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OK, it's time I learn BlueGrass
Well, now that I have my 2nd dread being delivered in 2 days, (Alvarez MD60BG to go along with my Eastman ES11-CLA-LTD), it seems only appropriate that I learn to play some bluegrass.
I learned to play guitar on classic rock and can shred the blues scale with the best of them, so hopefully it won't take too long to be fairly competent in these bluegrass runs. I started today with a youtube video detailing 5 examples of the G-Run. 1)standard, 2) Del McCoury, 3) Tony Rice, 4) Doc Watson, and 5) Norman Blake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQcF_qKRbk Any other suggestions and tips is greatly appreciated. I have to justify to my Wife why I keep buying all these acoustics other than just having GAS. |
#2
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This is the one subject I'll keep chiming in on regardless how often it comes up.
Bluegrass is a different scene musically, culturally and socially than jazz, blues, folk or rock. Bluegrass and old time are participatory genres. This is porch pickin' music. There are no solo artists in these genres - it only works with a full band (fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin, maybe dobro and bass). You need to play with others to learn it. Find a bluegrass or old time music association in your area and jam with them. I started doing this 10 years ago on mandolin, after having been a guitar picker for over 30 years. In two years I was better on mandolin than on guitar. A huge reason is I had mainly played guitar at home, occasionally, and almost always alone. Sure we all need time in the woodshed, but nothing will help you learn quicker and better than regularly playing with other people, face-to-face (not YouTube, skype, FaceTime, etc.). Other benefits of my weekly jams - I learned a bunch more songs, made new friends and improved on guitar and fiddle a lot in addition to mandolin. The single best thing I've done to improve as a musician in the past 40+ years was starting going to weekly bluegrass jams 10 years ago. |
#3
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Do you agree with this or do you recommend going in cold and they would take me under their wing? |
#4
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The culture around this music is great. Go to any picking session, and you'll probably hear about others while there . Try several and sit in anywhere you can. Much easier to find these kind of picking sessions than in other styles of music, in certain areas for sure. At the ones I've been to, there are always people who just play rhythm etc or are just casual players. I'm sure it's very different, depending on the specific sessions. Last edited by mattbn73; 12-03-2019 at 06:57 PM. |
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#6
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Yeah, bluegrass is a group thing and as a guitarist your main job is to thwack out that boom-chick rhythm so's the banjo, fiddle, mndo and perhaps dobro players can show off.
Your job is to maybe sing to, or at least harmonies, and fill out the spaces left between the bass players I & Vs, with the odd G-run. Yeah you can work out some fancy fiddle toon picking but the other guys don't really want to hear you - they think that they are the stars and you are just one of the rhythm section. Deal with it!
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#7
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To me, that is one of the main differences between bluegrass and other genres. Blues, especially, doesn't strike me as the rhythmically "tightest" of all genres, while in bluegrass, nothing is more important, because it's the only genre I can think of where no percussion section is involved. The string instruments have to take over that role. The guitar's responsibility is to help the bass drive on the 1 and the 3, sometimes the 2 and 4. At the same time, rhythm playing tends to get short shrift by many bluegrass guitar players, and I'm guilty of that, too. We all want to shred the cool solos, but we have to remind ourselves that a strong rhythm foundation is about 80% of the game. So that's probably something worth paying attention to.
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"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro |
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#9
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I don't know much about Bluegrass, but this summer I attended a music camp and the instructor made us learn "Big Mon"
We played at a fraction of the Tony Rice speed, and the fingering discipline and using a metronome took all fun out of it. Bluegrass is not for me. |
#10
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"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro |
#11
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"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro |
#12
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Most jams are very accepting and encouraging toward beginners in the genre, but not very appreciative of someone coming in with the idea of rocking, bluesing or jazzing up the bluegrass. However, a lot of grassers love to cut loose on swing tunes or even gypsy jazz. Quote:
If you're good natured, don't come on too strong at first, are receptive to feedback and suggestions from the rest of the jam you'll be fine. |
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#15
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^^^ THIS ^^^
__________________
"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro |