How To Play Ghost Riders In The Sky
By Johnny Cash

On this page I'd like to explain how to play Ghost Riders In The Sky By Johnny Cash. Check out my acoustic demo clip and grab some free tabs in the lower right hand menu.

This is an old tune from 1948 written by a song writer and actor by the name of Stan Jones. Jones said he was told the story when he was 12 years old, and 22 years later decided to write a song about the story.

Burl Ives was the first to record the song which was called many names including "Riders In The Sky" "Ghost Riders", "Ghost Riders In The Sky" and "A Cowboy Legend".

More than 50 artists have recorded the song over the years and Johnny Cash was one of them in 1979. It went to #1 in Canada and peaked at #2 in the US. He also recorded a live version with Willie Nelson in 1998. Willie got the 3rd and 4th verses backwards.




I play this one with a capo on the 2nd fret, as does Johnny Cash in the video clip on this page in the right menu. It's still a pretty low song to sing in spots. You'll need an Am, C, F and a G note for this one.

The main lead in this simply follows the melody of the song .. and I fully explain this in the full instructional tutorial from the link below.

                 

Free Tab Available


-- $3.25 --

Full Tutorial - .wmv format - 8 min 53 sec

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Start this one with a hammer-on with an open E to the G note and go straight to the Am. For the rhythm I like to hammer-on this G note while on the Am chord as I play the rhythm. Play the A note-dn-up-openE-hammeronG A note-dn-up-openE-hammeronG and so on.

For the rest of the chords you can play a note-dn-up-note-up-dn-up pattern. Simply pick the melody and then blend it in with rhythm. It's pretty easy to do.

Check out the classic video in the right hand menu and grab the free lyrics and tab as well.

I hope you found this How To Play Ghost Riders In The Sky By Johnny Cash useful and informative.

Feel free to tweet about it (bottom of the page) or like it on Facebook from the "Like" button above or below as that is also most welcomed.

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