Chords for Johnny Cash's Favorite Ukulele Strum! ("Boom Dit-ty")
Tempo:
93.15 bpm
Chords used:
G
C
D
Eb
E
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
One of the most common rhythms that you'll find across folk, blues, roots music, and
country music is something called boom ditty.
Mastery of the strum will open up a lot of new horizons for you.
So today what we're going to do is we're going to break down how to use boom ditty
strum, how to play it with good tone and technique, and also how to apply it to Johnny Cash's
Folsom Prism Blues.
[C] Hey everybody, it's Stuart Fuchs from Ukulele Zen, the YouTube channel that's all about
helping you to learn to play music in a way that's fun and relaxing.
When we take a listen to the classic recordings of Johnny Cash's Tennessee Three, you hear
that there is a really tight interlocking train rhythm.
It's pretty amazing that they could accomplish this without a drummer.
And it's because, just like the music of Django [G] Reinhardt, the rhythm of the string instruments
are so precise that they interlock.
If you're so blessed to know a great bass player, you'll know that they are always willing
to hold it down, be humble, and that's what the base, the foundation of this sound is.
On top of this bass, you hear Johnny Cash's rhythm [N] guitar playing boom ditty, boom ditty,
boom ditty, boom ditty.
On [G] top of his rhythm, you hear
[G] And all the different rhythms and lead lines of Luther Perkins.
Sometimes for more of a percussive effect, Johnny Cash would weave a dollar bill in and
out of his guitar strings, and that helped to muffle the sound and create more of a snare drum sound.
I've never tried it with a ukulele, but it is a ton of fun.
I highly recommend that you try it with a guitar or a uke.
Let me know how it works out for you in the comment section below.
The song we're going to apply this to is Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You only need three chords, [C] G, C, and [D] D7.
The first step is to establish yourself in a steady, rock solid tempo.
So you put a metronome on and tap your foot to that beat.
That's where the bass player is going to be.
[N]
Now on top of that, we begin to play boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
Now hold on there, Stu.
Break that down for me.
My pleasure.
What we want to do is to understand that rhythms are best learned if we first articulate them
with the voice.
So say, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
The more you can say it clearly, the more that you're able to articulate with your hand
that rhythm coming out of your instrument.
Let's build that connection right now.
Boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
You notice how I'm only accenting the second stroke.
There's boom, d is the loud one, t is soft.
By accenting only the second one, your rhythm is really going to bounce along in a very cool way.
We don't want to play every strum hard.
That's going to not only sound less musical, but it's going to also strain your wrist.
Now here's an important detail about the boom of the boom ditty.
I'm only playing the bottom strings.
Boom is accented and I play all four strings.
T is all four strings.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
So boom is really just the bottom couple of strings and just bouncing off of them.
[G] It's a good idea to first go slowly and look at your hand.
I mean, literally look at it.
It's very common to look away from what you're doing here and it's natural, especially if
you're learning this off of a cell phone or a computer screen.
It's easy to get separated from what you're doing right here.
So always remember to take in the information through the portal of the eyes.
It really helps you to learn it more deeply.
Imprint it into your brain.
Imprint it into your circuitry.
All right, now let's go a little faster.
One, two, one, two, three, four.
Want to try it faster?
Let's do it.
One, two, one, two, three, four.
[N] Last thing I'll say before we get into the tune is that if you practice this with muffled
strum and you can make the accents clear with a muffled sound, then you're definitely going
to have a really clear sound when you go to fret your chords.
So by now you're probably getting really comfortable and familiar with the boom ditty strum.
I'm going to sing and play one verse of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You can on your own, of course, play the whole tune.
But what I'm going to do is just play one verse.
I'm going to show you a few rhythmic variations that I'm about to do.
One, two, ready?
One, [G] two, here we go.
I hear the train coming, rolling round the bend.
I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
[C] I'm stuck in Folsom Prison.
Time keeps [G] dragging on.
But [D] that train keeps rolling down the sand.
[G]
[N] So there were three main variations I was doing.
The first one is boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did boom ditty, boom ditty, boom
ditty, I did.
Once again, if we say it, we'll be able to play it.
So please write down boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did.
I did is up down.
[G]
You can place that other rhythmic finger figure of I did anywhere you want in the strum.
The second variation was the triplet.
Now I have a video on the secret to good triplet strumming.
And that's what I'm putting in there.
The last one is another triplet, down, up, down, up, triplet, up, triplet, up.
[Eb]
[Eb] [E] Well thanks again for watching.
I hope you found this lesson helpful.
You can use the boom ditty strum in a variety of ways.
You can use it in folk, country, blues, rock.
So I look forward to hearing from you.
Let me know in the comment section below what songs you like to use this boom ditty strum
and variations with.
