Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
Jackson chords
Jackson by Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash is a beginner song in Db, played with a capo on fret 1. The whole sheet is 4 chords (C, C7, F, G7) across 2 sections: Intro riff → Verse. 3 of the 4 shapes are open chords. Shapes that use a barre: F.
By Chiye · Updated
Hardest change in the sheet: C → F, 2 times.
- Difficulty
- Beginnerbarre shape F
- Key
- Dbwith a capo on fret 1
- Tuning
- Standard (E A D G B E)low to high
- Chords
- 43 open, 1 with a barre
- Sections
- 2each with its own progression
Chords in Jackson
Frets read low E to high E, x means leave that string out.
Chord sheet
One chord per bar in this practice sheet. Follow the time signature shown beside each section; dots mark the remaining counts in the bar. Tap a bar to hear its chord, or loop the section to practise the changes.
Chord accompaniment only. Follow the section notes for this arrangement’s timing. Songs whose words are public domain →
Intro riff4/4 · ♩=90
Verse4/4 · ♩=90
Printable one-page chord chart
How to play Jackson
With a capo at fret 1, the C shapes in this arrangement sound in Db. The intro row is C, C, C and C7, followed by a verse that brings in F and G7. Start with one quiet strum for each printed bar.
C7 adds Bb on the G string at fret 3 while retaining the C grip. Lifting the D-string finger from C would produce D rather than the required Bb, so check the new G-string note before strumming. Practise C, C7 and F slowly, keeping the C bass through the first two chords.
G7 is 3-2-0-0-0-1. Compared with open G, its high E moves from fret 3 to fret 1, a two-fret change. Listen to that F settling into E when the next C arrives. Keep the open D, G and B strings clear.
Once the chords are comfortable, practise the country grid written beside the verse. Let the bass stroke and chord stroke alternate evenly, and repeat the verse as a practice loop without inventing a different section order.
How to practise Jackson
Four steps computed from this sheet: the order the shapes are easiest to learn in, the changes that really occur in the progressions above, where each chord turns up, and the tempo ladder up to the speed marked here.
Learn the shapes easiest first
C (x-3-2-0-1-0, beginner) → C7 (x-3-2-3-1-0, beginner) → G7 (3-2-0-0-0-1, beginner) → F (1-3-3-2-1-1, intermediate, needs a barre)
3 of the 4 shapes are open chords, so start there and leave F until the others change cleanly.
Drill the changes this sheet actually uses
C → C72×C → F2×F → C1×F → G71×
These counts come from the progressions on this page, so they are the changes you will actually play, not a generic list of pairs to practise.
Know where each chord turns up
- Cevery section
- C7every section
- FVerse
- G7Verse
Climb the tempo ladder
This sheet does not list a tempo, so pick one where every change is clean and use the metronome to move up in 4 BPM steps.
The section to leave until last is Verse (12 bars in this sheet).
Playing Jackson with a capo
This sheet is written with a capo on fret 1. Each card shows what you would finger at that capo position so the song still sounds exactly as written. Useful when the shapes above are awkward, or when you want to sing it higher without learning new chords.
No capo
C# C#7 F# Ab7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 1as written
C C7 F G7
3 of 4 stay open
Fret 2
B B7 E F#7
2 of 4 stay open
Fret 3
Bb Bb7 Eb F7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 4
A A7 D E7
4 of 4 stay open
Fret 5
Ab Ab7 C# Eb7
no open shapes left, all barre
Fret 6
G G7 C D7
4 of 4 stay open
Fret 7
F# F#7 B C#7
no open shapes left, all barre
Working out a different key? The capo calculatordoes the same arithmetic for any chord set.
More songs built on the same chords
If Jackson clicks, these use the closest set of shapes, so the chords you just learned keep working.
More beginner songs to learn after this one: Sweater Weather, Payphone, The Scientist, 505.
These chords across the songbookHow often each chord in Jackson turns up across all 104 songs on this site, and what it most often moves to next. The counts come from the sheet library itself, not from theory.
420bars of this chord across the songbook
70songs use this shape
Most often followed by G, 115×.
12bars of this chord across the songbook
6songs use this shape
Most often followed by F, 6×.
114bars of this chord across the songbook
29songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 38×.
33bars of this chord across the songbook
13songs use this shape
Most often followed by C, 11×.