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This article is for the musician that
already knows the very basic of chord arrangements. If
you are two or three days into it, then this is for you.
But
I can't read music! I can't either. I have never seen a
bluegrass band on stage reading music. Play what you hear and what your idea of what it should be. That's
what makes it fun.
Click
here to print off a picture of a guitar neck to make notes on.
You will probably use this as a tool forever.
If you
are looking to learn "Bluegrass Guitar" then here's the place to
get started. This doesn't mean that once that you have read this article
you will be able to play anything that you want, but it does mean
that you will start to understand the fundamentals of playing. No two
musicians play exactly alike but they can sound very similar. You
and I might not hear the difference, but experienced musicians can. As long as you are
close, then there is a good chance that others will not hear a difference
either.
The main thing with playing music is that you enjoy it, if you're
happy then it is good.
Bluegrass guitar
A word about Bluegrass
music! Bluegrass can be as simple or as complex as you
make it. It can be a lot of fun for friends getting together just
playing basic chords or a five piece band of jamming talent. Bluegrass is a type of music that has
basically no electric instruments or drums. Occasionally
you might see a bass guitar or washtub
bass. PA systems are used to reach more people; however, the best
sound is without. Bluegrass is a type of music that is centered around
country and back woods life, fresh air, old times, hard times and the
simple life that we all wish we could live assuming that we could live
without the modern conveniences. It is an escape for the mind as
well as an exciting rush; it is also much safer that jumping out of an airplane.
The instruments are acoustic and people seem to make better singers if they
have a severe nasal problem. On the Andy Griffith Show, the Darlins
played Bluegrass and were the image of typical poverty stricken, backwoods
bluegrass pickers. For a musician it is hard to imagine the Darlins
as poverty stricken with instruments costing thousands of dollars. It's
kind of like doctors and lawyers pretending to be rough, tough Harley riders for
the weekend. It's just fun. When the music is right, your hair
will stand up and chill bumps will form all over your body. Bluegrass music excites the
listener by emphasizing notes and just plain good picking. If you are already a bluegrass
fan, then
you know how great it is. It is a lifestyle in itself. It's
fun!
Bluegrass guitar
Tune
with me!
Can I teach you to play just in this
article? I can give you the tools and basic understanding to
play, but you will have to teach yourself. Remember, you are not in
this to be discovered next week. It is supposed to be fun and if you
do break to show business, then that is extra. If it's your life dream,
I hope I was able to inspire you. I wish you the best.
Bluegrass rhythm Playing
the rhythm you will need to play the bass notes like a bass guitar while
holding your chord. Then in between each bass note you will want to
put in one strum. It will be pick, strum, pick, strum and every
other pick, let it be the other string. Now do this in
"G", "C" and "D" and flow them together in a
circle. Listen to this example where I show the pick strum method
and the jazzed up version and a set of lead runs.
Click here! Now lets jazz it up a bit. Playing pick, strum,
pick, strum is plain and it was the way that I did it for years but there
is a way to put some more life into it. I later learned that using
hammer-ons and pull-offs would give me a better flow of notes when I could
not pick them as fast as I needed to. A hammer-on is when you pick a
string and while it is sounding, fret the string so that you have made two
different notes with only one pick. A pull off is the opposite.
Pick a string and as you pull your fretted finger off, make it
sound. Again, one pick for two notes. Now when you go from one
cord to the next you will want to find bass notes that will walk from one
chord to the next. Now find ways to hammer-on where you can while
walking to the next chord. It is everything short of picking out the
song. Just put in what you can without picking out the song until
your turn. Then try to put some good stuff in it. Use your imagination
and see what you can do that sounds like Bluegrass. If you
get one good note out of it, remember it, and add one more good one to
it. Here is an example
of bluegrass rhythm jazzed up some. As you can see, the picks
are more important than the strums.
Bluegrass guitar
Picking from both directions.
It is hard to
pick in the downward direction on every note that you pick. You
would never get fast or smooth. If you pick down on a string then
you are in the position to pick up on the next note so do it that
way. Picking up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down on every string
you hit is what you will be doing and it will be so natural that you will
not have to think about how to do it. It will just
happen.
Now for picking the fire out of
it! I remember when I was a little boy listening to my dad play
the banjo. He played the same songs the same way everyday, day after
day after day. This was when Roy Clark was hot and I wanted my
dad to play like that. So I said to him, "Why don't you just
take off playing like they do on TV? After all Roy Clark made it
look easy! The truth is that you don't just start stabbing at the
strings and beautiful sounds start coming out. There are patterns to
everything that you hear. All you have to do is learn a pattern
(run) and put it into every song where it fits. Then learn another short run that fits somewhere else and
maybe they will "hook" together. What you will find out is that with
every song being different the runs fall together and sound
completely different. If a run finishes before the next chord is
ready, then back up and add more until it fits. Listen
to how I put the runs together. Lets try
it again, beginning slowly. Now let's
play some of it faster and add some more. It's in
"G".
Now
listen to the main bass run that makes Bluegrass what it is in combination
with the finishing rhythm licks. If you will notice the
finishing lick, the "G" sounds a little different. I fret
the second string on the third fret as well as the "G"
chord. This makes a good Bluegrass sounds in certain
areas.
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