Ducks on the Millpond
Notation:
Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Banjo Tablature
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
PDF Files:
--- choose file type ---
Standard Notation
Banjo Tablature
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
Tune Sheet
Standard Notation - wide
Mandolin Tablature - wide
Violin Tablature - wide
Banjo Tablature - wide
American
Play
MIDI
No audio
available
Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
View
notes
Lyrics:
Tommy Jarrell's lyrics:
Ducks in the millpond, Geese in the ocean;
Hug them pretty girls, If I take a notion.
Chorus:
Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum,
Lord, Lord, gonna get on a rinktum.
Ducks in the millpond, Geese in the clover,
Jumped in the bed, And the bed turned over.
Ducks in the millpond, Geese in the clover,
Fell in the millpond, Wet all over.
Rain come and wet me, sun come and dry me,
Step back pretty girl, don’t you come nigh me.
"Ducks on the Millpond", also known as "Deaf Woman's Courtship" is an old-time American<br> breakdown from the Galax/Round Peak area of southwest Virginia (Grayson County) and<br> Mt. Airy, N.C. in D Major.<br> It is usually played in ADae tuning on the fiddle. The parts are played AB (Silberberg),<br> AABB (Brody, Krassen, Phillips/Lundy, Spandaro), AA'BB' (Phillips/Sutphin, Hollow Rock<br> String Band).<br> Most modern versions are derived from the playing of Grayson County, Virginia, fiddler<br> Emmett Lundy (1864-1953). Lundy, who learned his repertoire in the 19th century, cited his<br> most influential source as a local fiddler named Greenbury (Green) Leonard, who was an<br> elderly man when Lundy learned tunes from him in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Alan Lomax<br> collected the tune from Galax, Va., musician Fields Ward in 1937 and thought the tune<br> related to "Old Dan Tucker." Later, in 1941, Lomax recorded Lundy playing “Ducks on the<br> Millpond” for the Library of Congress. Lyrics are occasionally sung to the tune.<br> The reel is not related to the similarly titled "Ducks on the Pond" although there is<br> sometimes confusion between the two.<br> It was played in Round Peak style by Kyle Creed.<br> The banjo tablature is by John Letscher whose influences were Kyle Creed and John Burke.<br> It was printed in Brody's Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983),<br> Burke's John Burke's Book of Old Time Fiddle Tunes for Banjo (1968),<br> Fiddler Magazine, Summer 2008, vol. 15, No. 2,<br> Krassen's Appalachian Fiddle (1983),<br> Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 1 (1994),<br> Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021),<br> Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2002) and<br> Spandaro's 10 Cents a Dance (1980).<br> It was recorded by Bill and Libby Hicks on South of Nowhere, Tommy Jarrell on Come and Go<br> with Me and<br> Fuzzy Mountain String Band on Summer Oaks and Porch (1973) (They learned it from Tommy<br> Jarrell, Mt. Airy, N.C.).<br>
Click
here
for a full page view.