There are a bunch of different variations on the chords for this song. Around here and on the bluegrass oriented recordings I listen to it's usually pretty close to this (this is also how the show the chords in the Fiddler's Fakebook) A Part: |: D / G A D / A / | D / G A D G A D :| B Part |: A / A / A / A D A / D / A G A D :| But the B part varies a lot and is often changed to: |: A / A / A / A D A / A / D G A D :|
There's a walk-down progression in the last two bars of the B section on the Flinner et al version I'd love to figure out. Kind of jazzy sounding. I made a video this morning, but I'm not happy with it. Will try to get something up this afternoon or evening. There are a lot of variations possible with this tune.
Mike, here's a walk down that Roland White uses sometimes for the end of the B part of Soldier's Joy. It might fit in Forked Deer too. I'm not sure what Flinner et. al. are using--I can't get that website to work. Anyway, here's the tab using the G & D strings. First number is the G string. Basically going D/D7/G/Gm/D/A/D. The D doublestop after the Gm could imply some diminished chord in a true jazz progression. Each doublestop gets played twice (not the chop rhythm, play every beat in the measure). 7-4, 5-4, 4-5, 3-5, 2-4, 2-2, 2-0 Make any sense? Too lazy to make a video of it.
Don: "...here's a walk down that Roland White uses sometimes for the end of the B part of Soldier's Joy." This is a good observation -- when I was learning Forked Deer I kept thinking IF I ever learn this tune -- it will be a great one to play back-to-back with Soldier's Joy.
Thanks, Don! That just might be it. I'm at the office, so I'll have to try the progression tonight. (I should keep a mandolin in my cabinet so I can shut the door at moments like this for an "important conference call.") Here's my video. I kept thinking of different ways to play this. You can do it with the A part down an octave, but this was already running long.
Nice variations and picking. I played along with your video and that walkdown doesn't fit.
Nice picking and great rhythm there Mike.
As always, Mike, terrific picking! I love hearing so many different variations in one version.
Excellent picking Mike! There's about three years worth of different ideas there! Are you playing a Gibson MM there?
Gracias, y'all. I'm really struggling with my tone and pick attack -- trying to play close to the neck (when I remember), and I switched from a Red Bear to a Blue Chip. I doubt the pick makes that much difference, but playing with something with a slightly unusual feel makes it easier to pay attention. Bernie, it's a Gibson F-5 Adam Steffey model. A deal kind of fell into my lap and I bought it. It's starting to open up; it wasn't played much before I got it. Though the label says "Master Model," it's not a Master Model Master Model. Maybe one of you can 'splain that one to me. Maybe I'll get an MM get on someday. I gotta say this Steffey has really sold me on higher-end Gibsons.
Soundin' good, Mike. As usual. Your tone and pick attack may benefit from stepping back the tempo, I'm thinking. Some of your struggle may be from anxiety in wanting to play at Bluegrass tempo cuz that's your goal and the anxiety turns into tension. Tension can turn into stress, too. Some of it could be from performance anxiety, too. How many takes did it take to get this one? Relaxation is a key factor. Does playing the Celtic tunes you know really, really well sound smoother, take fewer takes when you record? Matt sounded really relaxed in his video last week. Maybe he's played that tune for ever. Maybe he's found a way to get that relaxed mode that he can share. I struggle with relaxing in various situations a lot. That could be the root of all my frustration and struggle with my mandolin that I've expressed in previous posts, too.
Interesting and cool version you have there, Mike. You have a very good sounding mandolin too.
OK: So, less coffee, more beer? (g) Found some interesting Texas fiddle style chord discussion here: http://www.mandolincafe.com/petemartin.html. One of the progressions, it says, works with Forked Deer. I printed them off for a look. Hey, Susiakasinead. I love the sound of your mandolin. If you said what it is somewhere I've missed it. What is it?
Mike there is a string on the Mandolin Cafe that got into a discussion of why models like my the A-9 and the F-5 Fern both have labels with "Master Model" like your Steffy signature while none of them are true Gibson Master Model-Master Models as you so well put it. (I think even Dave Harvey and Joe Vest jumped in on it.) Gibson officially tries to explain it via an "historical context" arguement but actually there is no clear-headed logical reason that passes the smile or incredulity tests -- still its a harmless thing I guess.
Hey Don ... actually, the Roland White turnaround works at the end of the A section, I think, which is were it, or something like it, is played on the Flynn and friends recording.
great picking Mike...I am jealous ,I hope one day that my right hand will be able to keep up with my brain and ears..even then I don't know if I will be able to keep up.
does anyone know where to find this tune in notation rather than Tab (I don't do tab yet) and why when i try to download the stuff from mandozine I get a whole lot of nothing
You can find multiple versions of tunes in standard notation here: http://www.folktunefinder.com/
thanx
Very nice on that Roland White lick! I just noticed the end of your fretboard -- no florida. I should have known what you were playing but I was not alert enough the first time!
