Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 51 to 75 of 123

Thread: The rules according to Bill Monroe

  1. #51
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Jackson, CA
    Posts
    208

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by Willie Poole View Post
    Monroe played a lot of music before Scruggs and Flatt joined him, as far as I am concerned that is the beginning of "Bluegrass" music Earl made the big difference in what Monroe was playing and that's when it took off...

    Willie
    No sir, while the Scruggs style banjo probably attracted close to a majority to Bill's music, the wholesome family and spiritual qualities of his music caught and held the hearts of Americans and indeed people everywhere.

    To argue that any one aspect or instrument is the essence of bluegrass is to do it a disservice. Bryan Sutton certainly wasn't attracted to bluegrass because of Earl's banjo, nor was Jerry Douglas, nor was Mark O'Connor. But they were all certainly attracted to bluegrass.

  2. #52
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Manchester - Lancashire - NW England
    Posts
    14,187

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    From RustyMadd - "...the wholesome family and spiritual qualities of his music caught and held the hearts of Americans and indeed people everywhere." Very true - however when Earl Scruggs joined the ''Blue Grass Boys'',the sales of BM's music took off like a rocket. For at least one Bluegrass musician - Jimmy Martin - it was Earl's banjo that caught his ear & i suspect that Earl's playing attracted many others to try their hand at playing banjo in that style - including me,back in 1963,although Earl wasn't the first banjo player i heard.

    Nobody had heard banjo played like that before,& the contrast between Stringbean's style & Earl's style was like chalk & cheese !. After Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe,the band received many more bookings than at any point in the past & ''Bluegrass Music as we know it'' was born. All the bands that began to play ''Bluegrass music'' after that,played in the style of Bill Monroe & had a ''Scruggs style'' banjo player. Not one band reverted to the 'pre-Scuggs' line up - the banjo played in ''Scruggs' style'' was that important.

    Bill Monroe was simply a popular musician fronting a band prior to Earl Scruggs joining him. After Earl joined - the rest as they say ''is history'',
    Ivan
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
    Lebeda F-5 "Special".
    Stelling Bellflower BANJO
    Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
    Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.

  3. #53
    Stop the chop!
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    europe
    Posts
    1,698
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Kelsall View Post
    From Humblemex - ".....There might be exceptions but I'm not aware of them.". The original recording of ''I Saw The Light'' had Earl Scruggs ( i think ?) playing banjo on it,
    Ivan



    What's NOT Scruggs style about this ?. One of my favourite Stanley Bros. recordings & IMHO nobody does it better !,
    Ivan


    I wonder in what sense this is "the original recording". I've leafed through the discography without finding any recording, not even a live recording, like this one, of ISTL before the 1958 studio version without fiddle or banjo. The banjo doesn't really sound like Scruggs and the lead singer definitely is not Lester Flatt.

  4. #54
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Kalamazoo, MI.
    Posts
    7,487

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by humblemex View Post
    So what were the rules of bluegrass according to Big Mon? I'm thinking strict instrumentation (mandolin, fiddle, guitar, banjo, bass, and sometimes Dobro), tight three- or four-part harmonies, traditional material, cowboy hats, and never a note outside the diatonic scale except a raised fourth now and then. Does that about cover it?
    Sorry to say, this "question" smacks of musical snobbery, and a certain amount of arrogance. You are not asking about the roots, but starting off with you perceptions and waving a red flag at "The Bluegrass Police"!
    Flatrock hill, Ivan and Willie bring some strong points which have been discussed on this forum ad nauseum. My constant comment about the direction of the music is the same and the powerplayers of the genre understand it too "You have go to understand where you came from to know where you are going"
    Humblemex, listen to more Stanley's, early Monroe, Don Reno, and learn for yourself what the roots of bluegrass are. Then, watch the JD Crowe "you tube" biography. You can see some very valuable information there. What it was and what directions (more than one to be sure) bluegrass music is moving are more diverse than ever. Not everyone is brittle but, some can be pretty stiff.
    Last edited by Timbofood; May-27-2017 at 6:50am. Reason: Forgot someone!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  5. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Timbofood For This Useful Post:


