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May 13, 2019: Song Challenge
ROUGH & ROCKY
NOTICE! Our ZOOM Sing-Along is on a weekday this time:
TUESDAY, MAY 21, at 9:30pm EST
Can you make it?
Don’t This Road Look Rough & Rocky by Flatt & Scruggs
Scroll down for your learning tips and video…
Click Here for Your Lyrics to Rough & Rocky
A few notes on the Lyrics…
In the second verse I sing “While on others you are thinking” because this is how my teacher Val Mindel taught it to me, and I imprinted on those words like a baby duck. 🙂 Everyone else seems to sing “While of others…”.
Here are a some versions of Don’t This Road Look Rough & Rocky…
(I went kinda deep down this particular rabbit hole — which, by the way, started me down another rabbit hole having to do with the Foghorn Stringband who I’d never heard of before but who are awesome!)
Flatt & Scruggs singing Rough & Rocky
Emmylou Harris Singing Rough & Rocky
Foghorn Stringband singing Rough & Rocky
Foggy Mountain Boys singing Rough & Rocky
The David Bromberg Band singing Rough & Rocky
Garrison Keillor, Sara Watkins, and The Exchange Street Band singing Rough & Rocky
Here are a few tips on learning Rough & Rocky…
In the verses the first note of the first 3 lines all start on the “1”;
The first note of the 4th line starts a little bit lower
In the chorus, the first line starts a little bit higher than the verses;
The last 3 lines of the chorus are exactly the same as the last 3 lines of the verses.
Rhythmically, the song is pretty simple. If you count the phrases out with
1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4
you’ll notice that each line of lyrics starts on a “1” beat. If you count out the beats while you watch the video, you’ll also notice that some of the notes linger over quite a few beats at the ends of phrases. I think it’s fairly intuitive — let me know if you have any problems with the timing though — that’s what I’m here for!