Re: [Harp-L] Bluegrass: thoughts and observations

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As Tony said, you can wreck a bluegrass session very easily. A novice can, 
however, contribute with any level of skill and I am a firm believer that the 
best way to improve yourself as a musician is to continually surround yourself 
with musicians better than yourself. 
You don't need to work in the woodshed for months to get ready to wow everybody. 
Just play a chord rhythm. If you can slap a chord chop beat on the 2 and 4 beats 
with the mandolin, you will get by. Just do not, under any circumstances, noodle 
around when you should be playing a straight rhythm. Just help establish the 
beat, that's all you have to do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afNOTSmKplc
You don't even have to know the songs to play a chord rhythm or even be good at 
anticipating chord changes. Just watch the guitar player and play rhythm in 
second position. Most bluegrass guitar players play in G 90 percent of the time 
and switch keys with a capo. If you can recognize what the guitar players' 
fingers look like on the follow chords, G, C, D and Em, you are off to a good 
start. If you can also recognize what A, E, B7 and Am look like, you're in even 
better shape. 
You don't really need to even move the harmonica to do this. On the G, you are 
drawing on 234.  When you see the guitar player switch from a G to C, you simply 
start blowing on your harmonica. Back to G, start drawing again. When you go to 
D, do a 1-4 draw octave. 
You don't even have to know what the next chord is to make it happen. If you're 
chopping with the mandolin on the two and four beats, as you should be, you have 
a time delay. The guitar will switch chords on the 1 beat, BUT, you're not up to 
play that chord until the second beat... so you always have a one-beat delay for 
reaction time. 
You can play along regardless of how fast the song is. If you can't keep up, 
don't play all the beats. On a solo, you can play half notes instead of quarter. 
Suddenly, the song speed for you is cut in half. Same with chording. If you 
can't keep up, only play one of the beats instead of two.
 If you can't manage the breath, take a breath beat or two - just keep it 
consistent. Instead of playing "rest - TWO - rest - FOUR," play "rest -TWO - 
rest - Four - rest Two -rest- rest - rest" or something like that. You'll know 
that you are just doing it to get a breath, but to the listener, it comes out as 
a syncopated rhythm. I almost always do that when playing rhythm on a diatonic, 
except I play soft chops on the 1 and 3.. as in "one TWO three FOUR one TWO rest 
rest" or something like that broken up over two or three measures.
So, you're watching the guitar for the chord changes. Also watch the song 
leader. It's usually the singer, or it might be whoever called out the song. 
When it's your time to lead, he'll give you a nod. Bluegrass solos are typically 
done as one verse. As the verse nears its end, keep your eye on the leader. You 
might get a nod to keep going. If you don't, go back to playing rhythm. Don't 
worry about a bad solo or what the other musicians think of it too much. Nobody 
else is. 
The best situations for learning are the open jams. Around here, we have 
bluegrass concerts in community buildings. Basically a bunch of musicians show 
up and form these little groups and start playing. The organizers ask a group to 
go on stage and play for whatever crowd showed up, then when they're done 
playing, they get another group. The musicians change, but the groups always 
wind up like this:
Bluegrass gospel groups. 
Groups that play old stuff like Red Wing all the time. 
Fiddle Tune groups
Regular bluegrass groups . 
Regular bluegrass groups who play hard and fast. 

Me, I usually wind up with the latter, I get bored when the music is too soft 
and slow, but I do spend a little time with each, you make friends and meet a 
lot of good musicians that you'll play with for years. I met Greg Vincent and 
Roy Clark Jr. that way, they're both great musicians that I still enjoy playing 
with today.
Bluegrass festivals are a similar environment. there's groups on stage, sure, 
but I spent little time listening to them. The best music goes on in the 
campsites around the clock.