  6. #55
    Stop the chop!
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    europe
    Posts
    1,698
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by Ivan Kelsall View Post
    From humblemex - "....and sometimes Dobro" - never !!. Bill Monroe disliked Dobro & felt that it had no part in 'his music'. Personally,much of the time,i'm on Bill Monroe's side,but i certainly liked Rob Ickes contribution the the ''Blue Highway'' band. I don't dislike the Dobro,but for me,it's very 'player dependent'. I O.D'd on Gerry Douglas a long while back ( no disrespect intended ),it just seemed as though he was on every Bluegrass CD i bought.

    Bill Monroe's preferred line up was Banjo / Mandolin / Guitar / Fiddle - 2 if he could get them, & bass. That was the 'classic' line up of the first 'true' Bluegrass band. Only on what BM termed the '' Bluegrass Gospel Quartet '' songs were some of the instruments omitted. I think he got it right,
    Ivan
    Well, it certainly had no place in his music - the emphasis on the fiddle as the main instrument and the banjo as a signature instrument left litle room for that instrument. But I'm pretty sure he admired Cliff Carlisle (from whom he also bought a song) and, possibly, Oswald. On the BM &Friends album Barbara Mandrell overdubbed a dobro solo on Rose of Old Kentucky. And Mike Auldridge played on the Bluegrass Hall of Fame album.

  7. #56
    Stop the chop!
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    europe
    Posts
    1,698
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by multidon View Post
    Well, let me start out by saying that I'm no Bluegrass expert. Not even so much of a fan. Much of what I know about it I learned here. But based on what I know, I don't think Bill Monroe realized he was inventing a whole new genre early on. I think he thought he was playing old time string band music his way, up tempo with drive, vocals the way he liked them, and using virtuoso musicians who could solo and keep up with him. That's my theory anyways. Other people started imitating the style and the world called it "Bluegrass". When he did realize he had something new and revolutionary, he attempted to codify it.

    Of course he wasn't, and his concept of a modern string band changed over the years. The label "bluegrass" was established in the mid-50's, by writers or DJ's. Nobody speaks of the early band (recording for Victor), or the accordion band as Bluegrass, because no one really took off from that. It was the F&S edition that spawned a genre (no one invents a genre), when others took off from that band's concept, adding their own twists and interpretations. And, actually, Monroe's music changed even efter that:
    with Howard Watts there was lot of walking 4/4 on medium and medium uptempo songs, Joel Price often switched from 2/2 to 4/4 during instrumental solos, and after his tenure there was very little of that.

    Carlton Haney quite incisively illustrated the diversity of the genre when he spoke of Monroe's music as "bluesgrass", the Stanley Brothers as "mountain grass" (although they also recorded honky-tonk country material) and Reno&Smiley as "country grass".

  8. #57
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    0.8 mpc from NGC224, upstairs
    Posts
    10,054

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Whatever you want to play, you can't without thick bushy sideburns.
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  9. #58
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Conneaut Lake, PA
    Posts
    4,147

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Ok Ralph, so now we're parsing terminology? "Invent" versus "spawn"? Really?

    One of the reasons I don't like getting involved in these "what is bluegrass" discussion is because of how very picky the truly passionate fans get about every tiny detail. But I still let myself get sucked in somehow. I should learn just to shut up.

    Just one last comment before I go. This discussion doesn't even belong in the "General Mandolin Discussions" section as it is genre specific. This section is supposed to be for discussions that don't fit anywhere else. This would fit nicely in the genre specific Blugrass, Old Time, etc. area. Moderators, why not move it there and all the parsers and nit pickers can just have at it until the cows come home? I'm done.
    Don

    2016 Weber Custom Bitterroot F
    2011 Weber Bitterroot A
    1974 Martin Style A

  10. The following members say thank you to multidon for this post:


  11. #59
    Ursus Mandolinus Fretbear's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Copperhead Road
    Posts
    3,136

