hardleydavidson - Posted - 09/28/2022:  07:07:00

Hi,

Anyone got a Scruggs style tab for Deep River Blues? Can't seem to find one in the tab library and I reckon it'll sound great on the banjo.

davidppp - Posted - 09/28/2022:  08:37:48

Not Scruggs style, not TAB, not what you want -- but, if you try sometime, it might be what you need...

The attached mp3 is in double-C (although indeterminate pitch), just played now for the first time, into my laptop using the built-in speaker. It's a simple fingering I came up with on the spot. (Most every time I pick up a guitar, it comes out eventually in E).

The left-hand finger positions are roughly the following (the numbers are fretting the 5th, 4th, ...1st strings): 00045, 00034, then 00035 sliding to 00045 going to 00005, 00201 (an F7), 00200, 00201, 00002 with a hammer on 000201 and off, 00002, 00202, 00002, bass run 04000 up to 07009; then repeat, with a finish of 00002, 00201, 00002.

Tony Ellis played a lot in double-C, and he is on the list of Monroe's Bluegrass Boys banjo players. (It's a long list!) If you're willing to try that tuning, I think you'd find rolls that work (as opposed to my fingerstyle) for the melody you want to hear.

Deep River Blues

 

hardleydavidson - Posted - 09/28/2022:  08:57:04

Wow thanks David I'll certainly give it a bash
(and hopefully learn some new skills along the way)

:-)

janolov - Posted - 09/28/2022:  09:05:36

Try this: banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=25671. Close to Doc Watson, in the key of E, and tuning bDGBD (standard G tuning with fifth string tuned up to B (capo or spiked at 9th fret)

banjoy - Posted - 09/28/2022:  09:07:46

Yeah this is an excellent tune and lends itself to banjo. I really enjoy the take posted above. Here's a couple of different takes, just to add some more flavor. You can do lots with this tune without having to do much, if that makes any sense...

No tab for this, but a few more musical ideas...

youtube.com/watch?v=Z0YOFolDCdw

youtube.com/watch?v=ZFnR_m3njQE

Edited by - banjoy on 09/28/2022 09:15:45

hardleydavidson - Posted - 09/28/2022:  09:30:16

Thanks chaps, certainly is a cracker of a tune, I'll play around with the different styles who knows I may end up inventing a new variation

Don Borchelt - Posted - 09/29/2022:  18:46:29

quote:

---

Originally posted by hardleydavidson

Hi,



Anyone got a Scruggs style tab for Deep River Blues? Can't seem to find one in the tab library and I reckon it'll sound great on the banjo.

---

I play this in three finger style in Open D tuning (aDF#AD).  On the rare occasion when I need to play it in E, I just tune up to open E, since a capo doesn't work too well on my semi-fretless banjo.  You can find the tab in both TEF and PDF format here.



If you want to know what it sounds like, here is a recording of me playing it in a duet with my clawhammer picking partner, the late Ed Britt.  Ed is doing the singing.

hardleydavidson - Posted - 09/30/2022:  01:27:04

Thanks Don, that sounds great!!, detected some bends in there as well, will definitely be trying all these next week when I'm free, such a lovely little tune!!!

Mad Hornet - Posted - 09/30/2022:  05:00:11

Here's one my banjo instructor, Gary Puckett arranged in standard G tuning. I've been playing it for a couple years

Deep Water Blues

 

janolov - Posted - 10/01/2022:  02:09:45

When listening and studying the tabs above I observed that all versions was very influenced by Doc Watson's guitar version (as the PO required). So I wonder how Earl would have play it. Even if he played a lot with Doc, I think that Earl would have a very  own way of arranging it, even if he would jam with Doc. SO, does anyone have any ideas how Earl would have approached Deep River Blues?

Jack Baker - Posted - 10/01/2022:  10:25:53

Don,

Great arrangement. Click on your tuning and change the capo to 7 and you'll have no more 7th fret 5th strings; you'll get the open 5th/0...Jackster

---

Originally posted by Don Borchelt

quote:

---

Originally posted by hardleydavidson

Hi,



Anyone got a Scruggs style tab for Deep River Blues? Can't seem to find one in the tab library and I reckon it'll sound great on the banjo.

