Bluegrass Tips?

[OliveCorduroy]

Hello All,

So I’ve learned a lot from many of the comments that I have received from my recent posts, with one of the comments essentially saying to just jump right in and see where it goes; while others have simply said to play and have fun. So with that, that is what I am going to do.

In one of my posts, I indicated that I was interested in bluegrass music, and I received a couple of suggestions recommending a book - The Bluegrass Fakebook. I also have Bert Casey’s Acoustic Guitar For Beginners book. I like this one a lot in that it is a book with music notation, instructional videos at different tempos, and play along tracks at different tempos for all its songs which are all traditional bluegrass/folk standards. The book uses these songs exclusively as a teaching method.

My plan is to learn technique by learning songs; that seems like a fun way to do it. Are there any suggestions that I might want to take into account with this style of music?

Thanks,
George

[Mandobart]

I've played bluegrass for decades. My constant advice to anyone learning to play anything is doubly applicable to bluegrass - play regularly with other musicians.

Bluegrass is especially participatory and community-based compared to other genres. It is ensemble rather than solo-performer based. Practicing and learning on your own is essential. Books, DVD's, virtual or in-person lessons are great. But if you want to know the one single, indispensable thing to learning and growing as a bluegrass player, it's regular sessions playing music with others.

Go to as many bluegrass festivals as you can. There are always great headliners, openers and sideliners to listen to, but the most fun at any festival is jamming with other people there. I've never experienced that same community jam spirit at any rock, blues, folk, etc. festival.

[rllink]

I've gotten a lot of technique from the Flatpicking Essentials series volume 1 and 2. I recommend them. I will warn you right now though, don't expect your usual 3 days and it shows up on the doorstep. I think that everyone there at Flatpicking Magazine has a day job and it takes around 10 days to get the books. Plan accordingly. But I think it is worth it.

I agree with others, with bluegrass nothing takes the place of playing with other bluegrassers. Look for jams in your area and don't be shy. Lots of bluegrass festivals have workshops. Those are great.

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by rllink

I've gotten a lot of technique from the Flatpicking Essentials series volume 1 and 2. I recommend them. I will warn you right now though, don't expect your usual 3 days and it shows up on the doorstep. I think that everyone there at Flatpicking Magazine has a day job and it takes around 10 days to get the books. Plan accordingly. But I think it is worth it.

Can't you use the digital (download) version? It's faster to get and a little cheaper.

You can also get the entire 8-volume collection with some bonus books. It is only available on a flash drive.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by OliveCorduroy

Are there any suggestions that I might want to take into account with this style of music?

Thanks,
George

Originally Posted by Mandobart

I've played bluegrass for decades. My constant advice to anyone learning to play anything is doubly applicable to bluegrass - play regularly with other musicians.

Bluegrass is especially participatory and community-based compared to other genres. It is ensemble rather than solo-performer based. Practicing and learning on your own is essential. Books, DVD's, virtual or in-person lessons are great. But if you want to know the one single, indispensable thing to learning and growing as a bluegrass player, it's regular sessions playing music with others.

Go to as many bluegrass festivals as you can. There are always great headliners, openers and sideliners to listen to, but the most fun at any festival is jamming with other people there. I've never experienced that same community jam spirit at any rock, blues, folk, etc. festival.

Mandobart has supplied some great advice. I would add a couple more things to do:

Listen to bluegrass radio: There are loads of bluegrass radio stations on-line. Have one on in the background whenever you can - you need to absorb the genera to understand it.

Sing: Sing whilst playing guitar, and sing along to the radio (practicing finding harmonies).

Play rhythm: Spend 90% of your time playing rhythm with bass runs, licks and fills, kick-offs, turnarounds and finishes. Work with a capo and learn to change key and root chord shape on the fly - Use the Nashville I/IV/V etc system to think about song structure. Because you can guarantee that a tune you have learnt in C will kick off in F# or something else when you go to a jam.

Don't bother with learning flatpicked fiddle tunes except for your own entertainment, you'll only ever play them at home - very few guitarists can pull off playing a fiddle tune in a jam session. They are going to kick off twice as fast as you have learnt it, plus you have the wrong instrument for tune playing, and they will want you to lay down a solid rhythm to back them up anyway.