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    The Bluebird recordings of The Monroe Brothers have to be listened to (alot) to understand what came afterwards.
    Charlie Monroe was the first Bluegrass guitar player by default, as everything he played set the style, which was not only to accompany the fire and drive of his brother's revolutionary mandolin playing, but also serve as the entire rhythm section (which he did expertly) as they performed as a duo. The only chop you will hear on those recordings is something Bill would sometimes use to end his lines, and it was more like a hard strum.
    Fact is, Earl was the first guy whose banjo playing was up to matching the kind of fire and drive that Bill was putting out and was looking to deliver, whether he was playing with a banjo or not. Earl came up with that on his own (by the age of ten!) so his genius was his own, as was Bill's. When they met and played together, fireworks just had to ensue. I listen to a lot of The Earls of Leicester, and I listened to Steve Earle and The Del McCoury Band's "The Mountain" in it's entirety several times yesterday, and Bill's selfish attitudes, platitudes and musical "allergies" are what is actually "no part of nothin"
    But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
    And London never fails to leave me blue
    And Paris never was my kinda town
    So I walked around with the Ft. Worth Blues

  12. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Fretbear For This Useful Post:


  13. #60

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Personally, while I greatly adore Monroe's music and much appreciate that he named it something memorable, I don't give a hoot about his "rules".

    Bill was bullied by his older brothers, who forced him to take off one each of his paired strings so that he wasn't so loud. He sure rebelled against that. He made Blue Moon of Kentucky as a waltz. Elvis made a big hit out of it in 2/4. Monroe went back and recut it. I like the 3/4 then 2/4 version the best of all. My point here is that Monroe was a trend-setter. There can be no doubt. He inspired thousands and many became trendsetters of their own. He didn't like the Dobro; as do some here it seems. Jerry Douglas caused you an OD.... for a reason. He became a very requested musician in the studio. I read someone on a thread here recently who abhors Del McCoury (one of my favorite singers). That's all okay. Everyone is welcome to their opinion. If the performer is commercial in nature, the fans will buy their albums or not and that will push their sound around. But, I'd much rather listen to someone make an album that they like the sound of; that matched the sound they were looking for. That's the biggest rule Monroe seemed to have.

    The rules are meant to be broken.

  14. #61
    Registered User Bad Monkey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    178

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    I'm guessing that this thread is a lot of "tongue in cheek" goofing, but if there's room for a bluegrass outsider's view...
    I've been playing Scots/Irish folk music since I was allowed to sit on the kitchen floor, and got into pop and rock with all the rest of the kids in grade school. I've returned to my roots pretty much since I came out to the PNW. Bluegrass is fun to play, and there's a couple herds worth of solid meat in there to keep anyone learning for as long as they're walking. I have to wonder how many people don't participate in BG jams, gatherings, etc. because of the attitudes that can be like running headfirst into a brick wall. "Bill never...", "that ain't no..", "X got no place in BG...", "You have to...". And so on down the line. It's fun to play bluegrass, and there are some great players playing bluegrass; but y'all ain't no fun to play with.

    please bear in mind that that's a blanket statement.

  15. The following members say thank you to Bad Monkey for this post:


  16. #62
    Stop the chop!
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    europe
    Posts
    1,698
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by multidon View Post
    Ok Ralph, so now we're parsing terminology? "Invent" versus "spawn"? Really?

    One of the reasons I don't like getting involved in these "what is bluegrass" discussion is because of how very picky the truly passionate fans get about every tiny detail. But I still let myself get sucked in somehow. I should learn just to shut up.

    Just one last comment before I go. This discussion doesn't even belong in the "General Mandolin Discussions" section as it is genre specific. This section is supposed to be for discussions that don't fit anywhere else. This would fit nicely in the genre specific Blugrass, Old Time, etc. area. Moderators, why not move it there and all the parsers and nit pickers can just have at it until the cows come home? I'm done.
    Well, I thought the distinction was clear. The word "invent" connotes the idea of "rules" defining the genre, as suggested by the TS. I'm using the word "spawn" in the sense of "generate", "give birth to". Giving birth to, inspiring, something, an ideology, a tradition in art, etc. is not the same as controlling it.

