Idaho Bluegrass Association
  • Home
    • About
    • Join Us
    • Donate
    • IBA Newsletter
    • Our Logo
  • Articles & Podcasts
    • Podcasts >
      • ​Jeremy Garrett Interview
      • Keith Reed Interview
      • Jason Homey Interview
      • Becky Smith Interview
      • Marv Quinton Interview
      • Rue Frisbee Interview
      • Donna and Mike Bond Interview
      • Honi Deaton Interview
      • Dennis Stokes Interview
      • Gary Eller Interview
    • Articles >
      • Glen Garrett - The Golden Years
      • Sammie Bush - came to Weiser
      • Mark O’Connor - My History at Weiser
      • Barbara Lamb - Fiddler Extraordinaire
      • Charlie Simmons -The Idaho Bluegrass Association from 1975 to 1985
      • Idaho's 19th century Fiddlers
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions ​ 1950s & 1960s
      • ​Byron Berline
      • Dave Frisbee
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions from 1970s and 80s
      • Megan Lynch Chowning
      • Fiddle Champion ​in 1990s and 2000s
      • Tashina and Tristan Clarridge
    • Snap Shot - Videos from IBA members
  • Events
    • Calendar (BCBB)
    • Open Mic
    • SpringGrass 2023 >
      • Springfest 2022
    • Winterfest
    • IBA Concert Series
    • Virtualgrass
    • Other Bluegrass Events
  • Jam
    • Idaho Jams
    • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • All of Jason's Songs
    • Old Blogs from Jason >
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Songs in 2016
  • Camps & Contests
    • Idaho Bluegrass and Banjo Camp
    • Banjo Contest
    • National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest
  • Idaho Bands
  • Teachers
  • Classified
  • Links
    • General
    • Learning
    • Specific Instruments

Gathering Flowers From The Hillside

5/18/2019

0 Comments

 
Hi,
The song of the week for the next beginner jam (Thurs. May 23rd, I am not available to host a jam tonight at the Pioneer Building) is 'Gathering Flowers From The Hillside' in the key of G.

​
Recordings
Here are a few versions of Gathering Flowers From The Hillside to take a listen to. The first one is just good old straightforward traditional bluegrass. The second one is from an old-school country artist I have always enjoyed listening to whose music could be described (albeit somewhat anachronistically) as somewhere between country and bluegrass. And the third one is the version that I learned the song from.

Earl Taylor & Jim McCall - key of G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmzbEGefFBc

Wilma Lee Cooper - key of C
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKrXivVNF8o

Hylo Brown -  key of F
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YK1Sv9oft4


Jam-Friendly Songs
'Gathering Flowers' is just one of  thousands of simple and straightforward bluegrass songs that, for that very reason, tend to work well at almost any bluegrass jam, irrespective of how many people at the jam have ever played or even heard the song before. Keep your ears open for these types of songs if you are looking for ways to more rapidly increase your repertoire of songs to introduce into the jams you play at. 

See if you can identify the chord progression for 'Gathering Flowers' by listening to the versions given in the links below, before you take a look at the attached melody sheets. What other songs do you know, or recall playing at the jam, that use either the same chord progression or a closely related chord progression? How much of the melody can you figure out by ear before looking at the attached melody sheets? Do you recognize certain parts of the melody as being the same, or almost the same, as parts of the melodies to other songs that you are more familiar with than this one?  


Lyrics
The lyrics I use for the chorus are as follows:

I've been gathering flowers from the hillside,
To wreath around your brow;
But you kept me waiting so long dear,
That the flowers have all withered now.

The words in italics are the ones that I find people quite often deviating from when singing harmony along with me on the chorus.


Harmony
Just like in Foggy Mountain Top, a previous song of the week, each musical line of the melody for Gathering Flowers starts with the same note: a D note when in the key of G, which is the highest note in the melody. The syllable that coincides with the beginning of each musical line of the chorus is shown in bold type below. On these syllables, the tenor harmony note is a G note when in the key of G, and the baritone harmony note is a B note when in the key of G.

I've been gathering flowers from the hillside,
To wreath around your brow;
But you kept me waiting so long dear,
That the flowers have all withered now.


