Colored Aristocracy — Mandolin Tab

Mandolin tab and sheet music with synced audio · Key of G · 120 BPM · 4/4 time · Old-timey · Beginner

Chords used in this arrangement: G, Em, C, A, D.

This tune has a wild backstory, it's technically a cakewalk, not a fiddle tune, with that ragtime syncopation baked right into its bones. The version everyone plays today traces back to a single 1936 field recording of West Virginia fiddler Sanford Rich, captured at Arthurdale, an Eleanor Roosevelt–sponsored Depression-era resettlement community, by musicologist Charles Seeger — yes, Mike Seeger's dad. Mike grew up listening to those aluminum Library of Congress discs at home, and when he formed the New Lost City Ramblers in the early '60s, it was one of the first tunes they put on record, which is basically how the whole old-time revival got ahold of it. That slightly unusual syncopated bounce you'll feel in the rhythm, lean into it rather than flattening it out into a straight reel feel, and it'll really click.

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.