Thanks again for watching Ukulele Zen.
Hope you'll subscribe to the channel and share this video with your
country music is something called boom ditty.
Mastery of the strum will open up a lot of new horizons for you.
So today what we're going to do is we're going to break down how to use boom ditty
strum, how to play it with good tone and technique, and also how to apply it to Johnny Cash's
Folsom Prism Blues.
[C] Hey everybody, it's Stuart Fuchs from Ukulele Zen, the YouTube channel that's all about
helping you to learn to play music in a way that's fun and relaxing.
When we take a listen to the classic recordings of Johnny Cash's Tennessee Three, you hear
that there is a really tight interlocking train rhythm.
It's pretty amazing that they could accomplish this without a drummer.
And it's because, just like the music of Django [G] Reinhardt, the rhythm of the string instruments
are so precise that they interlock.
If you're so blessed to know a great bass player, you'll know that they are always willing
to hold it down, be humble, and that's what the base, the foundation of this sound is.
On top of this bass, you hear Johnny Cash's rhythm [N] guitar playing boom ditty, boom ditty,
boom ditty, boom ditty.
On [G] top of his rhythm, you hear
[G] And all the different rhythms and lead lines of Luther Perkins.
Sometimes for more of a percussive effect, Johnny Cash would weave a dollar bill in and
out of his guitar strings, and that helped to muffle the sound and create more of a snare drum sound.
I've never tried it with a ukulele, but it is a ton of fun.
I highly recommend that you try it with a guitar or a uke.
Let me know how it works out for you in the comment section below.
The song we're going to apply this to is Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You only need three chords, [C] G, C, and [D] D7.
The first step is to establish yourself in a steady, rock solid tempo.
So you put a metronome on and tap your foot to that beat.
That's where the bass player is going to be.
[N]
Now on top of that, we begin to play boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
Now hold on there, Stu.
Break that down for me.
My pleasure.
What we want to do is to understand that rhythms are best learned if we first articulate them
with the voice.
So say, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
The more you can say it clearly, the more that you're able to articulate with your hand
that rhythm coming out of your instrument.
Let's build that connection right now.
Boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
You notice how I'm only accenting the second stroke.
There's boom, d is the loud one, t is soft.
By accenting only the second one, your rhythm is really going to bounce along in a very cool way.
We don't want to play every strum hard.
That's going to not only sound less musical, but it's going to also strain your wrist.
Now here's an important detail about the boom of the boom ditty.
I'm only playing the bottom strings.
Boom is accented and I play all four strings.
T is all four strings.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
So boom is really just the bottom couple of strings and just bouncing off of them.
[G] It's a good idea to first go slowly and look at your hand.
I mean, literally look at it.
It's very common to look away from what you're doing here and it's natural, especially if
you're learning this off of a cell phone or a computer screen.
It's easy to get separated from what you're doing right here.
So always remember to take in the information through the portal of the eyes.
It really helps you to learn it more deeply.
Imprint it into your brain.
Imprint it into your circuitry.
All right, now let's go a little faster.
One, two, one, two, three, four.
Want to try it faster?
Let's do it.
One, two, one, two, three, four.
[N] Last thing I'll say before we get into the tune is that if you practice this with muffled
strum and you can make the accents clear with a muffled sound, then you're definitely going
to have a really clear sound when you go to fret your chords.
So by now you're probably getting really comfortable and familiar with the boom ditty strum.
I'm going to sing and play one verse of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You can on your own, of course, play the whole tune.
But what I'm going to do is just play one verse.
I'm going to show you a few rhythmic variations that I'm about to do.
One, two, ready?
One, [G] two, here we go.
I hear the train coming, rolling round the bend.
I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
[C] I'm stuck in Folsom Prison.
Time keeps [G] dragging on.
But [D] that train keeps rolling down the sand.
[G]
[N] So there were three main variations I was doing.
The first one is boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did boom ditty, boom ditty, boom
ditty, I did.
Once again, if we say it, we'll be able to play it.
So please write down boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did.
I did is up down.
[G]
You can place that other rhythmic finger figure of I did anywhere you want in the strum.
The second variation was the triplet.
Now I have a video on the secret to good triplet strumming.
And that's what I'm putting in there.
The last one is another triplet, down, up, down, up, triplet, up, triplet, up.
[Eb]
[Eb] [E] Well thanks again for watching.
I hope you found this lesson helpful.
You can use the boom ditty strum in a variety of ways.
You can use it in folk, country, blues, rock.
So I look forward to hearing from you.
Let me know in the comment section below what songs you like to use this boom ditty strum
and variations with.
Thanks again for watching Ukulele Zen.
