Bluegrass music

From ArticleWorld

Bluegrass music is a musical genre that is a part of American roots music with influences from Irish, English and Scottish traditional music, which came from immigrants from the British Isles. Bluegrass music also features elements taken from blues, jazz and African-American rural music.

Instruments

The biggest difference between Bluegrass music and country music stands in the usage of instruments. Mainly acoustic string based is the most used and relied on the fiddle, acoustic guitar, mandolin, upright bass and banjo. The resonator guitar (known simply as Dobro in cases) and an electric bass or electric upright bass were also common. Because of the wide variety of instruments that were used the specialists do not agree upon the classical formation of a bluegrass band. A popularly accepted definition is considered to be at least four musicians that need to include the bass, banjo and acoustic guitar in the line up. In Gospel songs most banjo players will switch to lead guitar and the fiddle, mandolin and resonator guitar are still to popular to rule out of the line up. Besides the common instruments bluegrass music bands introduced at times several other ranging from the piano and the harmonica to the electric guitar. They are not accepted as a regular presence in a band although variations in instrument line up is popular. The vocals that were characteristic for bluegrass stood in vocal harmonies with two or more singers. Traditional songs with religious or sentimental themes were popular and the term “high lonesome sound” was a characteristic of the genre’s vocal style.

Subgenres

Bluegrass music put up two subgenres:

1.Progressive bluegrass – also known as newgrass or new grass revival, although not a fully synonym term, it appeared around 1970. The usage of electrical instruments came into place and a popular technique was importing songs from different genres, especially rock & roll. The progressive bluegrass band provided for elements that made them stand out:

• Instrumentation with electric instruments present in the line up
• Imported songs from other genres
• Wild chord progression
• Long, improvised jam sessions.

2.Traditional bluegrass – emphasized traditional elements. Common songs included folk influenced tunes, simple chord progression and the usage of only acoustic instruments. The guitar rarely takes the lead and simplicity stands out as the main characteristic.