Gold Rush

For September, the song of the month is 'Gold Rush', a classic Bill Monroe  bluegrass instrumental which is played in the key of A.
 
'Gold Rush', like many other fiddle tunes (e.g., Soldier's Joy, Old Joe Clark), follows the form AABB. 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
 
(Note: at some jams, it has become common to play the '6m' chord instead of the '1' chord for the 4th measure of the B Part.)
 
Here are a couple of good recorded versions of the tune:
 
Bill Monroe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGU2w6usjE0
 
Tony Rice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G89t4bo5kzU
 
Try jamming along with these recordings. If you have never played this tune before, I recommend listening to it a few times before trying to play along with it.
Then play along with it several times, and see what happens in your playing. Remember, on youtube, you can slow the recording down (without changing its pitch) by clicking on 'settings', and then on 'speed' within settings.
 
If you do not already play a break for Gold Rush (or if you are looking for different things that you might do in your break in addition to or in place of how you tend to play your break for Gold Rush), check out the following links. Remember, 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 the breaks exactly as they are played in the links.
 
Even if you wish to learn to play a break for Gold Rush exactly as presented in one of the examples given below, 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 your musical sensibility and knowledge of how music works to guide you in doing this.
 
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=XD0jfxvcfiY

Gold Rush - Sheet music online
www.hughcan.com/music/gold_rush/gold_rush_fiddle_notation_tab.pdf
www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/american-mandolin-tab/the_gold_rush.htm

Happy Pickin',
Jason