Bluegrass is about the singing and the people, and being involved. Folks go to a rock festival to see the bands. Folks go to a bluegrass festival to be the bands!

[Mr. Jelly]

Focus on the G, C and D keys. Note how the majority of the song phrases resolve to the V or I. Find others that are into this type of music and flounder through it. You'll be glad you did because success isn't that hard to come by in this type of music and the people, you'll be dealing with.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Ralph124C41

Can't you use the digital (download) version? It's faster to get and a little cheaper.

You can also get the entire 8-volume collection with some bonus books. It is only available on a flash drive.

Yes, you certainly could download it digitally. I just mentioned the shipping time because a lot of people like to have a book..

[BlueStarfish]

All the suggestions so far are excellent!

Here is a quintet of additional ideas for you that have been useful for me. I’m caveat by saying I’m still only at the intermediate level, and have years of practice in front of me to get to expert. But then that means I’m right in the midst of the struggle to learn all this stuff, so can relate strongly to your question.

1. Get a subscription to Apple Music or Spotify, and then use it to search the catalogs and listen for bluegrass and acoustic-based roots music. Both contemporary and historical. Go back and listen to Carter Family, Jimmy Martin, etc. as well as the modern heroes. You’ve really got to get the music in your ears.

2. I’ve really enjoyed the Peghead Nation online video lessons. “Bluegrass and roots rhythm guitar” (with Scott Nygaard as the instructor) was super helpful for me. I’m now in the early stages of the Flatpicking course. The subscription fees are very reasonable, as compared to in person lessons, and it’s completely self paced which is great for mid-life learners like me. I’ve also heard good things about the ArtistWorks online courses too but haven’t tried those yet.

3. Find a friendly local jam session and start going. It’s super fun and you’ll begin getting used to playing with others. You’ll also get exposed to songs and tunes that are considered the local “standards” and then this becomes the list of songs to work on and learn.

4. Regarding learning fiddle tunes … I agree that they will get played much faster at jam sessions than you can probably play them (or at least, play the leads). I still think they are very useful to practice because the tunes are standards and practicing them helps you learn the repertoire. But be sure to practice rhythm too not just the melodies. In fact, start with the rhythm! Flatpick magazine (www.flatpick.com) has a great series of play-along CD’s that work well for this, with Brad Davis as the recording artist. He plays each tune a few times through, alternating between rhythm and lead. You can just play rhythm the whole time to start. And then trying alternating rhythm and lead as well. He does each tune at a range of tempos, from slower to super-fast. Grasstracks also has multi-tempo bluegrass practice tracks at very reasonable per-track prices.

5. Finally, I’ve recently discovered Troy Grady’s very insightful and unique online lesson subscription. His focus is exceedingly narrow — it’s picking technique. But given the obvious importance of picking to bluegrass, it’s super relevant. He has online videos of great players like Molly Tuttle, David Grier, Andy Wood (and many others including more rock-oriented electric players). He breaks down their picking movements in minute super-slow motion detail so you can understand and learn exactly what and how they are doing it. This resource is probably not the place to start for a bluegrass newbie, but once you’ve got the rhythm part under your fingers and are starting to work on playing melodic fills and lead lines, having and efficient picking technique becomes really important. Troy’s lessons are the best and most exhaustive materials I’ve found on this topic so far.

Hoping you enjoy the journey as much as I have!

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

...Don't bother with learning flatpicked fiddle tunes except for your own entertainment, you'll only ever play them at home - very few guitarists can pull off playing a fiddle tune in a jam session. They are going to kick off twice as fast as you have learnt it, plus you have the wrong instrument for tune playing, and they will want you to lay down a solid rhythm to back them up anyway.

No. A real bigly, no.

Learn the fiddle tunes, and play them at jam sessions. Folks will play at whatever speed you lead then into. Folks at the jam sessions will be pleased to accompany you on any fiddle tune you've learned. Don't buy into defeatist attitudes. Grassers embrace the true spirit of musical camaradery.