    As for Monroe we can just trace his development leading to the formula that he came to be identified with, his motives, his likes and dislikes, and discoveries.

    The fiddle always was the main instrument in his music (except in gospel numbers) and he was looking for fiddlers who could elaborate on, and play background to, a song but also play oldtime fiddle numbers, like Arthur Smith and Clayton McMichen. Howdy Forrester, who never recorded as a Bluegrass boy, may have been his ideal. Chubby Wise oddly never recorded a fiddle tune with Monroe, but may, up to then, have been his best fiddler for song numbers. Wise had a background in pop and swing music. But "if he'd go swinging
    on ne of my numbers I'd stop him from that" (Monroe, at Bean Blossom, 1969).

    As for other instruments, their roles changed. Monroe's earliest guitarists were instructed to play a lot of bass runs, like his brother Charlie. With, e.g., Lester Flatt, there wasn't much of that besides the ubiquitous G and D runs. Only in the 60's was there any more elaborate guitar backup on a Monroe recording, in the guise of Benny Williams (Danny Boy, some of the Keith instrumentals). Then, of course, there's the instrumentation. Curly Bradshaw played some harmonica in one of Monroe's earliest bands (Monroe was a great fan of DeFord Bailey, and, along with Roy Acuff supported his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame). Billie Forrester's accordion has already been mentioned. Stringbean played a quirky two-finger style banjo (but never played clawhammer on record), lacking the smooth syncopated flow that Scruggs introduced. With Scruggs' arrival a lot fell in place, the band was a success and that's what Monroe, and others, took off from subsequently, and what came to be known as Bluegrass, maybe a decade later.

    I'm not passionate about Bluegrass music - I suffered an overdose 48 years ago. I'm even less passionate about definition quarrels.
    Years ago I wrote a piece for a small magazine, which I later translated to English. Maybe I should enter it as a blog post on this forum.

    In conclusion, I hope I'm not violating any forum guidelines in expressing my disgust over cheap insulting labels like "nit picking". I'm at least trying to make a serious contribution.

  17. #63
    Ursus Mandolinus Fretbear's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Copperhead Road
    Posts
    3,136

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by ralph johansson View Post
    Chubby Wise oddly never recorded a fiddle tune with Monroe, but may, up to then, have been his best fiddler for song numbers. Wise had a background in pop and swing music. But "if he'd go swinging
    on ne of my numbers I'd stop him from that" (Monroe, at Bean Blossom, 1969).
    Nonsense (even if he did say it)
    The "Original" 1946 recordings featuring Wise were amongst the most "swinging" bluegrass numbers ever recorded ("Heavy Traffic Ahead", etc.)
    But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
    And London never fails to leave me blue
    And Paris never was my kinda town
    So I walked around with the Ft. Worth Blues

  18. #64

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by ralph johansson View Post
    Wise had a background in pop and swing music. But "if he'd go swinging
    on ne of my numbers I'd stop him from that" (Monroe, at Bean Blossom, 1969).
    Quote Originally Posted by Fretbear View Post
    Nonsense (even if he did say it)
    The "Original" 1946 recordings featuring Wise were amongst the most "swinging" bluegrass numbers ever recorded ("Heavy Traffic Ahead", etc.)
    And now we move into the next 3 pages discussing the invention, spawning and meaning of "Swing":
    'The rules according to Benny Goodman'.

  19. #65
    Registered User sblock's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Redwood City, CA
    Posts
    2,335

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Bill Monroe may have been dubbed the "father of bluegrass," (by others) but the genre he inspired and helped to create transcended his, and his band's, music alone. Many others have played in this genre. Some were contemporaries of Bill. Some were rivals. Some were imitators. And some were followers. But music does not progress purely by having a series of cover bands playing the identical tunes! A large number of what were eventually called "bluegrass" bands played some of Bill's tunes, but they also introduced their own music, and added their own original twists. They HAD to do that, to survive economically, and they WANTED to do that, as original musicians with their own ideas. And musical genres, which tend to develop a life of their own, are never defined by a single musician -- not even WSM. They tend to get defined by the fans, the listeners, the critics, and by other musicians. Bill Monroe was not the first to even call it "bluegrass music"; he only acquiesced to using that name long after it had been established by others. And he most definitely did not get to "make the rules", because there were -- and are -- no rules! His music was terrific, it was exciting, and it was highly influential, but it was not definitive.

