Cotton patch rag — Mandolin Tab

Mandolin tab and sheet music with synced audio · Key of C · 120 BPM · 4/4 time · Country Rag · Intermediate

Chords used in this arrangement: C, F, G, D, G7.

Apparently, bluegrass fiddler Byron Berline from Texas once said he grew up going to fiddle contests with his dad but never heard this tune played anywhere outside of Texas and Oklahoma, which tells you a lot about how deep its regional roots go. Cotton Patch Rag dates back to the early 1900s, right in the middle of the ragtime craze, and it became a staple of the Texas fiddle contest circuit largely thanks to Benny Thomasson, the Dallas–Fort Worth fiddler whose version is the one most people learn from today. There's even a wonderfully confused bit of history where people kept attributing it to the wrong Arthur Smith. It turns out the 1954 recording was by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith of South Carolina, a totally different guy from the Grand Ole Opry's Fiddlin' Arthur Smith of Tennessee. On mandolin in C, the melody sits really nicely under your fingers, but keep an ear out for those chromatic little runs.

This page includes mandolin tablature, standard music notation, and a chord chart — printable as PDF and playable in sync with the original recording. Change the key, slow the tempo down, and loop the bars you want to practise.