Endings
For songs like Gathering Flowers From The Hillside that use a progression that ends with two measures of the 1 chord, and in which the last syllable is sung at the beginning of the first of these two measures (which includes the overwhelming majority of the non-instrumental songs on the current main list and additional songs list), it is common for a two-measure ending lick to be played on the instruments during the last two measures of the progression when the song is going to end. In most cases, this means the last two measures of the final chorus (or, for songs that don't have a chorus, the final verse) of the song. 

In the attachments, I have included a chart of simple two-measure endings in the key of G for fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo, and bass that will work for all of the songs that fit into this category, except for the ones played in 3/4 time.

Notice that the last note played in each of the endings coincides with the beginning of the second half of the last measure. (For 3/4 time songs, appropriate ending licks would have their last note coincide with the beginning of the last measure.)


Progression
The chord progression for 'Gathering Flowers' is:

1111
1155
1111
1511
(Prog. V1 on the Basic Chord Progressions handout)

In the key of G: 1 = G; 5 = D. The G chord consists of the notes G, B, and D. The D chord consists of the notes D, F#, and A.

Notice the relation between the progression for 'Gathering Flowers' (V1) and the progressions used to play 'Mama Don't Allow' (V2), 'Foggy Mountain Top (V6), and 'Bury Me Beneath The Willow' (V7). V1 simply stays on the '1' chord in all the spots where these other progressions have a '4' chord. In all four of these progressions, the locations of the '5' chords are the same (measures 3 and 4 of line 2, and measure 2 of line 4), and in all these progressions, measures 1 and 2 of lines 1, 2, and 3, and measures 1, 3, and 4 of line 4 have the '1' chord.


Melody 
The melody of Gathering Flowers shares a lot in common with the melody of Foggy Mountain Top. The only places where the two melodies significantly deviate from each other are from the second half of measure 2 through to the first half of measure 4 in lines 1 and 3. Refer back to the melody sheets in the attachments in the song of the week write-up for Foggy Mountain Top:
https://www.idahobluegrassassociation.org/jasons-beginner-jam-blog-2019---2020/category/foggy-mountain-top  


Breaks  
Remember, the melody sheets provided here in the attachments are just that and nothing more. They do not show you how to play bluegrass-style breaks on your instrument. So, why do I include the melody sheets in the song of the week emails? Because, to a significant extent, creating a break that sounds like it belongs in the song (and this is especially true of intro breaks, i.e., the break that is played before the singing starts and which identifies what song is being played even before the singing starts, or in the case of an instrumental, just simply the first break) involves surrounding the melody notes in the song with appropriate choices of other notes: and, in order to do this, one needs to have a fairly clear idea of what the melody of the song is. 

There are countless ways to play a break for any given song, and how one plays a break for a song depends upon several factors, including stylistic preference, level of technical ability on one's instrument, and even things of the nature of what tempo the song is being played at. But, once one is past the very beginner stages of learning to play 'lead' parts, attempts should be made - with the help of a teacher if need be - to play in a way that involves more than just copying on one's instrument the melody of the song as sung. 

Disclaimer: Even at the most advanced levels, being a bluegrass musician or jammer does not always involve being able to play breaks. There are many top-notch bluegrass guitar players, for instance, who only play rhythm (backup). Becoming a great bluegrass rhythm guitar player can be just as challenging as - or possibly even more challenging than - becoming a great flatpicker.  


Fill-ins
There are four dead spaces in the melody of each verse and chorus of Gathering Flowers that are long enough for a fill-in lick to be used to fill up these spaces.
These occur at the end of every musical line, starting in measure 3 of the line and ending in measure 4 of the line, which is the same location within a line that a fill-in fits into the progressions for all the previous songs of the week that I have discussed the use of fill-ins in connection with.  Here is a summary of most of the songs of the week so far in which fill-ins fit into one or more of their lines:
                                                                                          line 1        line 2       line 3     line 4
My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains       no fill        no fill        no fill    fillin (1)
& Beautiful Brown Eyes chorus

Nine Pound Hammer, Little Birdie, I'll Fly Away     no fill         fillin (1)     no fill    fillin (1)
& Way Down Town

Beautiful Brown Eyes  verses,                                     no fill         fillin (5)     no fill     fillin (1)
Bury Me Beneath The Willow, 
All The Good Times Are Past And Gone  
& Foggy Mountain Top                                                                            
 
New River Train  & Mama Don't Allow                       fillin (1)        fillin (5)     no fill     fillin (1) 

Gathering Flowers From The Hillside                        fillin (1)       fillin (5)     fillin (1)   fillin (1)

The numbers in parentheses refer to the chord that is called for at the time of the dead space in which the fillin lick is played.