    Bluegrass music -- like any other genre -- is not something stagnant and written in stone. It does not follow ANY fixed "rules" so much as it displays a series of musical tendencies, influences, and themes. Furthermore, it continuously evolves. It evolved a whole lot during Bill's long career, in fact, and he contributed a great deal to that evolution himself! But so did a bunch of other musicians. As others have noted, we don't tend to think of accordion or two-finger banjo picking as being bluegrass, but Bill certainly had these in his early bands. He also experimented with twin fiddles for a while, but not all bluegrass bands went with these.There was the fairly early influence of the Stanley Brothers, Don Reno, Flatt & Scruggs, Bill Clifton, Jim & Jesse, and many more. There were later influences by the Country Gentlemen, Seldom Scene, Jimmy Martin, JD Crowe, and others. Groups like Newgrass Revival and Muleskinner made their own unique contributions. And so did Nickel Creek. Is it all bluegrass? Maybe not, because each group in turn has challenged, and innovated upon, the then-current norm, and helped to create a musical continuum involving constant change, movement, and experimentation. But trying to pigeonhole bluegrass, or to define a set of "Monroe's Rules" is a fruitless and unrewarding undertaking. Any rules, such as they were, didn't even stay the same during Monroe's tenure with his own band! And had he lived longer, the norms of bluegrass would likely have evolved still further, because he continued to innovate well into his last years. And to top it all off, Monroe by all accounts was very proud and self-conscious, and he seemed to hate it whenever bands copied his style too closely (he didn't like the competition) or took it in a slightly different direction (he didn't appreciate the departure), so you could not win, seemingly, either way!

    Those who seek to act as a bluegrass police are barking up the wrong tree. I suspect they mean well, and they are coming from a place of deep love for the music, but these efforts to promote strict rules are driven by a kind of naive nostalgia, and they will never work. And those who seek to define bluegrass instrumentation (Dobros allowed/disallowed; electric vs. acoustic basses, harmonicas banned, and more) are only wasting their time. Music is as music does. We should celebrate the old and welcome the new, but not seek to put on blinders -- or straight jackets. Because remaining stuck in a rut ain't no part of nuthin'.
    Last edited by sblock; May-27-2017 at 12:36pm.

  20. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to sblock For This Useful Post:


  21. #66

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by FLATROCK HILL View Post
    And now we move into the next 3 pages discussing the invention, spawning and meaning of "Swing": 'The rules according to Benny Goodman'.
    (doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah) ...

  22. The following members say thank you to billkilpatrick for this post:


  23. #67
    Member
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Jackson, CA
    Posts
    208

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    And here all this time I thought the IBMA set the rules for bluegrass. Little did I suspect that the rules are actually set by forum posters! ;-)

  24. #68

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by RustyMadd View Post
    And here all this time I thought the IBMA set the rules for bluegrass. Little did I suspect that the rules are actually set by forum posters! ;-)
    I don't recall them ever defining "bluegrass" specifically in the way some here are suggesting. It seems to be more of a, "I know it when I hear it."
    ----

    Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.

    Love mandola?
    Join the Mandola Social Group!

  25. #69
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Conneaut Lake, PA
    Posts
    4,147

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Ok, Ralph, I thought I was done, I really did, since I'm not a bluegrass fan per se but I thought, like you, that I had a positive contribution to make. But I have huge problem with some of the stuff you posted, and the manner in which you did it. Correcting a fellow poster's spelling and grammar is considered rude here. And vocabulary choice is part of that. And I stand by my statement. You say nobody "invents" a genre. I dispute that emphatically. In every new development in the arts there is a visionary, a revolutionary, someone who does something new first. That person is acting as an inventor. The actual definition of "inventor" is "someone who devises something new". Seems to me, that is an appropriate term to use for Bill Monroe. I also take issue with the verb "spawn". When used in the context that you did, my dictionary says it has derogatory connotations.

