Bill Monroe recorded “Little Maggie” on November 9, 1961, with Curtis McPeake (banjo), Jimmy Maynard (guitar), Bessie Lee Mauldin (bass), and Vassar Clements and Buddy Spicher on fiddles. The solo is played in fifth position with a lot of closed-chord arpeggios. Monroe uses a lot of his favorite sixteenth–eighth–sixteenth rhythms throughout and there are slurred triplets in measures 3 and 7. It’s in the key of B, but Bill uses a lot of open strings without regard for the key, with some open D and G strings.
