My musical experiences over the years since have not borne out that early view. Half the fun of this kind of video essay is quibbling with the author. And despite my quibbles, I found the video very worthwhile.
Haigh packs a lot of information into 16 minutes. Haigh obviously thinks the public perception is wrong, but I am not so sure. What follows is my summary of Mr. Bluegrass is a very particular style of music rooted in old time, combined with elements of gospel, blues, and jazz, that originated with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys on the Grand Ole Opry and thus was commercial from its inception.
Second, old time is generally music for dancing, and bluegrass tends to be concert performance music for an audience of listeners. Some of the other differences listed below stem from this difference. Third, styles of performance differ. In old time, performers are often seated, the same tune is repeated many times and can go for 20 minutes, performers play many tunes in a row in the same key to minimize retuning fiddles and banjos, keys are usually limited to the more string friendly keys of G, D, and A, everyone plays simultaneously, there are no solos, instrumentals predominate, and tempos are comfortable for dancing.
In bluegrass, instrumentals are the exception, vocals predominate, including sometimes intricate duets, trios and quartets, with instrumentalists soloing on kickoffs, turnarounds, fills, and breaks between verses, the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar are all expected to solo, a high standard of instrumental and vocal technique is expected from all, and tempos are often faster than comfortable dance tempo. Fourth, the instrumental styles differ. Old time fiddling tends to be very rhythmic, with shuffles and syncopations, more bow strokes, a rougher more down home sound, played mostly in first position.
Modal tunes by which is meant in this context tunes using scales other than the major or minor and crooked tunes tunes having an irregular number of measures or beats within measures are popular. Bluegrass fiddling tends to be smoother, with fewer bow strokes, with an emphasis on clear tone and precise intonation. In addition to old time friendly keys like G, D, and A, bluegrass fiddlers also play in keys like E and B that old time fiddlers tend to avoid.
Irregular tunes tend to be squared off for performance. Fifth, bluegrass repertoire focuses on thwarted romance, cabin homes, and religion. Old time repertoire is more varied, with tunes about disasters, war, trainwrecks, murders, moonshine, low living, hogs and possums. Sixth, after 75 years, bluegrass is now a spectrum, with a traditional end characterized by musicians like the Del McCoury Band, and a more contemporary end, characterized by country-sounding singers like Alison Krauss.
Many bluegrass stars are part of the Nashville country music establishment. Although old time has its fusions and flirtations with other genres, it has largely returned to its roots and is less involved with Nashville. The use of accordions is quite popular in Country music. As for Bluegrass music, it is generally known to be mainly focused on unamplified instruments.
Because of this, the sound has a closer relationship with that of folk music. In addition, vocal harmonies are said to be quite distinctive of this genre. The difference between bluegrass and country is defined not only by the types of instrumented used, but also in how those instruments are used. The composition of songs are significantly different, and very easily distinguishable once you listen to a song in each style. Country music consists mainly of dance tunes and ballads focusing mainly on a steady rhythm.
But with the many subgenres of country music that exist in this day and age, there is also an endless variety of paces and tones.
It is considered to be more free regarding rhythm as well, generally related to improvisation. That last part is generally the main focus of the song. Mandolin and banjo play, in most contemporary old time music, counterpoint melody, harmony, lead, or just comp chords.
This quasi-homophony contrasts with both bluegrass, which is homophonic only for effect, and with Irish, which can be unforgiving in its homophonic stringency and still fairly new to rhythm of any kind. Your email address will not be published. Sign up for the Lessons With Marcel Newsletter to get email notifications every time a new blog post, free lesson, or YouTube video comes out!
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Share on email. Marcel Ardans. November 12, 8 Comments. These are real pictures of my great great grandfather. He's not playing bluegrass because it won't be invented for a couple of decades. A traditional bluegrass band playing tiny cello, trapezoid box, long ukulele, and hookah.
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