---

I play this in three finger style in Open D tuning (aDF#AD).  On the rare occasion when I need to play it in E, I just tune up to open E, since a capo doesn't work too well on my semi-fretless banjo.  You can find the tab in both TEF and PDF format here.



If you want to know what it sounds like, here is a recording of me playing it in a duet with my clawhammer picking partner, the late Ed Britt.  Ed is doing the singing.

---

Don Borchelt - Posted - 10/02/2022:  05:19:52

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack Baker

Don,

Great arrangement. Click on your tuning and change the capo to 7 and you'll have no more 7th fret 5th strings; you'll get the open 5th/0...Jackster

---

---

Funny you should mention that, jack, I thought the same thing when I looked at it before I posted it here.  But this is a twelve year old tab, write protected, and I can't remember the password I used back then, so I can't save edits to it.  I did do the edits, only to find I couldn't save them.  At some point when I have the time, I am going to do the tab over. 



- Don

Jack Baker - Posted - 10/02/2022:  09:53:32

Ha ok...people probably know how to fix it by now....

Edited by - Jack Baker on 10/02/2022 09:54:58

Jack Baker - Posted - 10/02/2022:  10:09:22

Jan,

I think Earl would probably know what the chords are and then use his typical licks to play as close to the melody as he could--that would be my guess...Jack

---

Originally posted by janolov

When listening and studying the tabs above I observed that all versions was very influenced by Doc Watson's guitar version (as the PO required). So I wonder how Earl would have play it. Even if he played a lot with Doc, I think that Earl would have a very  own way of arranging it, even if he would jam with Doc. SO, does anyone have any ideas how Earl would have approached Deep River Blues?

---

RB3 - Posted - 10/02/2022:  12:44:52

janolov,

Here's what I worked up for the tune that I think might be similar to what Scruggs would have done.  I did it in the key of G; I think Doc played it in the key of E.

Deep River Blues.tef

Deep River Blues.pdf

Don Borchelt - Posted - 10/02/2022:  19:58:18

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack Baker

Jan,

I think Earl would probably know what the chords are and then use his typical licks to play as close to the melody as he could--that would be my guess...Jack

---

Originally posted by janolov

When listening and studying the tabs above I observed that all versions was very influenced by Doc Watson's guitar version (as the PO required). So I wonder how Earl would have play it. Even if he played a lot with Doc, I think that Earl would have a very  own way of arranging it, even if he would jam with Doc. SO, does anyone have any ideas how Earl would have approached Deep River Blues?

---

 

---

Well, the song apparently was first recorded by the Delmore Borthers in 1933, under the title I've Got the Big River Blues, with Alton Delmore getting the writer's credits (and presumable the copyright).  I think it's a safe bet that Doc picked it up from their recording.  If Monroe or Flatt and Scruggs had ever got around to it, that's likely where they would have gotten it, too.  Here's a link to the Delmore original, in the key of G (that's Rabon playing the lead on the 4 string tenor guitar):



I've Got the Big River Blues, by the Delmore Brothers

Now, the question is, would Lester and Earl have covered it with the Honky Tonk swing of the original, or would they have sped it up- "bluegrassed" it, if you will- the way they and Monroe did to a lot of other numbers, like Salty Dog Blues, Sittin' On Top of the World, and the like.  If they bluegrassed it- very likey, sad to say- Earl would have played it pretty much the way Wayne mapped it out, for sure.  But if they stayed true to the sound of Alton and Rabon, I think Earl would have fallen back on his classic honky licks, like he used in Foggy Mountain Special.  If he did that, I think it might have looked something like this:

Edited by - Don Borchelt on 10/02/2022 20:07:15

Deep River Blues as Earl MIGHT have played it

 

janolov - Posted - 10/03/2022:  00:45:24

quote:

---

Originally posted by Don Borchelt

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jack Baker

Jan,

I think Earl would probably know what the chords are and then use his typical licks to play as close to the melody as he could--that would be my guess...Jack

---

Originally posted by janolov

When listening and studying the tabs above I observed that all versions was very influenced by Doc Watson's guitar version (as the PO required). So I wonder how Earl would have play it. Even if he played a lot with Doc, I think that Earl would have a very  own way of arranging it, even if he would jam with Doc. SO, does anyone have any ideas how Earl would have approached Deep River Blues?

