Bluegrass Music
You must have heard about country music. Well,one of its sub genres is Bluegrass music.Though a form of American music,its roots lie deep in the traditional Irish, Scottish and even English music.Taking inspiration from Afro American jazz as well,this genre of music is characterized by the fact that it uses a medley of stringed instruments which are played separately. Normally, in other forms of music, the instrument is played simultaneously to create melody but this is not the case with bluegrass music. According to the pioneer of this music, Mr. Bill Monroe “Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin. It is Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It is blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound.”
Characteristics of Bluegrass music:
This style of music is very down to earth kind. This genre of music has a few characteristics like many others such as:
>> Instrumentation: The music is mainly derived from stringed acoustic instruments such as the harmonica, banjo, mandolin and the guitar.There are other instruments used as well. Since it is a simple form of music, therefore traditional instruments are preferred.
>> Vocals (high, lonesome sound) ” This is a distinctive feature of bluegrass music.It means that the music is broken into multiple parts with one sound being the highest.This particular style is called ‘stack’.
>> Themes: The lyrics of this genre range from incidents happening in personal lives to daily chores.In fact,the music is heavily inspired from the everyday lives of people not necessarily the singer.
Types of Bluegrass Music:
Today, there are many types or variations of the traditional form of this music. Let us see a few of them.
>> Progressive bluegrass: Another major sub genre is progressive bluegrass. Groups use electric instruments and import songs from other genres,particularly rock & roll.The characteristics of this sub genre include a ‘jam band styles’ of music and strong chord progressions. Sometimes, these elements can be from a kind of music that dates before the time of emergence of Bluegrass music itself. Examples include Foggy Mountain Boys and String Cheese Incident.
>> Bluegrass Gospel: This style is little offbeat but still many artists list Gospel music as a part of this kind of music.The main features of this sub genre of music include Christian lyrics, expressive soul based music,multiple harmony singing and subdued instrumentals. Examples of this genre include Mount Zion, While the Issacs and The Churchmen.Doyle Lawson is a prominent artist of this genre.
>> Neo-Traditional Bluegrass: This is comparatively a more new development on the music front.This style was developed mainly by Doyle Lawson and Rhonda Vincent and their band. There are other groups such as The Grascals, Steep Canyon Rangers, Mountain Heart,Cadillac Sky,The Infamous Stringdusters and Cherryholmes. All of these bands share another factor in common apart from the fact that they play Neo-Traditional Bluegrass music. This factor is that all of them have more than one lead vocalist.
Come and listen to Bluegrass Music from singer songwriters and discover new and original bluegrass music videos and songs. http://www.singersongwriter.com Check out some bluegrass singer/songwriters.
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