Song 4 - "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash

Time for a bit of blues with Johnny Cash! This one is all about the string crossings it looks like. I personally love playing the blues. It’s fun!

Song: Folsom Prison Blues
Artist: Johnny Cash
Tuning: Standard (EADG)

Spotify link

For a backing track with bass removed, please pop onto Discord or contact @gcancella

Tips: A few modifications to make it sound a bit better are here

Member Audio/Video Submission Shortcuts:

BigAl / Ruknrole / JerryP / John_E / Barney / Enkhiel / JT / Reo / JDDaniel / GanglyCloth / JPHaggerty

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Greeting, Here’s my take on Folsom Prison Blues. Trying to get that double bass sound decided to use homemade mute. Thanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvAVBNWieq0&loop=0

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Good job! Definitely can gear the muted sound you were going for. I think be bass could be a little bit louder in the mix for the challenge, but no big deal. You seemed to settle into the groove nicely.

How did you find this song compared to the others? It looks relatively simple to me rhythm wise, but obviously has TONS of string change going on. It’s one where I’d love to be a master of the finger roll, but I’m far from that. :slight_smile:

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Good job @BigAl

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Not your Typical 12 bar blues it’s like a 11 bar blues. 4 bars of cord I , 2bars IV cord, back to 2 bars of I cord then the end was 2 bars V cord back to The I cord. Very fun song I enjoyed playing it. I’ll turn up the bass mix on next song. Thanks

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Nice tone @BigAl, and nice bass!

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Here is my entry for week 4.

I changed a few things just to make it a bit more interesting to play.

  • I bumped up the timing to 120 bpm.
  • I changed the intro and outro a bit.
  • At the end of verse 2 and 3, I added some Pentatonic Blues scale.

During the intro I came in 1/2 second late (by mistake), but synched up by the 2nd measure. This made it sound cool so I left it in. It reminded me of a Mexican car horn.
:laughing:

I found this one difficult to play. Not sure if it’s me, but it felt like the band sped up the tempo just a tiny bit during the solos, just enough to throw you off your rhythm. I wonder if it was from me speeding up the tempo of the backing track.

https://youtu.be/1WTxpeHRtCE

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Great Job @BigAl, thanks for the tip on the mute (reaching for my foam now).
Sounds good, I think the bass is mixed quite well, sits very nice.

@PamPurrs - isn’t that a short scale MM you are looking for that @BigAl is playing?

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@RuknRole…I like this song a lot more sped up!
Great tone and well done.
What bass are you using, etc?
Good for you adding fills, etc, nice touch.

I agree it felt like it sped up a little past half way.

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Dunno (shrugs)

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Really nice, I liked your modifications, definitely improved the song :+1:

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Good job @BigAl and @RuknRole!

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Here is my contribution. I recorded this long before the 50S/100W challenge was announced so I didn’t follow the score in our lessons extras webpage. I played the bass line an octave lower and added a fill during the non-vocal verses. Also, it’s all slides for the video because it was the fourth video I did during a two week lock down in Japan, and I got tired of looking at myself on the computer. I changed the title card at the end to reflect the 50S/100W Challenge.
I hope you all enjoy it.

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Thanks @John_E!

I’m using a Fender Professional II P Bass with Ernie Ball Slinky strings. Tone knob is about 3/4 closed. Going straight into a Focusrite Scarlet Solo interface into Reaper. Applied the included VST EQ plugin, and just picked one of the default presets from the list that I thought sounded good.

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Very nice @JerryP. Excellent slide show as well :+1:

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Great job @JerryP! Nice video montage too!

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nice @RuknRole

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Thanks @PamPurrs and @RuknRole!

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Thanks​:+1::beers:

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Thanks, Jerry :+1::beers:

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