Gathering Flowers provides more opportunity than any of the other songs for practicing fillins, and since there is room to fit three fillins on the 1 chord in each verse and chorus, it also provides a good opportunity for practicing varying your choice of fillins, if you know how to play more than one fillin for the 1 chord.

For G and D fillins (the 1 and 5 chords when in the key of G), refer back to the attachments in the song of the week write ups for I'll Fly Away and Mama Don't Allow:
https://www.idahobluegrassassociation.org/jasons-beginner-jam-blog-2019---2020/category/ill-fly-away 

https://www.idahobluegrassassociation.org/jasons-beginner-jam-blog-2019---2020/category/mama-dont-allow


Pickup Notes
Concerning Pickup Notes into a break for Gathering Flowers. Instead of playing only the 2 pickup notes (B and C) that are sung in the vocal melody (see the attached melody sheets) to lead into the first complete measure of your break, it is often more effective at jams to add a 3rd quarter note, a C#, after these two notes, especially if you the one kicking off the song with an intro break. The chromatically ascending sequence of pickup notes: B, C, C# to lead to a D note on a G chord is commonplace on good Bluegrass records (good examples of this are at the beginning of the banjo intro break and at the beginning of the fiddle break on the first youtube link given here for Gathering Flowers). Three-quarters of a measure, rather than just half a measure, worth of pickup notes gives everyone at the jam a better sense of what the tempo of the song will be, so that they can all start playing backup confidently behind the person playing the intro break at the beginning of the first complete measure of the break. This is a good case in point illustrating how it is sometimes better to make modifications to the melody as sung, rather than to follow the melody slavishly, when creating melody-based breaks. 

Note: Many melodies do not have any built-in pickup notes leading into their first complete measure; in these cases one needs to create a pick-up measure to have an effective intro break for the song. This can be done by borrowing pickup phrases from other songs in which the first full measure of the song starts with the same note and same chord as the song in question, or one can learn common generic pickup phrases used on Bluegrass records for each specific situation: e.g., a generic pickup phrase leading to a B note on a G chord, a generic pickup phrase leading to a C note on a C chord, etc.


Song List
16 songs were played at last week's jam: 12 from the main list, and 4 from the additional songs list:

Blue Ridge Cabin Home - A
Boil The Cabbage Down - A
Buffalo Gals - A
Bury Me Beneath The Willow (played twice) - G & C
Cripple Creek - A
Gathering Flowers From The Hillside - G
Mama Don't Allow - A
My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains - G
New River Train - F 
Nine Pound Hammer - A 
Shortnin' Bread - G
Soldier's Joy - D
Liberty - D
Lonesome Road Blues - G
Long Journey Home - A
Will You Be Loving Another Man - A

Happy Pickin',
Jason


Gathering Flowers From The Hillside - banjo tab
Download File

Gathering Flowers From The Hillside - guitar tab
Download File

Gathering Flowers From The Hillside - mandolin tab
Download File

Gathering Flowers From The Hillside - melody in G
Download File
Endings for most songs in G
File Size: 499 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

    Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2019 - 2021

    Weekly on Thursdays
                   6:30pm

    at Revitalize Juice Bar in the Pioneer Building (6th and Main downtown Boise)
    started Jan 2019
    ​with Jason Homey

    Picture
    Songs regularly called at Bluegrass Jams and links from Jason's "Song of the Week" emails.  (from Renee)

