tone, which is the name of the Key (i.e. the Key G Major starts on the note G). Every key will then go thru 7 notes until it returns to the 1, or 8th tone called the octave. Octaves are just groups of 8 notes that repeat the same pattern for as many spaces as our instrument can match. On guitar we have at most 4 octaves, more on piano.
Anyhow…G Major starts on G and returns to G using our musical alphabet notes (A-G). So this yields, G – A – B – C – D – E – F# – G. That’s it! Every key would follow the same pattern of starting on its key root note and using successive and unique alphabet letters (sometimes needing a sharp #, or flat b), but always going from 1 to 8. Make sense?
As an example let’s just look at two other keys so you see the pattern. A Major yields, A – B – C# – D – E – F# – G# – A. C Major yields, C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C. Hopefully that shows the pattern. To understand this see the graphics below, or go through more of the lessons here. You can always send me an email or leave a comment with questions.
As you can see, a key is formed by first spelling out the 1 position or scale root, then we harmonize the 3rd position below it all the way thru, and lastly, the 5th position of the scale is then harmonized below the 1st and 3rd positions, until it repeats again back under our octave. These stacks are known as guitar triads or chords.
Since we have 7 tones, and now 7 stacks of 3 notes (triads, which are the minimum 3 notes we must have to make a chord), we have 7 chords. That’s our key. Every key only has 7 chords, and the qualities of those chords relative to their positions are always the same. So the 1-4-5 chords will always be Major chords. The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th chords will always be minor chords, and the 7th chord is always a minor chord, with a flattened 5th note.
That might be a bit confusing, but understanding guitar chords doesn’t take too much time. Hopefully this lesson has added a little clarity and we learned a great song in the key of G Major by Johnny Cash. I love “Ring of Fire” and glad I finally got around to covering it and teaching it to your for guitar!
If you’re not already a member here at LearnToPlayGuitarTV.com, then be sure to sign up for more FREE lessons.
Wishing you the best in your learning,
Andrew
Welcome to Strictly Reading and Leeds’ new weekly feature: “My Favourite …”. Every Saturday, you’ll get the chance to know our writers that little bit better as they tell you about their favourite records, gigs and bands.
We’re starting with albums, and kicking us off in style is Strictly punk specialist Adam McCartney who’ll be telling you about his all time favourite album…
Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell - Social Distortion (Epic 1992, Dave Jerden)My love affair with this record started back when I was at university, in fact, it was at university that I developed most of my love of music. I went to uni with a mild appreciation for punk, rock, indie and metal and had been to a small smattering of gigs, and I left there with a 500 strong CD collection and a fair few ticket stubs. I got deep into punk, listening to any and everything going but also genres and styles I’d not touched on before like blues, folk and country music.
This greater appreciation of punk but also blues, folk and country all came together when I discovered Social Distortion who, for the uninitiated, are punk through and through, but blend in blues and folk and most notably country music. Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell itself has an ‘old skool’ rock n’ roll feel about it.
The album cover, a black and white photo of band founder Mike Ness in mid jump armed with a Les Paul, backed with yellow and purple, could be an album cover from the 1950s or early 1960s, just replace Ness with Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran or Buddy Holly. And this isn’t an album made by pretty boys, Mike & the rest of the band are genuine bad ass, tattooed rock n’ rollers, but the songs have a heart and soul to them much like the influences the band wear firmly on their sleeves.
The songs themselves are at their best, simple. Even the song titles like ‘Cold Feelings’ and ‘Bad Luck’ do what they say on the tin. The former opens the album, a dark driving fist pumper that gets the blood going followed by the latter which tells of Mike’s struggles with adversity. It’s a subject that runs through the bands whole catalogue, that of the down trodden dreamer who keeps coming up short but bouncing back.
Social Distortion are no strangers to covers, they’ve nailed a couple of Stones numbers in their time (‘Under My Thumb’ and ‘Backstreet Girl’) and Johnny Cash’s evergreen classic ‘Ring of Fire’ and Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell’s cover is a relatively little known Kitty Wells number, ‘Making Believe’. The tale of unrequited love fits the album perfectly as the band beef up Kitty’s original acoustic version with power chords and Ness’s dulcet tones.
This album is, in my opinion, one of the best collisions of country and punk (cowpunk) and the album’s fourth track sounds like Hank Williams himself has penned it. You could imagine Williams crooning and yodelling his way through lines like “Well I’m sorry honey, I ain’t got much money, but I can sure play this here ol’ guitar”, only Hank wouldn’t have been playing with such power or at a Ramones-esque pace.
The cowpunk continues on ‘99 to Life’ a murder ballad that Johnny Cash could have made his own, if he’d have just covered it during his American Recordings. Its slow, angry and literally murderous as Mike sings about killing his wife and going down for it. It could easily be filed alongside Cash’s own ‘Cocaine Blues’.
‘King of Fools’ speeds things back up and lightens the mood again as Mike sings of his success in life but failure with love, “I was born a king of fools, at any other game I never lose, but when it comes around to love it’s when I realise, I was born the king of fools”. Mike seems to take his failure on a chin, don’t let his guyliner of recent years fool you, he’s no ‘emo’, he’s a realist accepting his lot in life.
‘This Time Darlin’ is a distorted country punk ballad lighters-in-the-air closer (excluding bonus track ‘Ghost Time Blues’) and it wraps things up well. It trawls the themes throughout the rest of the record, getting hit, getting back up and going on with life because you’ve got to.
To me this album is life affirming. It’s powerful and sincere at heart and delves deep into the positives and negatives life throws us all and asks how we all deal with them when we do get hit. It’s got the soul so I can listen to it sat on the sofa or with headphones in looking out the train window just taking it in whilst also having the balls so I can have it blaring out some speakers as I leap from my furniture windmilling. I can literally enjoy this album whenever, however I desire and that is why it is my all time favourite record.
Next Week: Hard Rock, Metal and occasional Dance specialist Sophie Maughan steps up to the plate to discuss her favourite record.
For more information about My Favourite Album…Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell please visit Reading and Leeds Festivals » Features.
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