Gold Rush info

Gold Rush

5/28/2018

Hi,
The song of the week is 'Gold Rush' in the key of A.

Recordings
Bill Monroe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxG11BmCsVk

Sierra Hull & Highway 111 with Ben Somerville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25uW-bUjXI4

Tony Rice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G89t4bo5kzU

Form & Progression
'Gold Rush', like majority of the fiddle tunes played at the jam, is an AABB tune. (This means that the tune consists of two parts, each of which is played twice before the next part is played.)

The chord progression for the A-Part is:
1 1 1 1
1 1 5 1

The progression for the B-Part is:
1 4/1 1 1
1 4/1 1/5 1

At some jams you may hear a 6m chord being played in place of the 1 chord in the 4th measure of the B Part. (The 6m is the relative minor of the 1 chord. In the key of A: 6m = F#m.)

Bluegrass Fiddle Tunes
Unlike most of the fiddle tunes played at the jam, Gold Rush is not a traditional old-time tune that has been adapted for Bluegrass, but was composed by Bluegrass musicians to be a Bluegrass tune (in this case, by Bill Monroe and Byron Berline).

As the jam group has progressed since September of 2015 until now, our choices of instrumentals to call at the jam has gradually shifted away from the most basic of traditional fiddle tunes well known in Bluegrass (e.g., Boil The Cabbage Down), towards the more complex of the traditional fiddle tunes that tend to be popular at Bluegrass jams (e.g., Red Haired Boy).

Along the way, a few fiddle tunes specific to the Bluegrass genre, like Gold Rush, have made their way into our jam repertoire. Hand in hand with this, a few specifically Bluegrass banjo tunes have also been introduced into the jam.

If we carry on in the direction we are headed, we may arrive at a more balanced ratio between traditional fiddle tunes and specifically bluegrass fiddle tunes being called at the jam. In connection with this, I would expect to see an increase of bluegrass banjo tunes being played at the jam, and perhaps also bluegrass mandolin and guitar tunes.

Here is the list of instrumentals that have been played at the jam since Sept. 2015, given in approximately the order in which they were first played at the jam. In cases where I put 'bluegrass fiddle', 'bluegrass banjo', etc. in parentheses, the tune is not of bluegrass origin, but, as far as I can tell, has come to be associated with bluegrass more so than with any other genre, and has been adapted to bluegrass in such a manner as to make it sound (at least to my ears) like it was written for the genre. These are tunes that I regard as though, for all practical purposes, they may just as well have been written for bluegrass. For tunes that strike me as unusual tune choices for a bluegrass jam, I have put the titles in brackets. Each of those tunes have only been played once at the jam.

Boil The Cabbage Down
Cripple Creek - (bluegrass banjo)
Soldier's Joy
Angeline The Baker
Old Joe Clark - (bluegrass banjo/fiddle)
Buffalo Gals
[Liza Jane - an old-time tune, usually played in A, with the same title as another tune further down the list]
Flop-Eared Mule
Shortnin' Bread
Liberty
Wildwood Flower - (bluegrass guitar/banjo)
The Girl I Left Behind Me
Big Sandy River - bluegrass fiddle
Arkansas Traveler
Reuben - (bluegrass banjo)
Liza Jane
Bill Cheatham
Cherokee Shuffle
Gold Rush - bluegrass fiddle
Red Haired Boy
Clinch Mountain Backstep - bluegrass banjo
Rubber Dolly
Whiskey Before Breakfast
Tennessee Waltz
Turkey In The Straw
Over The Waterfall
Fireball Mail - (bluegrass banjo)
Big Sciota
Cluck Old Hen
Cheyenne - bluegrass fiddle
[Sandy River Belle]
[Irish Washerwoman]
Back Up And Push - (bluegrass fiddle)
Red Wing
Sally Goodin - (bluegrass fiddle/banjo)
Forked Deer
Shuckin' The Corn - bluegrass banjo
Home Sweet Home - (bluegrass banjo)
Earl's Breakdown - bluegrass banjo
[Chicken Dance]
Devil's Dream
Salt Creek - (bluegrass fiddle/banjo)
Farewell Blues - (bluegrass banjo)
Cumberland Gap - (bluegrass banjo)
John Hardy - (bluegrass banjo)
Flint Hill Special - bluegrass banjo
Blackberry Blossom
Foggy Mountain Special - bluegrass banjo
Black Mountain Rag - (bluegrass fiddle/guitar)
Rawhide - bluegrass mandolin
Maiden's Prayer

Melody & Breaks
In addition to, or in place of, making use of the recordings and the melody sheets provided here as a starting point for coming up with a break on your instrument for Gold Rush, I recommend checking out the following:

Gold Rush - guitar lesson (Tony Rice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2zYrKF-G0

Gold Rush - A Part - banjo lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OywtyEeBZuE

Gold Rush - B Part - banjo lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na6ucWjrnUE

Gold Rush - fiddle lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFVc0l6fw5Y

Gold Rush - mandolin lesson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YcL2VaccBY

Please be aware that the melody sheets I offer in the attachments represent only one of many possible interpretations of the basic melody of Gold Rush. Some of the melody-based breaks you hear on good recordings of the tune will come closer than others to sounding like they are based upon what you see written on the melody sheets. (Be careful also not to mistake the mere melody for a full-fledged bluegrass break.)

In addition to differing interpretations of the melody, on banjo, the style in which a player chooses to play will also be a factor as to how much their break is able to sound like it is based upon the interpretation of the melody offered here. For instance, a purely Scruggs-style break will necessarily skip over some of the notes in the measures that consist mostly of 8th notes, often replacing them with 'filler' (non-melody) notes. In order for a 3 finger style banjo player to grab all the notes on the melody sheet, it would be necessary to make at least a certain amount of use of melodic style and/or single string style.

In learning Gold Rush from a recording (or from a transcription of a recording), remember that there are countless 'right' ways to play a break for this tune or for any other bluegrass tune, so there is no need to try to learn to play a break exactly as it is played on a recording.

Even if you wish to learn to play a break for Gold Rush exactly as on a certain recording, if you come across a spot or two in the break that you are having particular difficulty playing or figuring out how to play, I recommend that you try to find something different to do in that spot of the break. Rely on the musical sensibility and knowledge of how music works that you have acquired to guide you in doing this.

Happy Pickin',
Jason