    I know, I know, you said you are "less passionate about definition quarrels". But you were quick enough to beat me over the head with what you considered incorrect usage, weren't you? And the term "nit picker" was not aimed specifically at you but at all those folks who natter on ad nauseum about what bluegrass is or isn't every time it comes up. As they say, if the shoe fits.

    I'm not sure, I post here a lot, but this may be the first time I've had an exchange with you. And it is clear to me just from what small exchange we had here that my ignore list needs to grow by one more. Perhaps you have made that same decision as well.

    When oh when will I ever learn to just run away whenever somebody starts a "what is bluegrass" discussion? I'm such a sucker. Don, out. And I mean it this time.
    Don

    2016 Weber Custom Bitterroot F
    2011 Weber Bitterroot A
    1974 Martin Style A

  26. The following members say thank you to multidon for this post:


  27. #70
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Kernersville, NC
    Posts
    2,593
    Blog Entries
    3

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    I wonder what his rules were later on about leaving your instruments out or not. Cased away or sitting out by the fireplace?

  28. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Mark Wilson For This Useful Post:


  29. #71

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by billkilpatrick View Post
    (doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah) ...
    It don't mean a thing if it ain't got it. (coincidentally, a rough translation of 'no part of nuthin')

  30. #72
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Ashland, OR
    Posts
    141

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Mr. Bill spawned the invention, and its spoor was bluegrass.

  31. #73

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    I dislike these kinds of threads and generally ignore them, it's limiting to umm...limit...oneself to how things are "supposed" to be done in music. While I spend a good amount of time and effort learning Bluegrass and listening to Bill Monroe I really don't care what he would have thought.

    I'm glad Sam Bush and David Grisman and hosts of others didn't either because I am able to get exposed to a range of different styles and interpretations which in turn I make my own. I wanted to learn Southern Flavor (my current fav) and I listened ad nauseum to any version/video I could find to get it down...I play it the way I play it and to heck with how anyone thinks it should be done.
    Northfield F5M #268, AT02 #7

  32. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to bigskygirl For This Useful Post:


  33. #74
    Registered User sblock's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Redwood City, CA
    Posts
    2,335

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Quote Originally Posted by RustyMadd View Post
    And here all this time I thought the IBMA set the rules for bluegrass. Little did I suspect that the rules are actually set by forum posters! ;-)
    No, the rules for bluegrass are not set by forum posters. But then again, the IBMA doesn't get to set the rules either -- except some rules it chooses to follow as a private organization, that is. And by the way, pioneering Dobro player Josh Graves is in the IBMA Hall of Fame! The IBMA doesn't get to define bluegrass. There are no rules in bluegrass! And there is no crying in baseball.

  34. #75
    Registered User red7flag's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Dickson, TN
    Posts
    3,292

    Default Re: The rules according to Bill Monroe

    Ivan, Banjo player here too. Ralph plays almost entirely forward rolls and fits the melody in with incredible timing. Earl uses timing devices like the forward backward roll to grab the melody. As a result, they really sound different and are approaching the tune differently. Neither better or worse just a different style. To me, Earl sounds smoother and Ralph more driving. Again that is a function of their different approaches. I can listen to either and really approach where they were coming from. Another example is Don Reno. He started as a jazz guitar player and adapted concepts like closed position runs and played in almost any key mostly without a capo. Today, most banjo players start with Earl, but in the beginning, Ralph and Don developed their own styles. This is much of what adds more color to bluegrass than just blue.
    Tony Huber
    1930 Martin Style C #14783
    2011 Mowry GOM
    2013 Hester F4 #31
    2014 Ellis F5 #322
    2017 Nyberg Mandola #172

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •