Demystifying Bluegrass Slang For Newbies 

I attended my first Bluegrass festival in 1995 at Santa Maria, Ca. It was a wonderful experience. It was easy enough though to notice the Grassholes amongst the crowd. At times a sententious vibe hung like a pall over campsite jam sessions held upon the Holy Ground of the hardcore Trad cats. One tenet I learned of that weekend was "If Bill Monroe didn't write it, it wasn't really music." Lol! I knew better, well at least a little bit. Prior to this festivaI was able to catch two shows of Grisman/Grapelli "hot dog"' concerts. This was the tour where Mark O'Conner was the guitarist and was allowed to play just one song on the fiddle, "Tiger Rag", at the end of the shows. Interestingly but not surprisingly each musician in the ensemble had to be a journeyman mandolin player or a mega-multinstrumentalist. I wonder if that requirement also applied to Stefane Grapelli? Heck, he could likely play any stringed instrument. I saw him at a Cousteau benefit concert in Ventura, Ca. a year later, where he played the grand Piano like a boss.

Because for the people recording it, including collectors like Alan Lomax, that was what they were seeking, a window into a past time. They didn't really understand how dynamic the form is. Actually even today a lot of Bluegrass pickers don't understand with old time how much tunes with the same name can be similar but different based on versions, locations, etc.

@@msspi764 Very true. That’s true “Folk” music, passed down from generation to generation and changing through the years, with no one true creator. In some ways, songs before recorded music and sheet music were living, evolving things; there were no “official” versions or right/wrong ways to play things. The main way of thinking today is that the recording of a performance is THE SONG. It’s not. The song itself is THE SONG and it is not a tangible thing. I had this realization in my twenties when I started getting into jazz. I had this idea that a studio-recorded cut was the definitive version of a song. It took me awhile to realize that that’s just what they happened to play on that day. And it was no more (or less) definitive than something they might have happened to have played in a club the previous night, or recorded several other times in other studios. I remember reading somewhere that Alan Lomax started to have considerable trouble finding this true passed-down Folk music starting in the ‘30s. Many times he would track down a musician touted as possessing knowledge of old songs, only to discover that their repertoire had been learned from records!

Who do you watch like Marcel for the banjo world? I’m a guitarist, and would like to learn with that same mindset of perspective.

She sure is with that songwriter stuff

😲

Molly Tuttle is the best. Put yall to rest. I don't care if she went to Berklee or is from.CA or not. Blasphemy

This is how I’ve always understood it too.

You are lucky man, I actually do have words for this! The long improv over the last chord of the song is traditionally called a "cadenza", the term more or less fits here and I've heard many non-classical musicians use it to describe what you're talking about. The slang for the final chord that everyone punctuates together is a "stinger", I learned that from my high school band director but have heard many people use it since. I believe that term in that context comes from the marching band world because many marches end with a short chord played by the entire ensemble. Maybe all the rock n roll kids were just band nerds in disguise.

@@LessonsWithMarcel Dang Bro! My life is complete! lol

@@LessonsWithMarcel I was in a rock band with a music grad student who described a really short emphasized chord at the end of a song as a "button".

I do think the term backstep in the title of Clinch Mountain refers to the extra couple of beats but I do not believe that is standardized. In fact, I normally use the term backstepping to refer to sequenced scales or what some people call "folded scales". Basically scale patterns like the beginning of Blackberry Blossom. I find that definition and usage to be much more common than the relatively small number of tunes that include the word backstep in their names. Off the top of my head I can only think of one actually, Backstep Cindy, and I can't even recall if that oldtime tune was crooked or not.

@@LessonsWithMarcel “Folded scales”...I like that.

I'd say delay, echo, and reverb are all basically the same effect, just the duration of time varies between the repeated note(s).

I sort of knew that already.... It's a joke! :) @@alan4sure

Kind of "off genre," but Jimmy Buffett uses the term "All Skate" in one of his recordings with a double-meaning. He is referencing the old roller rink "call out" as part of the song and additionally he wants the entire band to come back in and play. Brilliant!

What is AKUS short for?

BGAB = Bluegrass Album Band, AKUS = Alison Krauss and Union Station

@@LessonsWithMarcel Thanks! I love BGAB but never heard of Alison Kraus. Should check em out

I moved to California from West Virginia and it’s crazy how the whole scene is dedicated to being “traditional” over here. I don’t get it haha it’s like they think we aren’t Appalachian so we have to be traditional af to prove that we are bluegrass lol. The scene is wild over here.

Kinda interchangeable in this context

I guess that wasn't very clear! Berklee School of Music in Boston and California (the entire state) have a similar bluegrass reputation. If anything the Berklee kids have more chord changes, haha.

@@LessonsWithMarcel Berklee kids play that math grass son.

@@LessonsWithMarcel I think Flying Fish Records group Fiddle Fever was formed at Berklee, with Matt Glaser, and recorded the song "Akoshan Farewell" with I believe Russ Barenberg and maybe Meyer. Some great stuff there. Hey, how about a "Mashup" song video with a Trad group mashed up with the likes of Bela Fleck... the possibilities approach the infinite.

Dang I had no idea bluegrass was toxic too. 😭😭😭😤😤😤

Not sure of the etymology. It could be a potato joke, from kick offs. Could be just a descriptive term, people say thing like "mash down" sometimes. Also, here's a 100 page academic paper on describing mash. In Seeking a Definition of Mash: Attitude in Musical Style dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5400&context=etd

Mash is, DRIVE! ❤

So funny 😑

Funny way to spell “banjo”

@@procarpenter1788 very true