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

Bluegrass is about the singing and the people, and being involved. Folks go to a rock festival to see the bands. Folks go to a bluegrass festival to be the bands!

No. A real bigly, no.

Bluegrass is all about fidelity to the genre. And that includes any number of instrumental numbers. You hear instrumental performances all the time at Bluegrass festivals. Become a proficient instrumentalist, learning lead and rhythmic lines; the singing will evolve naturally in a symbiotic relationship to the music.

[min7b5]

As far as technique goes I think fiddle tunes are a really great way to get picking together. I recently updated the fiddle tune section of my website in case that might be helpful. There's a bunch of my own favorite fiddle tunes -now in tablature- and some thoughts about pick technique, improv, etc.. at https://ericskye.com/fiddle-tunes

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Inyo

No. A real bigly, no.

Learn the fiddle tunes, and play them at jam sessions. Folks will play at whatever speed you lead then into. Folks at the jam sessions will be pleased to accompany you on any fiddle tune you've learned. Don't buy into defeatist attitudes. Grassers embrace the true spirit of musical camaradery.



No. A real bigly, no.

Bluegrass is all about fidelity to the genre. And that includes any number of instrumental numbers. You hear instrumental performances all the time at Bluegrass festivals. Become a proficient instrumentalist, learning lead and rhythmic lines; the singing will evolve naturally in a symbiotic relationship to the music.

Well we'll have to come at this from different perspectives. Perhaps we have simply had very different apprenticeships into bluegrass and old time. I've played a lot of old time sessions, and that is all about playing fiddle tunes. Hell, there's samples of 16 or so of them in my signature!

And I played dobro in a bluegrass band for 8 or so years. Watched loads of bands. And the balance of songs to instrumentals had to be 12:1. And the guitar taking the lead would be for a 5th of that 12th.

In old time you can get away with the "tune". But jamming fiddle tunes on guitar in bluegrass - well that's something else entirely. We had a monthly open bluegrass jam a few years back at a pub in Tremadog. It was nearly all songs but the occasional fiddle tune was played. It was pretty fast and furious, as you can hear:

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Inyo

Bluegrass is all about fidelity to the genre.

For some, yes. As the title of Ken Burns' short documentary calls it, it's a Big Family. There are many traditionalists. There are also lots of newgrassers (have been since the 70's, when "bluegrass" as a genre had only existed for 40 years. That was 50 years ago). And a bunch of people come to bluegrass through the Grateful Dead, Sam Bush, Infamous Stringdusters, Fruition, etc.

Some still call it (newgrass) no part of nothin', but it's a big part of any festival out in the western US, and the Pacific Northwest especially.

I agree that any aspiring bluegrass picker should learn a mess of fiddle tunes. It didn't hurt Doc Watson any.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by OliveCorduroy

Hello All,

So I’ve learned a lot from many of the comments that I have received from my recent posts, with one of the comments essentially saying to just jump right in and see where it goes; while others have simply said to play and have fun. So with that, that is what I am going to do.

In one of my posts, I indicated that I was interested in bluegrass music, and I received a couple of suggestions recommending a book - The Bluegrass Fakebook. I also have Bert Casey’s Acoustic Guitar For Beginners book. I like this one a lot in that it is a book with music notation, instructional videos at different tempos, and play along tracks at different tempos for all its songs which are all traditional bluegrass/folk standards. The book uses these songs exclusively as a teaching method.

My plan is to learn technique by learning songs; that seems like a fun way to do it. Are there any suggestions that I might want to take into account with this style of music?

Thanks,
George

Step 1 learn songs, step 2 learn more songs step 3 learn to connect chord changes with short bass runs at the end of the bar preceding the change, step 3 learn how to construct a run connecting chord tones in the lower open positions, step 4 that's about it really.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

Step 1 learn songs, step 2 learn more songs step 3 learn to connect chord changes with short bass runs at the end of the bar preceding the change, step 3 learn how to construct a run connecting chord tones in the lower open positions, step 4 that's about it really.

Perfect

[mondoslug]

Originally Posted by Inyo

No. A real bigly, no.

Learn the fiddle tunes...

^^^ Heh. ^^^