What is OLD TIME?

**John Flynn** · May-14-2005, 6:27pm

Steven:

Most old-time tunes are fiddle tunes, with an "A" part and a "B" part that each repeat twice in a pattern of AABB, over and over again. There are many exceptions, but that is the basic pattern. In old time, everyone plays together, there are no "solo breaks," as in bluegrass. The fiddle generally carries the tune. The guitar generally carries the rhythm. The mando can have a great time, because it is generally free to play melody, harmony, counter-melody, rhythm, counter-ryhthm, percussion, etc, depending on the group and the talent of the mando player. Chop chords are only used as occasional "special effects. When mandos play rhythm, they more commonly play open chords, emphasizing the bass notes. There is singing in old-time, but not on every tune, and not all the way through even the tunes that there is singing on. There is more emphasis on communal singing, rather than intricate harmonies like there is in bluegrass. MHO of the key difference in the two genres, is that old-time is more of a "communal" experience of musicians relating to each other, whereas bluegrass is more of a "performance," even at a jam.

Because the mando isn't "locked in" to any role in old-time, it is a very "welcoming" genre for a newcomer, because you make whatever contribution to the music you can make, but no one is depending on you for a critical role. But at the advanced end, you have all those options I mentioned to experiment with to "spice up" the tune. Bluegrass is fine, but old-time mando is my passion.

**Steven** · May-15-2005, 9:20am

Thanks very much for that description Mando Johnny,it was just what I was looking for,does the banjo have any specific tasks or are they pretty much free to do what the mando does?I have a friend who plays banjo who says he hates Old Time music but when he describes how he and his banjo picking friends play it sounds like the format you described for Old Time.....he says its Bluegrass.Just wondering.Thanks again for your help.

**John Flynn** · May-15-2005, 9:36am

Steven:

There is no question that the lines get blurred sometimes and it actually varies in different parts of the country. I don't want to get a debate started here, but my observation is that in some places, the bluegrass people are the purists, and everything that does not fit thier rules is either "old-time" on the conservative side, or "country" on the progresssive side. Other places, the old-time folks tend to be the purists, and any deviation from thier rules is "bluegrass" or just "wrong." I try to stay out of that and just have fun playing, no matter what you call it.

As to the banjo, in my area, which has a verey active old-time scene, banjos are all open-back and played clawhammer style. The best players do not use picks of any kind. It is OK for a beginner to use one plastic guitar fingerpick that has been filed down, worn backwards on the middle finger, until that beginner can start to get good volume using only the top of the middle fingerenail. The top banjo players play what I can only describe as a "bare bones version of the melody, played in a very rhythmic fashsion." Clawhammer instructors correct students when they try to play embellishments of the melody at the expense of the percussive rhythm. Players may even intentionally leave melody notes out if it facilitates better percussive rhythm. It is not OK to do full strums. Fingerpicking rolls are generally only acceptable in a waltz.