I always thought it was a 'break' in the singing. I dunno
I always thought it was a 'break' in the singing. I dunno
Like so many things bluegrass mandolin, I credit that term to Bill Monroe hisownself. In all the interviews and performances I've read/seen of him, he never used the term 'solo' to indicate such.
That seems to be the general consensus. We use slang terminology to say "taking a break" or "playing a break", when it would be more accurate to say "taking the lead during the break" or "playing the lead during the break". The break, of course, being the break in singing.
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If your break would be greatly enhanced by knowing the tune, which I believe, then I would think one of the most important things one could do is learn the tune. I mean ahead of learning how to formulate a break or a strategy for improvising.
I think the prelude to learning how to decorate a tune, or cleverly do variations on a tune, or even depart from the melody, is to learn the tune and be able to play the melody.
Last edited by JeffD; Mar-28-2017 at 1:47pm.
Since no one's posted it yet, board member Brad Klein filmed a great conversation with Michael Daves about mimicking vocal ornamentation with a mandolin to come up with variations on the melody. Throw in some double stops, fills, and turns, and you've come a long way. It's right on target for this discussion and really well done.
That is great. I love that guy. I might have to spring for some vocal lessons sometime.
Learning to first play melody is definitely the way to go. Some other thoughts: Your job as a beginner is to become a really strong rhythm player. Learn to keep the chord progression in mind when you're soloing. Use some of the chord tones as jumping off points in a solo. Especially on the last two bars in a section. Also, find a player you like and analyse how they construct solos. You don't have to sound like this player. The idea is not to copy but to look at the structure of soloing. Memorizing solos is a good way to do this. This can be part of listening closely to your favorite recordings. I would never play a solo I've memorized at a jam, but some people do. Learning to sing what you play and play what you sing is great for musicianship.
I took a few months of Michael's vocals class and totally agree with his comments about 4:15 in that it has greatly increased my understanding/appreciation of the ornamentation of even relatively simple melodies. Singing is tough!!
Alan....your jams are nowhere near like the ones I go to apparently. We're lucky to get everybody through Salt Creek.
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Well, the most common use of the term "break" would be the one in this quote from Wikipedia:
A solo break in jazz occurs when the rhythm section stops playing behind a soloist for a brief period, usually two or four bars leading into the soloist's first chorus. A notable recorded example is Charlie Parker's solo break at the beginning of his solo on "A Night in Tunisia".
Whereas this quote from the same source is sheer nonsense: "A breakdown is an instrumental form that features a series of breaks, each played by a different instrument. Examples of the form are "Bluegrass Breakdown" ..."
Too wise. Not to say that the Dawg tunes are played often but when they are, I tend to stay close to the pole. Another one is 16-16, fortunate to have a bass man near me who knows it. Also, Dawg's Bull.
I follow the Johnny Gimble approach: I never play the same thing once!
Well to clarify, what i wrote, was , this was OK when you dont know the melody.
My point was the skill of being on the spot.
For me, depending on tempo, and if i "get " the melody, or changes, i can find often it from knowing my scales -my fingers know where to go. Sometimes, i dont get the melody. Sometimes if it starts on a fourth, ive never heard it, etc., it can take me a moment to dial it in. On the fly, then , thats too long.
There are many other skills involved in being in a group, listening, in unknown territory, and steering the bus. And, sometimes one has to start.
Inb reading more of Marks posts, it is clear he does not have deer in headlight syndrome, nor is he a beginner, which was a possible thought regarding solos.
I totally agree knowing the melody and then deviating is the best for a meaningfull solo.
But, for me, i learned to walk before i could run. I too did the endless play along jamming. Its not the melody, but, it has also revealed some nice things from time to time.
I agree too, learning covers is a great insight into the essence of a performance or style.
This has given me insight, however. Perhaps all those smiles and tolerance at jams are...not what i thought.
Last edited by stevedenver; Mar-29-2017 at 9:33am.
This video from Don Julin shows the same things Butch taught. I'll go ahead and do this for "Little Girl from Tennesee." Since it's not one that I normally play, it will be good for me to go through this method on it for my own good. It will take me a little time to put a video together.
Obviously this is not something you can do in a jam session, but if you do this to enough songs, you'll start to recognize what's happening in a song you don't know. You will have developed some vocabulary that you can use to play a break.
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At any level,you can only use the tools you have, and you'll develop more over time. Hearing the melody and finding the first note and recognizing if the phrase goes up or down in pitch is, for me, the basic step. You can then use scale tones, chord tones and rephrasing as simple tools to work with. For many tunes, hearing the entire melody and being able to replay it won't be possible at this stage, especially if you have the first break, so you'll play notes that work, even from a pentatonic scale. Don't apologize for it, everyone uses those notes even if they denegrate the 'pentatonic' scale. And if you can play the straight melody, nothing wrong with that.
If it sounds good, it is good.
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There is always the option of sitting out the break until you know the tune.
I'm not trying to be snarky, and I am not "taking a stance". But I just remember being really surprised when someone in some similar thread asked "well what do I play if I don't know the tune?"
How do you drive to grandma's house if you don't know the way? You find out the way.
I will admit up front that I am not a full time bluegrasser, so it may be a genre culture thing. I have said at jam sessions that if I knew every tune I would never get to drink.
OK, Mark, I had some time today. Sorry that my strings are 3 months old so the mando doesn't sound its best. The Monroe break at the end of the video is more advanced, but I thought I'd give you a taste of that as well because this song lends itself to it nicely.
A lot of playing a song you might not know is chasing the chords. Can you read the chords from the guitar player's hands? You can hear where the melody goes up and down. If you follow the melody's contour and play "D stuff" of the D chord and "A stuff" over the A chord, etc., you'll be fine. Play the rhythm of the melody with your right hand--that's also a key.
The kickoffs you can pick up from listening to other mandolin players and figuring those out. There's lots of them. Same with the ending licks. If you start off great and end great, people won't notice what you play in the middle.
Anyway, I hope this helps you the way learning this method from Butch helped me. Glad to share it with you.
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Thank you Don, and everyone who has replied. There is a wealth of information and good advice in this thread. I think it will be helpful to many of us -- I know it will be to me!
If you think of music as a language , then you can listen to and repeat specific techniques, melodies, scales and chord forms as vocabulary of that language. Fiddle tunes become stories , single lines paragraphs and single words chords and tones. Music theory, scary words to some, becomes construction plans counted in base seven 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 ....... Soooo ..... listen and count. AlanN makes a great point about transcribing ..... taking a solo , or anything else, apart is a great way to begin understanding how and why something works...... R
I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...
Yer gettinit.
The salty reality of a Bluegrass jam: Tune starts. It's goes around. First time/break everybody honors the melody. If I hear chord arpeggios instead of melody, I think to myself that person has yet to get ahold of the melody. It's not a Cardinal Sin. In fact it is better than passing. My experience, if you pass twice, you may get passed up permanently. If you get a second break, you play everything you know. If it contains chord arpeggios, at this point, you've earned it.
There's some pretty stock melodies in Bluegrass. Let alone the chord progressions. Just be prepared to play in B or Bb.
You said it, buddy. We grassers can be an unforgiving bunch. Shake off a break too often, you run the risk of being pushed to the cornfield. And depending on the jam, it can be tough to get back in.
And if you get 3, try a twin to the melody. We picked Ol' Joe Clark. After everybody did their thing, the main picker and I did the twin. Good way to say bye-bye to Old Joe....
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