Johnson City Rag (lesson)

Johnson City Rag Composition

Key: A
Tuning: Standard

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Well, here's my composition, the Johnson City Rag. It's pretty much a straightforward raggy kind of tune. Getting it smooth depends on you getting what sound like pinches here, but they're kind of a slide into what would sound like a pinch, two notes together.

Technique Overview

1. A Chord Technique:

   • Take your A chord and just slide on the B string.
   • When you get where you're going, hit your bass notes:
     • 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3.
   • After hitting those notes, sometimes with my technique, after I get a clear bass note, I'll bring my palm down on it rather than muting it right away.
   • That's part of the fingerpicking technique to play Johnson City Rag.

2. Pull Off Technique:

   • Getting that pinchy sound can also come from a pull-off.
   • If I take what some people call the long A form here and pull off when I hit my bass note, it'll be time to come up here.
   • Here's the slide pull-off. See how I angle in on my right hand?

Syncopation

• This syncopation works as follows:
  • 1 and 2 and 3, anticipating your note.
  • 1 and 2 and 3 and 4.

See what I'm doing there? I'm picking with my index finger.

Right Hand Breakdown

• Here's how to break that down:
  • Take note of my index finger on the G string.
  • I could alternate, but I won't for right now.

You'll hear those techniques; they may be a little disguised because sometimes, when I'm up and running, they almost take on a ghost note or grace note quality. But that's what that syncopation is.

Introduction to the Tune

Let me start the tune. Just got some neighboring or surrounding tones for my A chord:

• Go to sixth position diminished chord, then an E7.
• Now, I'm ready to do the tune.

Chord Progression

• A passage, repeat it:

  • Same thing on B:
    • B, B diminished, F sharp, B7, E7.
  • Then I throw in this altered chord:
    • It's an E7, but it's got a flat 5 down below (first fret A string) and a sharp 5 or an augmented quality up above (C natural).

  It's a very stark sounding chord to carry on here, little counterpoint. You can hear it moving.

Playing the Passages

I'll play it again; these notes:

• Sorry I can't do it individually for you; I've got to make the bigger chord.
• On to my D passage, I'm just barring D.

Later on, you'll hear me play this passage and just peeling off my fingers off those notes, still thinking D.

Here's what keeps me straight:

• D, D minor a, F sharp, B9, E7.

I play that whole passage again just with some alterations:

• B7 to E.

Second Part of the Tune

Now I'm going to the second part of the tune where I'm covering E9. Here's what my thumb is doing:

• This can be rather muffled, and I've got this happening up above.
• You can hear some pull-offs in there:
  • Pick two, pull off to that 11th fret B string, then 9th fret E string, 12th fret B string, and pull off again.
  • So no thumb, and finish up on the E.

Come back to A6 and have those notes ring.

Syncopation Patterns

This is a quirky syncopation, but here's how it is. Notice the pull-off in there; a lot of these syncopations, even though they sound quirky, will still have an alternating bass up high:

• Same thing at A, A7, D minor.

We just play that main theme again before we go out, and here's your ending:

• Sixth position:
  • A diminished, A to our sixth chord, F sharp 7, B9, E7, and A.

I end on an A69 up high.

And there you have the Johnson City Rag!