---

 

---

Well, the song apparently was first recorded by the Delmore Borthers in 1933, under the title I've Got the Big River Blues, with Alton Delmore getting the writer's credits (and presumable the copyright).  I think it's a safe bet that Doc picked it up from their recording.  If Monroe or Flatt and Scruggs had ever got around to it, that's likely where they would have gotten it, too.  Here's a link to the Delmore original, in the key of G (that's Rabon playing the lead on the 4 string tenor guitar):



I've Got the Big River Blues, by the Delmore Brothers

Now, the question is, would Lester and Earl have covered it with the Honky Tonk swing of the original, or would they have sped it up- "bluegrassed" it, if you will- the way they and Monroe did to a lot of other numbers, like Salty Dog Blues, Sittin' On Top of the World, and the like.  If they bluegrassed it- very likey, sad to say- Earl would have played it pretty much the way Wayne mapped it out, for sure.  But if they stayed true to the sound of Alton and Rabon, I think Earl would have fallen back on his classic honky licks, like he used in Foggy Mountain Special.  If he did that, I think it might have looked something like this:



 

---

Very good!. Interesting!.

I have at least three different ideas how Earl would have played:

1. First also thought of a Foggy Mountain Special-ish version, which have a similar bounce and rhythm as  Doc's Deep River Blues and Delmore Brothers Big River Blues or Merle Travis version.


2. I think Earl also could have chose an approach more like Farewell Blues, which he plays in quit another way than the original: Listen to Earl from 1951 and listen to the original recording by New Orleans Rhythm Kings from 1922


3. Another tune recorded by Delmore Brothers, Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs is Brown's Ferry Blues. Listen: Delmore Brothers, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs in Banjo Newsletter March 2016: banjonews.com/2016-03/browns_f...lues.html (tab and audio recording).

RB3 - Posted - 10/03/2022:  09:02:13

I have a question for the music theorists about one of the chords in this song.

How do you decide which diminished chord should be specified in the second measure? Don and I both show it as a Gdim7 for our respective arrangements in the key of G. However, Jan's arrangement is in the key of E, and he shows the chord as an A#dim. If he had done it the way Don and I did, he would have specified it as an Edim7. I believe that an A#dim7 and an Edim7 are both composed from the same four notes, so how do you decide which chord should be specified?

Jack Baker - Posted - 10/03/2022:  09:21:05

Wayne,

A fully diminished 7th chord inverts every 4 frets. It can be called by any of the inversion names according to the key you're in...This is difficult to explain here because you have to know the difference between a 3 note diminished chord and an added 7th tone (fully diminished) chord is. I know it will confuse people. The internet explains it better if you have the time to read what a fully diminished 7th chord is and how it inverts and what you call a particular inversion. It could be called by the root note every 4th fret which is what Jan probably did since he's in a different key...Jack   p.s. don't worry about the minor 7 flat 5 stuff...just call it 1/2 dim. or fully dim. chord....just read about how it pertains to your original question Wayne...it's actually fun stuff to know...

Full explanation of Diminished chords

Edited by - Jack Baker on 10/03/2022 09:36:10

janolov - Posted - 10/03/2022:  11:12:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by RB3

I have a question for the music theorists about one of the chords in this song.



How do you decide which diminished chord should be specified in the second measure? Don and I both show it as a Gdim7 for our respective arrangements in the key of G. However, Jan's arrangement is in the key of E, and he shows the chord as an A#dim. If he had done it the way Don and I did, he would have specified it as an Edim7. I believe that an A#dim7 and an Edim7 are both composed from the same four notes, so how do you decide which chord should be specified?

---

A#dim7 is A# - C# - E - G . Edim7 is E - G- Bb - Db. C#dim7 is C# - E - G - Bb. Gdim7 is G - Bb - Db - Fb (and it can be discussed when there is Bb or A#, when C# or Db or when E or Fb!). It is the same chord with the same notes, and it is a minor third between the tones. And the context decides what is the best name of the chord. If the tune is in E major, it may be either Edim7 or C#dim7 that would be the "rightest". I chose A# or Bb because it was the melody note. Or you can choose to use a dice when naming the dim7 chords.