Mandolin Song Breakdown: Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone

This weeks mandolin breakdown is going to focus on one of my favorite jam songs, Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone. Written in 1961 by Harry C. McAuliffe and Jake Taylor, this song I believe was first recorded by Jimmy Martin – but has been played & recorded by tons of folks since. The song is really simple at it’s heart but that simplicity really lends itself to some cool things.

With this breakdown, I’ll provide the basic charts for the song as always, but I’m also going to build off the last post on how to Improv your Improve and look at a few improvisation ideas.

This was inspired by one of my subscribers Gennelle. If you have a song you’d like me to breakdown, please reach out either in the comments below or on my contact page.

Listen to Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone

As always, learning any song requires some listening first. Here’s a few recordings of this song to use as the base.

• Jimmy Martin
• Tony Rice
• Tuesday String Band (including them as I recently saw them at Bluegrass and Butterflies!)
• Herschel Sizemore

Charts for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone

Normally I provide one chart for the song, but in this case, I’m providing a few since this song is often played in a few keys. I personally like playing this song in Bb, so that’s what the breakdown will be focusing on – but I often hear this played in G, A, and B just as often. Remember, vocal songs are played in whatever key the singer wants to sing it in – so your job as the rhythm section is to be able to play this in all keys.

I’ve also included two harmony ideas for this breakdown (in Bb only) – one is a 3rd above the melody, the other a 5th below.

• Basic Vocal Chart in Bb
• Basic Vocal Chart in G
• Sheet Music / Tabs in Bb
• Harmony in Bb
• Sheet Music / Tabs in G
• Strum Machine

Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone Form

The form for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone is as standard as you can get. The Verse and Chorus have the same chord progression with different melodies. You can breakdown the verse and chorus a bit more to help you learn the song better.

Breaking down the Phrases

The verse can be broken up into by each phrase. In the sheet music, that’s just basic each line. Notice that the 1st and 3rd line are identical with just the 1 and 4 chords. The 2nd and 4th lines are slightly different from each other but are the 1 and 5 chords. This is really common in bluegrass songs.

I often think of this like a story. The 1st and 3rd lines create the setting while the 2nd and 4th lines wrap up the respective ideas. This is easy to see in the lyrics (i.e. “Once I had a loving sweetheart I loved dearly” is setting the scene and “We planned the day that she would be my own” wraps up that idea / phrase) – but the music does that too. The setup here is the 1st line uses the 1 and 4 chords – this provides some tension. The 2nd line uses the 1 and 5 chords – that provides closure.

Melody for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone

The melody for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone only uses the notes Bb C D F G. For those that have looked a some of Scale lessons, those notes may seem familiar. They are of course the notes in the Bb Major Pentatonic scale. I suggest practicing this scale a good amount to get it under your fingers. Start with just 1 position but ideally you’ll want to be able to play this scale in multiple positions.

If you hear me singing this song, you’ll likely hear me changing one lyric on the 3rd verse. For the record, I know the lyrics and, while I’m sure old Copper was a great horse, I’d rather sing about my dog. She’s a good dog (yes, she is!).

Voicing 1

The first voicing option for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone is the basic version I recommend you use to start. It’s really simple and almost all of the melody is played on the E and A strings.

Voicing 2

The second voicing option for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone is a bit higher up the neck. I like using this idea for the basis of solo breaks. Similar to the first voicing option, this is mostly on two strings – this time the A and D strings.

Harmony for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone

It’s hard to go wrong with a good harmony line. I’m providing two different ideas here for you to use as a base for your own ideas. These are pretty straight forward parallel harmony lines – nothing too crazy. The great thing about playing a harmony line is there are really no “rules”. There are guides, but nothing is really off limits. If you want a challenge, try weaving in some counterpoint ideas in with these. Essentially, instead of following the melody up or down – just do the opposite. If the melody goes up, see what happens when you go down an equal interval.

3rd Above

5th Below

Wrap Up of Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone

Well that’s the basics for Ain’t Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone. It’s one of my favorite songs to call in a jam and I hope you give it a try! This breakdown really just scratches the surface of this song as well – there’s a lot more you can do with this for sure! Try using a b3rd instead of the natural 3 in some places, add some b7 notes, or even b5 / #5 notes. While this song is straight forward – it’s not that basic when you start playing around with it!

If you liked this breakdown or have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. If you’re in a financial position to be able to donate to help keep posts like this coming, you can do so below. I would sincerely appreciate whatever you’re able to provide.

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