Dcdan, I'm replying from my phone so I can't tell you the exact way, but if you have already dowloaded the tef viewer and the download the tabfile from mandozine, once you open it with the tef viewer go to the top and one of those things you can open (it may say score) gives you options of what it shows. Standard notation is one of the options. Hope this works for you!
Mike: my lovely mandolin is a Flatbush A4. Very fine instruments, check out http://www.flatbush.dk.
Here's my contribution. Forked Deer Chris
Very clean picking, Chris. Good job! Ah, the impatience of youth! I wonder if my being impatient means I'm still young?
Good stuff as ever Chris, nice and clean with good flow.
Thanks y'all! I might be recording Swallowtail Jig from Florida today. I'm on vacation this week and will try to get the recording done tomorrow.
Chris I just back from florida yesterday. I was also on vacation.
Ok I am a week late on this one. We were in Florida on vacation and just got home so I thought I would catch up. This is not as fast as I have been playing it. I still hate the recording and playing aspect.
OK, so today, we've had at least 2 of you guys in coats and ties... Formal Videoing Attire!
Actually Mike wasn't wearing a tie in his video, just a suit coat. So I was the most dressed up on usual. I always look like this on sundays.
Kyle, you are a better observer than I am... but I DID notice that you were both snappily dressed!
Well done, Kyle! You are certainly progressing in your mandolin playing, great stuff! Keep up the good work.
Barbara- Yes we were both dressed formally. I think it is going to be a regular thing for me now. Susi- Thank you.
sooo late - way behind on my homework! this is could be properly described as noodling - but here's my take on this song, played on a brand-new, so-glad-i-got-it, loar:
Hey, good to have you back Bill, that Loar is sounding fine.
Bill, welcome back! Love your take on the tune! Tell us about your NEW mando! Do you have on an apron?
gratz' ... yes, it's an apron - let's not go there. i've exhausted my supply of superlatives on previous mandolins - all i can say is, that at the end of the day, this one goes in the box with me.
I've been trying to get a decent version of Forked Deer for a while but can never get it right. I've played Forked Deer on the guitar for years and my mandolin version is based on a guitar version from an old Dan Crary book and recording. As always, it is done on an Eastman 815.
Ahhh...THANK YOU for slowing it down! I've wanted to learn that one for some time.
That's a good version of the tune, Tom. Dan Crary really knew how to pick it, as well as others, too!
Thanks. But I'll have to admit it... if I could have played it faster without introducing even more mistakes, I would have Tom
That's the problem with learnin' a tune in a week or so. A person really needs months to get into one's system to where it's a part of that person. Takes a lot of listenin to the tune, too. You're doin' alright in my book, Tom. As much as I'd like to be lightening quick, I'd rather be clean and slower as I believe that speed comes in time. The more hours spent practicin', just like anything else, the quicker it all comes together.
I am a firm believer in learning a tune SLOW, perfecting the timing, the rhythm, the notes, and the more you play it, the natural result will be you can play it faster. I also believe that you really need to learn the CORE tune, and then the embellishments... so your ear knows what you are embellishing.... But I'm kinda new at this whole music thing, and I know that others take other approaches! And, Joe, you are right. We aren't able to completely LEARN and perfect a tune in a week, unless that is ALL we are working on. And, unless we continued to play the tune regularly, we'd lose what we learned. So, what we are doing is learning the way a new tune goes, learning how to play it, and it's up to US to perfect them, improve them, embellish them, make them our own, memorize them.... on the tunes that interest us so much that we want to! On many of these tunes that are being submitted, I'm betting that the ones that are able to play them fast and perfect, are ones that the person already KNEW the tune... not the ones that are new tunes to them. Plus, changing genre of tunes is difficult! I can't play a bluegrass tune and make it sound bluegrassy to save my life! Others who don't play Irish Jigs, can't get their head around the DUD picking....
According to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to acquire mastery of anything. This translates to: 416 days of no sleep, 3.5 years at 8 hours a day, 5 years at 5.5 hours a day, 7 years at 4 hours a day, 15 years at 2 hours a day, or 60 years at 30 minutes a day.
Two videos in one day! Nice to have a little time to work on music again. Here's my take on Forked Deer. The harmonic strangeness came about as a way to make the ending make a little sense. As I've done before, I shamelessly stole the ending from a completely different source.
Oh yes.
FANTASTIC as only you make it, Ken!
Just playing some more "catch-up" with tunes, but it's hard to follow an act like Ken_P ! It's a fun fiddle tune and even more fun on my Collings MF5-V mandolin. Hope I can be as good a player as the mandolin I'm playing! Cheers, Jim
Jim, You sound great (and so does the Collings)!
Alright, I'll play catch-up too.
