A Tab Transcription by John Baldry
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Raw Hide is the most famous of Bill Monroe’s mandolin instrumentals. Played very Zest, it is a tune which all bluegrass mandolin players have to learn. Everyone attempts it, yet no one can pick Raw Hide quite like Bill did!

...you should really hear Bill’s
recording of Rawhide before
trying to play the tablature...

This discographic detour is necessary as you should really hear Bill’s recording of Rawhide before trying to play the tablature. Rawhide is one of those tunes that gets changed a little by everyone who plays it, so you should start off with the definitive version. Also it is played very fast (about d =166-168 on my turntable!), and parts of the tablature will not make sense until you can hear them at reasonable speed. The power of Raw Hide is in its rhythm, and if you are able to glow down the recording to half speed you will get a lesson in how Bill manages his powerful attack on the strings. He is a master of rhythm, sometimes maintaining a regular downbeat, but often syncopating and sometimes throwing in some wild offbeat ideas.

The first three bars of Part A (counting From the double bar line) are a case in point. Bill is playing eight notes (=double stops) to the bar, but he puts in an extra offbeat rhythmic kick on the fourth note, He does exactly the same thing at the beginning of the high A part, which is really the same double stop an octave higher. On the live recording of Raw Hide on the Smithsonian Folkways CD you will hear further rhythmic variations on these double stops. Sam Bush draws attention to this aspect of Monroe style playing, in Lesson 4 of his Bluegrass Mandolin series on Homespun Tapes (audio cassette), where he analyses Bill’s playing of New John Henry Blues.

Raw Ride has the structure AAB: the A part is played twice, followed by the B part (often called the bridge) once. The next instrument then takes over on the A part, The sequence on the original recording is: mandolin fiddle - mandolin - banjo, after which the mandolin plays the (low) A part once only, followed by the coda on the C chord, a classic rhythmic chop ending.

Raw Hide was one of the first
of the high-speed instrumentals

The bridge is one of the defining features of Raw Ride. It follows a 'circle of fifths’ chord sequence, jumping off on the E chord and culminating logically with the G chord followed by the C. The first time round, Monroe hits the C chord after only 2 bars of G, so his break finishes with two bars of C, On all the other breaks (including the second mandolin break) there are four bars of G, which are played unaccompanied apart from a chordal strum from the band on the first beat. The resolution to the C chord is postponed until the beginning of the next break. This has become the standard method in jam sessions.

The high break epitomises two qualities of Bill Monroe’s up-the-neck work: playing out of a chord position and using open strings as a percussive (as opposed to melodic) feature. The high fret numbers on the tab can seem a bit confusing, but if you hold down a high C chord (the standard G chop chord moved up 5 frets) the fingering should fall into place, as if you were playing in G at the bottom of the neck. The big difference is in the open strings, which Monroe uses from time to time as a kind of percussive beat between fretted notes. It can sound weird when played slowly, but it is a great device when speeded up, It is a standard technique of bluegrass mandolin playing, even when playing in B and B flat chop positions, when the open strings are more off-key, Look at the high break for Frank Wakefield’s New Camptown Races, in Bluegrass Mandolin, by Jack Tottle (Oak Publications) for an example of this technique in B flat.

If you are interested in Bill Monroe’s mandolin style you will learn a lot from Raw Hide, even if you are not yet ready to play it at top speed. The left hand fingerings are straightforward and there are no awkward pick movements. The main challenge is for the right hand to develop the powerful rhythms, and there is an element of staying power required, Having charged through the double A part you are then faced with another 16 bars for the bridge, making it a trial of endurance! Bill himself admitted that he needed to rest up a bit after his first break, letting another instrument take over the lead before coming back for his second crack!

I think you will find that this tablature is
very close to Bill Monroe’s playing

I think you will find that this tablature is very close to Bill Monroe’s playing. Recording quality in 1951 was not perfect, and there are a few spots where it is difficult to hear exactly what is going on, even at half speed, If anyone out there can send improvements I’d be very happy to check them out and amend the tab as appropriate. You will probably also substitute your own licks in what is really just a basic chord sequence, to create your personal version of Raw Hide, As many mandolin players have banjo picking friends (or, good heavens, there might even be a banjo player reading this!) it’s worth mentioning that an arrangement of Rudy Lyle’s banjo break was tabbed in the October 1985 issue of Banjo Newsletter, which is still obtainable, Write: Banjo Newsletter, PO Box 3418, Annapolis, MD 21403-0418, USA.

The name Raw Hide comes from a Western film of this title, which starred Max Terhune, Max worked with Bill Monroe on WLS Radio in Chicago, in the early Thirties, and Bill later borrowed the name of the film for his instrumental. It has nothing to do with the well-known Frankie Laine song, Rawhide.

The final word should be left to Bill Monroe, In an interview with David Grisman in 1977 he commented: “It really went to grow, that Raw Hide did, y’know, They loved it and I don’t think it’s stopped yet, I think it’s getting better all the time.”

John Baldry, Crawley, Sussex, England. August 1998

Note: Read John's Profile for his background.

Updated 23rd Jan 1999