Hope you'll subscribe to the channel and share this video with your
Key:
G
C
D
Eb
E
G
C
D
One of the most common rhythms that you'll find across folk, blues, roots music, and
country music is something called boom ditty. _
_ Mastery of the strum will open up a lot of new horizons for you.
So today what we're going to do is we're going to break down how to use boom ditty
strum, how to play it with good tone and technique, and also how to apply it to Johnny Cash's
Folsom Prism Blues. _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ Hey everybody, it's Stuart Fuchs from Ukulele Zen, the YouTube channel that's all about
helping you to learn to play music in a way that's fun and relaxing.
When we take a listen to the classic recordings of Johnny Cash's Tennessee Three, you hear
that there is a really tight interlocking train rhythm.
It's pretty amazing that they could accomplish this without a drummer.
And it's because, just like the music of Django [G] Reinhardt, the rhythm of the string instruments
are so precise that they interlock.
If you're so blessed to know a great bass player, you'll know that they are always willing
to hold it down, be humble, and that's what the base, the foundation of this sound is.
On top of this bass, you hear Johnny Cash's rhythm [N] guitar playing _ boom ditty, boom ditty,
boom ditty, boom ditty.
On [G] top of his rhythm, you hear_
_ _ _ _ [G] And all the different rhythms and lead lines of Luther Perkins.
Sometimes for more of a percussive effect, Johnny Cash would weave a dollar bill in and
out of his guitar strings, and that helped to muffle the sound and create more of a snare drum sound.
I've never tried it with a ukulele, but it is a ton of fun.
I highly recommend that you try it with a guitar or a uke.
Let me know how it works out for you in the comment section below.
The song we're going to apply this to is Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You only need three chords, [C] G, C, and [D] D7.
_ The first step is to establish yourself in a steady, rock solid tempo.
So you put a metronome on and tap your foot to that beat.
That's where the bass player is going to be.
_ _ _ _ [N] _
Now on top of that, we begin to play boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
_ _ _ _ _ Now hold on there, Stu.
Break that down for me.
My pleasure.
What we want to do is to understand that rhythms are best learned if we first articulate them
with the voice.
So say, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
The more you can say it clearly, the more that you're able to articulate with your hand
that rhythm coming out of your instrument.
Let's build that connection right now.
Boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
You notice how I'm only accenting the second stroke.
There's boom, d is the loud one, t is soft.
By accenting only the second one, your rhythm is really going to bounce along in a very cool way.
We don't want to play every strum hard.
That's going to not only sound less musical, but it's going to also strain your wrist.
Now here's an important detail about the boom of the boom ditty.
I'm only playing the bottom strings.
Boom is accented and I play all four strings.
T is all four strings.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
So boom is really just the bottom couple of strings and just bouncing off of them.
[G] It's a good idea to first go slowly and look at your hand.
I mean, literally look at it.
It's very common to look away from what you're doing here and it's natural, especially if
you're learning this off of a cell phone or a computer screen.
It's easy to get separated from what you're doing right here.
So always remember to take in the information through the portal of the eyes.
It really helps you to learn it more deeply.
Imprint it into your brain.
Imprint it into your circuitry.
All right, now let's go a little faster.
One, two, one, two, three, four. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Want to try it faster?
Let's do it.
One, two, one, two, three, four. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] Last thing I'll say before we get into the tune is that if you practice this with muffled
strum and you can make the accents clear with a muffled sound, then you're definitely going
to have a really clear sound when you go to fret your chords. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So by now you're probably getting really comfortable and familiar with the boom ditty strum.
I'm going to sing and play one verse of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You can on your own, of course, play the whole tune.
But what I'm going to do is just play one verse.
I'm going to show you a few rhythmic variations that I'm about to do.
One, two, ready?
One, [G] two, here we go.
I hear the train coming, rolling round the bend.
I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
[C] I'm stuck in Folsom Prison.
_ Time keeps [G] dragging on. _ _
_ _ But [D] that train keeps rolling _ down the sand.
[G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] So there were three main variations I was doing.
The first one is boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did boom ditty, boom ditty, boom
ditty, I did.
Once again, if we say it, we'll be able to play it.
So please write down boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did.
I did is up down.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ You can place that other rhythmic finger figure of I did anywhere you want in the strum.
The second variation was the triplet.
Now I have a video on the secret to good triplet strumming. _
And that's what I'm putting in there. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ The last one is another triplet, down, up, down, up, triplet, up, triplet, up. _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ [E] _ Well thanks again for watching.
I hope you found this lesson helpful.
You can use the boom ditty strum in a variety of ways.
You can use it in folk, country, blues, rock.
So I look forward to hearing from you.
Let me know in the comment section below what songs you like to use this boom ditty strum
and variations with.
Thanks again for watching Ukulele Zen.
