The fox

[fmspinc]

Does anyone have Chords for the song 'The Fox'. Should be simple enough, but my ear can't seem to get them easily.

Why ? My mom used to sing this to us when we were kids and now my kids love the N. Creek version, so I want to play it. Thile tab would be a bonus, but just the chords would be great !

[Michael H Geimer]

||: D D / D A / D G / DA D / A D / G D / A D :||

[250sc]

I've seen the Thile tab but don't remember where. Probably www.mandozine.com

[David Miller]

The Nickel Creek version is the same pattern that Benignus posted earlier, but they do it in the Key of A - therefore:
||:A A/A E/A D/AE A/E A/D A/E A :||

[David Horovitz]

Benig's chord changes seem right on as far as I can tell just singing the melody to myself without having an instrument at hand to play it. Nickel Creek plays it in A instead of D, but depending on your vocal range, D may be an easier key in which to sing.

As a side 'note,' there are two tabledit version of Thile's break to this on the mandozine site in the bluegrass folder. One is pretty close to the studio recorded version (melody only, not improv) and the second has been transcribed from a live version. Both are great little exercises in timing, syncopation and cross-picking. They stay very close to the melody but are surprisingly challenging to play, for me anyway!

[David Horovitz]

HA! collings470 beat me to the punch on the key signature comment.

[Michael H Geimer]

In my defense, Thile didn't write the tune.

D is the key used in Rise Up Singing.

[fmspinc]

Thank you one and all ! I agree with 'A' - as Chopping A behind Thile sounds right to me. If anyone finds that Tab ....

[ShaneJ]

I've picked out a good bit of NC's version by ear. #I've been playing the A, D & E chords with open A & E string drones and double stops on the G & D strings for the chord changes. #Like this:

# # A
#0 - 0
#0 - 0
#6 / 7 #(slide up into A from a fret below at the first of the verses, etc.)
#8 / 9

D # # #E
# 0 # # #0
# 0 # # #0
# 0 # # #2
# 2 # # #4

I play those voicings on the first two verses before the first break, then "normal" 1st position chop chords on the middle two verses, then back to the drone/doublestop chords again.

The breaks are all pretty similar, and I don't have them down exactly as CT plays them by any stretch. #But they're not too terribly hard to get - at least for the most part. #I'd try to tab that out here, but my wife just handed me a plate full of hot-out-of-the-oven homemade pizza! #Gotta go!

[fmspinc]

Hot Homemade Pizza instead of helping a cafe member .. what have we come to ? ... Thanks

[David Horovitz]

As I said, two versions of Thile's melody breaks on The Fox are at www.mandozine.com along with +2,500 other tunes!

Let's see if this whole url string comes through. If not, just click on TablEdit Files and search for The Fox. You'll need to download TablEdit viewer if you don't already have it.

http://www.mandozine.com/music....submit=

[ShaneJ]

Cool! I found the tab in the Celtic folder. I hit a note or two differently here and there, but I was close. Thanks.

[ShaneJ]

BTW....pizza was awesome! What a woman!!

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

C'mon folks. Any key will do. Just play the song with feeling, (it's been around alot longer than CT) and you can make it your own too. It's almost as basic as a song gets. I'll bet Mike Seeger has a great version. I've been playing this one since my earliest days on a stringed instrument #and although it gets some periodic rests, it pops up from time to time. The youngsters do love it.

rasa

[levin4now]

sjennings,

do you mean, "....woman is awesome! what a pizza!! ....

[mando bandage]

Jay Buckey has a Thile "inspired" break in A for this on his website as well. Easy enough that even a ham'n'egger like me can play it.

R

[David Miller]

I grew up with two other, very different, recordings of this tune. One was by folk singer Odetta, and the other was a rather comical treatment by the Smothers Brothers - they get into a little digression when one brother gets hung up on the "quack quack quack". I dont think either version uses mando (I am afraid both vinyls may be lost in time), but it can be fun to hear all the different folk variants that can evolve around such a fun and simple tune. In fact, I was jamming this tune a couple weeks ago with some friends, and one of them had a verse that I havent heard in ANY of the versions I know. This is what makes this music so fun!