79 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: "Bluegrass Music"
|
|
description: "My thoughts on old time and bluegrass music"
|
|
author: Amolith
|
|
cover: /assets/pngs/guitar.png
|
|
categories:
|
|
- Music
|
|
tags:
|
|
- Music
|
|
- Bluegrass
|
|
- Old time
|
|
- 100 Days To Offload
|
|
date: 2020-04-28T02:13:16-04:00
|
|
draft: false
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
When I was younger, I prided myself on being a classical musician. I
|
|
played piano and organ, I was in a nearby fine arts university's choir
|
|
(singing soprano of course), and, quite honestly, I was rather stuck up
|
|
about it. I didn't know any bluegrass musicians so I had never really
|
|
interacted with them or gotten "into" the genre but, whenever my mother
|
|
would show me a group of people with a double bass, a banjo, a mandolin,
|
|
and a fiddle, I would listen for a few seconds and write it off as
|
|
"boring country". It wasn't until I started taking lessons that I grew
|
|
fond of genre.
|
|
|
|
One of the things I had always wanted to play was double bass. However,
|
|
lessons were *extremely* expensive and the instrument was even more so.
|
|
Coming from a rather poor family of just me and my mother, classical
|
|
lessons were completely out of the question. She did end up finding a
|
|
way for me to take bluegrass lessons at an incredibly cheap rate; I
|
|
won't say what the program is called because my name is plastered all
|
|
over the internet for the branch in this area but it allows student to
|
|
take lessons at a greatly reduced cost. Pricing was based on school
|
|
lunch status and, with this particular branch, I was able to take free
|
|
lessons and rent a bass for something like $30/semester. I picked it up
|
|
quickly and started to really enjoy it, learning some classical pieces
|
|
on the side and playing with a violin bow rather than the expensive bass
|
|
bows. Throughout the lessons, my main goal was not to get "roped into"
|
|
doing bluegrass for the rest of my life because I was entirely
|
|
uninterested in that; I wanted to keep bluegrass in the back and
|
|
classical in front.
|
|
|
|
Because I picked it up so quickly, the style is very common in this
|
|
area, and bass players in something of a shortage, I ended up playing
|
|
for a number of different groups at different levels. In one of them,
|
|
the youngest member was 12 and, in another, I was the youngest with the
|
|
next being 30 years older. With all of these groups, I ended up meeting
|
|
*many* amazing and wonderful people, playing *so much music*, and
|
|
getting to travel quite a lot. It was very slow but, about three years
|
|
after first picking up a bass, I'm actively seeking out more bluegrass
|
|
to learn, recently picking up fingerstyle guitar, banjo, and maybe
|
|
mandolin in the future.
|
|
|
|
In opening my mind to the genre, I also discovered a lot of beautiful
|
|
music that's...not quite bluegrass but...not quite anything else I've
|
|
heard either. I absolutely *love* the style and can't wait to meet up
|
|
with a friend of mine and put some pieces together. The main band I've
|
|
been following is [The Punch Brothers.](https://www.punchbrothers.com/)
|
|
[Chris Thile](https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Thile), the leader...holy
|
|
shit he's a *musician*. From classical to bluegrass to jazz, he's an
|
|
absolute madman. A couple of my favourite songs that The Punch Brothers
|
|
do are written by him: *[My Oh
|
|
My,](https://invidio.us/watch?v=staHSMEE1pw)* *[Julep,](
|
|
https://invidio.us/watch?v=lLdtEiUKDig)* *[Patchwork
|
|
Girlfriend,](https://invidio.us/watch?v=CMtyWB_Pzic)* and *[Between 1st
|
|
and A.](https://invidio.us/watch?v=2hsXcl4X5vQ)* The style is just so
|
|
unique and different yet has those evident bluegrass roots underpinning
|
|
it all.
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
This was posted as part of
|
|
[#100DaysToOffload,](https://100daystooffload.com/) an [awesome
|
|
idea](https://fosstodon.org/@kev/104053977554016690) from [Kev
|
|
Quirk.](https://kevq.uk/) If you want to participate, just write
|
|
something every day for 100 days and post a link on social media with
|
|
the hashtag!
|