The Golden Ticket - Fiddle (Standard tuning: key of G)

This beautiful creation of fiddler Eric Merrill has become a jam favorite in many corners of the old-time scene. Check out Eric’s recording The Western Star. The Golden Ticket is perhaps a bit elusive in its melodic and even harmonic structure (with a brief appearance of a D chord to open the tune). Walking through the tune phrase by phrase makes it accessible. You will love working through this piece. I offer several approaches to bowing for you to choose which works best for you. I enjoy this tune most at a slower pace.

Here's What You Get:

$15 (Sheet music PLUS video lessons you can watch over and over, and play-through videos to practice along with)

• Slower

• Faster

• A part

• B part

***Videos can be streamed, downloaded, or viewed in the Gumroad App on mobile devices. Watch your email for instructions after purchase***

The Sandbridge Old-time Fiddle Video Project

For the last few years, I have run a 3.5-day old-time fiddle retreat for intermediate level players in Sandbridge VA – The Sandbridge Old-Time Fiddle Retreat. We hold the workshop in a couple of beautiful oceanfront houses. We focus on a variety of bowing systems to create a solid groove, left-hand techniques (chording, slides, ornaments, 4th finger unisons etc), altered tunings, chord theory and more. For all the tunes, we prepare summary videos and provide written transcriptions with all bowings and notation of the left-hand techniques. I am pleased to now make many of these recordings available for everyone. The scope of material presented for each tune is comparable to several private lessons.

Topics covered in most of the videos include the following:

• Basic melody broken down phrase by phrase

• Bowings for all phrases

• Bowing ideas include 3-1 bowing, Nashville shuffle, bow pulses, ghost bows, bow rocks

• Rationale for bowing

• Altered tunings include ADAE, ADAD, AEAE, AEAC#

• Description of all chording

• Left-hand techniques

• Discussion of the chord progression

• Variations

• Written transcriptions with bowings and chords

• Practice tracks along with a play-through of the full tune

See also Ken’s book Old-time Fiddle Style (Mel Bay, 2010)

Thank you for your support - I hope you enjoy the tune! Please do not share your purchased music and videos.

© 2021 Ken Kolodner/All Rights Reserved. Recorded at Fenchurch Studios, Baltimore MD for the Spring 2021 Sandbridge Old-Time Fiddle Retreat (Sandfiddlers)