Forked Deer

Hi everyone,
Dan will be leading the beginner jam this coming Tuesday. (Jan. 21st)
The song of the week is 'Forked Deer' in the key of D.


Recordings
Jeff Autry, Wayne Benson, Aubrey Haynie, Rob Ickes, Mark Schatz, Rickie Simpkins, & Scott Vestal - key of D
Forked Deer - YouTube

Berline, Crary, & Hickman - key of D 
Berline, Crary, & Hickman - Forked Deer - YouTube

There is a lot going on in these recordings of the tune. You may find it useful to look at the jam video (below) first, to get a more basic sense of the tune, before listening to the recordings.

Jam Video
Jason’s YouTube Links – Alphabetical Listing – Parisology (cyberplasm.com)


Progression
A-Part 
1    4    1    5
1    4    1/4 5/1

B-Part 
5    5    5    1
5    5    1/4 5/1

In the key of D: 1 = D, 4 = G, 5 = A
(In the key of C: 1 = C, 4 = F, 5 = G)


Melody & Breaks: fiddle, mandolin, and guitar
In the attachments, I have included two versions of the melody for fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, a simpler stripped down version of the melody to help get one started on the tune, that gives one interpretation of the more essential notes in the tune, and then a more developed version of the melody. Players of instruments besides fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, can also make use of this material to get ideas for playing breaks for the tune.

I have written all these melody sheets in a manner that makes them playable as bona fide bluegrass breaks, without the need to add anything more to them for them to sound like proper bluegrass breaks. 

If you find that a 'more notes' version of the melody is too difficult to play smoothly at the speeds that Forked Deer is sometimes played at jams, then I recommend taking a 'fewer notes' version of the melody as one's basis for playing a break for the tune, and selectively adding into it a few passages here and there from a 'more notes' version. 

For instance, once one has a 'fewer notes' version of the melody down-pat and up to speed, then as a next step, one might work on getting measures 1, 3, & 5  of the A-Part (all three of these measures are identical with each other in the versions of the melody I have given in the attachments) in a 'more notes' version of the melody also up to speed by looping them over and over again, so that one can substitute these in place of measures 1, 3, & 5 of one's 'fewer' notes version of the melody/break.

The slower the tune is being played, the more desirable it is to play more consecutive 8th notes, and try not to have too many quarter notes back to back. The faster the tune is being played, the more desirable it is to break up a long series of 8th notes with quarter notes. (There are some versions of the A-Part, for instance, that consist almost entirely of 8th notes: more notes than the 'more notes' versions of the melody I have offered here.) For this reason, I recommend that even if one is able to play smoothly at a reasonably fast tempo a 'more notes' version of the melody, to work on being able to mix it up with a 'fewer notes' version of the melody in various different ways. This helps to keep one's playing flexible, so that one is not stuck with just one way of playing a break for the tune; but rather, how one plays a break in any given situation can be influenced by the tempo and feel with which the tune is being played at the time, and also by what one might feel like doing in the moment.


Melody & Breaks: Banjo
In the attachments, I have included both a very stripped down version of the melody for 3-finger banjo, and an example of a straightforward Scruggs-style break. The stripped down version of the melody is not intended to function as a break for the tune, but rather just gives the main melodic content of the Scruggs-style break. This version of the melody is just one of many possible interpretations of the more essential notes of the melody that are desirable to include in a melody-based Scruggs-style break. 
The melody sheet and break are written for C tuning: banjo tuned: GCGBD. Capo the 2nd fret and raise the fifth string up to an A note in order for these to come out in the key of D.

Clawhammer banjo players can also get some ideas from this material, but may prefer to tune to double C tuning: GCGCD, in which case, for reading the skeletal melody sheet, substitute 0 in place of 1 on the 2nd string, and 4 on the 3rd string in place of 0 on the 2nd string.


Intros & Endings
I have also included in the attachments, 8 Potato Intros and Double Endings suitable for Forked Deer, and for many other key of D fiddle tunes. 


Song List
16 songs were played at last night's jam: 11 from the main list, 3 from the additional songs list, and 2 that are on neither list:

Blue Ridge Cabin Home - A
Clinch Mountain Backstep - A
Cluck Old Hen - A
Forked Deer - D
Gold Watch And Chain - C
In The Pines - D
Shortnin' Bread - A
Sitting On Top Of The World - G
Way Down Town - E
Wreck Of The Old '97 - D
You Are My Sunshine - Bb
Angeline The Baker - D
Bury Me Beneath The Willow - C
I'll Fly Away - G
God's Bluegrass Band - G
Long Black Veil - E

Happy Pickin',
Jason

Files:
Forked Deer - banjo tab - Scruggs-style break
Download File

Forked Deer - banjo tab - skeletal melody
Download File

Forked Deer - guitar tab - fewer notes
Download File

Forked Deer - guitar tab - more notes
Download File

Forked Deer - mandolin tab - fewer notes
Download File

Forked Deer - mandolin tab - more notes
Download File

Forked Deer - melody - fewer notes
Download File

Forked Deer - melody - more notes
Download File

Key of D 8 Potato Intros
Download File

Key of D Double Endings
Download File