Hope you'll subscribe to the channel and share this video with your
country music is something called boom ditty. _
_ Mastery of the strum will open up a lot of new horizons for you.
So today what we're going to do is we're going to break down how to use boom ditty
strum, how to play it with good tone and technique, and also how to apply it to Johnny Cash's
Folsom Prism Blues. _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ Hey everybody, it's Stuart Fuchs from Ukulele Zen, the YouTube channel that's all about
helping you to learn to play music in a way that's fun and relaxing.
When we take a listen to the classic recordings of Johnny Cash's Tennessee Three, you hear
that there is a really tight interlocking train rhythm.
It's pretty amazing that they could accomplish this without a drummer.
And it's because, just like the music of Django [G] Reinhardt, the rhythm of the string instruments
are so precise that they interlock.
If you're so blessed to know a great bass player, you'll know that they are always willing
to hold it down, be humble, and that's what the base, the foundation of this sound is.
On top of this bass, you hear Johnny Cash's rhythm [N] guitar playing _ boom ditty, boom ditty,
boom ditty, boom ditty.
On [G] top of his rhythm, you hear_
_ _ _ _ [G] And all the different rhythms and lead lines of Luther Perkins.
Sometimes for more of a percussive effect, Johnny Cash would weave a dollar bill in and
out of his guitar strings, and that helped to muffle the sound and create more of a snare drum sound.
I've never tried it with a ukulele, but it is a ton of fun.
I highly recommend that you try it with a guitar or a uke.
Let me know how it works out for you in the comment section below.
The song we're going to apply this to is Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You only need three chords, [C] G, C, and [D] D7.
_ The first step is to establish yourself in a steady, rock solid tempo.
So you put a metronome on and tap your foot to that beat.
That's where the bass player is going to be.
_ _ _ _ [N] _
Now on top of that, we begin to play boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
_ _ _ _ _ Now hold on there, Stu.
Break that down for me.
My pleasure.
What we want to do is to understand that rhythms are best learned if we first articulate them
with the voice.
So say, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
The more you can say it clearly, the more that you're able to articulate with your hand
that rhythm coming out of your instrument.
Let's build that connection right now.
Boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty.
You notice how I'm only accenting the second stroke.
There's boom, d is the loud one, t is soft.
By accenting only the second one, your rhythm is really going to bounce along in a very cool way.
We don't want to play every strum hard.
That's going to not only sound less musical, but it's going to also strain your wrist.
Now here's an important detail about the boom of the boom ditty.
I'm only playing the bottom strings.
Boom is accented and I play all four strings.
T is all four strings.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
So boom is really just the bottom couple of strings and just bouncing off of them.
[G] It's a good idea to first go slowly and look at your hand.
I mean, literally look at it.
It's very common to look away from what you're doing here and it's natural, especially if
you're learning this off of a cell phone or a computer screen.
It's easy to get separated from what you're doing right here.
So always remember to take in the information through the portal of the eyes.
It really helps you to learn it more deeply.
Imprint it into your brain.
Imprint it into your circuitry.
All right, now let's go a little faster.
One, two, one, two, three, four. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Want to try it faster?
Let's do it.
One, two, one, two, three, four. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] Last thing I'll say before we get into the tune is that if you practice this with muffled
strum and you can make the accents clear with a muffled sound, then you're definitely going
to have a really clear sound when you go to fret your chords. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So by now you're probably getting really comfortable and familiar with the boom ditty strum.
I'm going to sing and play one verse of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
You can on your own, of course, play the whole tune.
But what I'm going to do is just play one verse.
I'm going to show you a few rhythmic variations that I'm about to do.
One, two, ready?
One, [G] two, here we go.
I hear the train coming, rolling round the bend.
I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
[C] I'm stuck in Folsom Prison.
_ Time keeps [G] dragging on. _ _
_ _ But [D] that train keeps rolling _ down the sand.
[G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] So there were three main variations I was doing.
The first one is boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did boom ditty, boom ditty, boom
ditty, I did.
Once again, if we say it, we'll be able to play it.
So please write down boom ditty, boom ditty, boom ditty, I did.
I did is up down.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ You can place that other rhythmic finger figure of I did anywhere you want in the strum.
The second variation was the triplet.
Now I have a video on the secret to good triplet strumming. _
And that's what I'm putting in there. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ The last one is another triplet, down, up, down, up, triplet, up, triplet, up. _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ [E] _ Well thanks again for watching.
I hope you found this lesson helpful.
You can use the boom ditty strum in a variety of ways.
You can use it in folk, country, blues, rock.
So I look forward to hearing from you.
Let me know in the comment section below what songs you like to use this boom ditty strum
and variations with.
Thanks again for watching Ukulele Zen.
Hope you'll subscribe to the channel and share this video with your