    ​
    All of Jason's Songs
    in alphabetical order

    ​

    Categories

    All
    0 - Song List 2020 Jan.
    2 - Song List 2019 Sept.
    3 - Song List 2019 Jan.
    4 - How The Jam Works
    5
    A Few More Seasons
    Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone
    All The Good Times Are Past And Gone
    Amazing Grace
    A Memory Of You
    Angeline The Baker
    Auld Lang Syne
    Away In A Manger
    Beautiful Brown Eyes
    Blue Ridge Cabin Home
    Boil The Cabbage Down
    Buffalo Gals
    Bury Me Beneath The Willow
    Camptown Races
    Clinch Mountain Backstep
    Cluck Old Hen
    Columbus Stockade Blues
    Come Back Darling
    Cripple Creek
    Down The Road
    Foggy Mountain Top
    Forked Deer
    Gathering Flowers
    Gathering Flowers From The Hillside
    God Gave Noah The Rainbow Sign
    Golden Slippers
    Good King Wenceslas
    Goodnight Irene
    Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
    Handsome Molly
    I Can't Feel At Home In This World Anymore
    I Have No One To Love Me
    I'll Fly Away
    I'll Live On
    I'll Still Write
    I'll Still Write Your Name In The Sand
    I'm Goin' Back To Old Kentucky
    I'm Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open
    I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home
    I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
    I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes
    In The Pines
    Jambalaya
    Jesse James
    Jimmy Brown
    Jingle Bells
    Katy Daly
    Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
    Let Me Be Your Friend
    Liberty
    Light At The River
    Little Birdie
    Little Cabin Home On The Hill
    Little Girl Of Mine In Tennessee
    Little Joe
    Lonesome Road Blues
    Long Journey Home
    Lost And I'll Never Find The Way
    Love Me Darling Just Tonight
    Mama Don't Allow
    Molly And Tenbrooks
    Mountain Dew
    My Home's Across The Blue Ridge Mountains
    My Main Trial Is Yet To Come
    New River Train
    Nine Pound Hammer
    No Hiding Place Down Here
    Old Joe Clark
    O Susanna
    Paradise
    Poor Ellen Smith
    Rain And Snow
    Riding On That Midnight Train
    Roll On Buddy
    Rose Of Old Kentucky
    She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain
    Shepherds In The Field
    Shortnin' Bread
    Silent Night
    Soldier's Joy
    Sun's Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday
    Sweet Chariot
    Sweetheart
    Sweetheart You Done Me Wrong
    Swing Low
    Take This Hammer
    The Crawdad Song
    The Prisoner's Song
    There's More Pretty Girls Than One
    The Walls Of Time
    This Land Is Your Land
    This Little Light Of Mine
    Tom Dooley
    Way Down Town
    We Can't Be Darlings Anymore
    When My Time Comes To Go
    When The Saints Go Marching In
    Wild Mountain Flowers For Mary
    Will The Circle Be Unbroken
    Will You Be Loving Another Man
    Worried Man Blues
    Wreck Of The Old '97
    Y'all Come
    You Are My Sunshine
    You Done Me Wrong
    Your Love Is Like A Flower

    RSS Feed

ConTACT US!


ADDRESS:
​Idaho Bluegrass Association
PO Box 6074
Boise, ID 83707

Email

idahobluegrassassociation@gmail.com
Copyright © 2021 IBA.
  • Home
    • About
    • Join Us
    • Donate
    • IBA Newsletter
    • Our Logo
  • Articles & Podcasts
    • Podcasts >
      • ​Jeremy Garrett Interview
      • Keith Reed Interview
      • Jason Homey Interview
      • Becky Smith Interview
      • Marv Quinton Interview
      • Rue Frisbee Interview
      • Donna and Mike Bond Interview
      • Honi Deaton Interview
      • Dennis Stokes Interview
      • Gary Eller Interview
    • Articles >
      • Glen Garrett - The Golden Years
      • Sammie Bush - came to Weiser
      • Mark O’Connor - My History at Weiser
      • Barbara Lamb - Fiddler Extraordinaire
      • Charlie Simmons -The Idaho Bluegrass Association from 1975 to 1985
      • Idaho's 19th century Fiddlers
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions ​ 1950s & 1960s
      • ​Byron Berline
      • Dave Frisbee
      • Weiser Fiddle Champions from 1970s and 80s
      • Megan Lynch Chowning
      • Fiddle Champion ​in 1990s and 2000s
      • Tashina and Tristan Clarridge
    • Snap Shot - Videos from IBA members
  • Events
    • Calendar (BCBB)
    • Open Mic
    • SpringGrass 2023 >
      • Springfest 2022
    • Winterfest
    • IBA Concert Series
    • Virtualgrass
    • Other Bluegrass Events
  • Jam
    • Idaho Jams
    • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2021 - 2022
    • All of Jason's Songs
    • Old Blogs from Jason >
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2019 - 2021
      • Jason's Beginner Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Jason's Intermediate Jam Blog 2017 - 2018
      • Songs in 2016
  • Camps & Contests
    • Idaho Bluegrass and Banjo Camp
    • Banjo Contest
    • National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest
  • Idaho Bands
  • Teachers
  • Classified
  • Links
    • General
    • Learning
    • Specific Instruments