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Pavel Havlicek
Jun-09-2008, 10:45am
Hello,

I would wonder what do you prefer in song where band is singing.
Our band is stand bass, mandolin, two quitars and harmonic(mount organ), maybe we will have soon fiddle and banjo.
I do not know very of songs what you are talking about in cafe,but we play a lot of country songs(most taken over from US country music) like this - Jesse James. I thing that this song you all probably know.
I know how shoult sound good solo, but question: What would you play in these songs while singing
crospicking ?, chops ?, melody ?
Thanks for advice.
Pavel

John Ritchhart
Jun-09-2008, 11:00am
If I'm doing the singing, I'll be chopping. If someone else is singing then a combination of back-up chopping and fills.

Jim Garber
Jun-09-2008, 11:30am
I learned many years ago that less is more esp when singing. We all took turns with only one lead musician (banjo, fiddle, mandolin) backing up the singer. Guitar (chordal) and bass are fine. Also, for mandolin: lay back during the vocals and maybe a few fills at the end of a phrase or pause in the lyrics.

allenhopkins
Jun-09-2008, 8:35pm
Second Jim's opinion. When someone's singing, that's what the audience should be hearing. A good base of chords, and some understated figures from the "lead" instruments. If you're a really tasteful mandolin player, on slower songs, it's sometimes effective to play a tremolo harmony to the vocals (listen to Bill Bolick with the Blue Sky Boys if you'd like to hear some good examples). One thing that almost never works, is playing the same line as the singer is singing.