[MUSIC]
Okay, so now we're gonna talk not so
much about singing, but
about accompanying
singing on an instrument.
Now those singers in bluegrass
also play an instrument.
And everyone, if you play an instrument,
you need to know how to
backup a singer and what the right or
wrong ways of doing that are.
Now one of the biggest things to
understand is where the tonal range of
the vocal is and how that corresponds
to the instrument you're playing.
Now on a guitar, so
if I were to sing East Virginia Blues.
[MUSIC]
Now the range of that melody,
[MUSIC],
is basically corresponding with my
top three strings on the guitar.
So if I do a lot of strumming
[MUSIC]
up in that same range as the vocalist,
you're really gonna have
a tendency to mask the singing.
And I sing pretty loud, but
even, if I overstrum up there,
it'd still cover it up.
Let me demonstrate.
[MUSIC]
I sorta feel like I'm
having to shout over the guitar,
which shouldn't be necessary.
But if lighten up on the strum and
really focus more on the bass notes,
which is down below the range
of what I'm singing,
then there's gonna be a lot more space for
everything.
[MUSIC]
So as you
can hear there,
the vocal really
punches through
the mix a lot
more clearly.
And now when you're playing in a band
setting, the problem gets even
worse because the top three strings
on a guitar correspond with,
basically, the bottom couple
strings on a fiddle or a mandolin.
And there's a lot of overlap of the banjo,
as well.
So there's a lot of instrumental stuff.
It's a total traffic jam
really going on in this range,
corresponding with the top
three strings of the guitar.
So really everyone in the band
kinda can overpower the vocalist if
they play too much in that same range, so
[MUSIC].
Now on a mandolin or a banjo, you might be
able to play a little bit above the range
of the vocal, depending on, of course,
how high the singer is singing.
But the main thing is just to listen,
and figure out where the overlap is, and
just clear space for the singing.
In a jam situation or in a band,
you don't want the singer to feel like
they have to shout to get over you,
that's sorta rude.
And if you're accompanying
your own singing,
you're just helping yourself out by
leaving some space for what you're doing.
Now if you notice,
what I was doing when I was singing
East Virginia Blues is I was
[MUSIC]
doing mostly bass notes during the vocal
phrase.
But then in the gap in between, basically,
when I'm breathing, getting ready for
the next phrase, then I put a little
[MUSIC]
extra strum, or a fill, or
something in between there.
So let me demonstrate again.
[MUSIC]
So yeah,
in each gap between
the vocal phrase,
then the guitar
came forward.
[MUSIC]
It doesn't have to be anything more
complicated than
[MUSIC]
just a louder strum.
So what that does is that
sets up this idea of call and
response between the vocal and
the backing instruments.
Now call and response is
a musical feature that's inherited
from African traditions and came to us
through the blues and the gospel music.
And you can kind of imagine
the sort of call and
response that might happen in a church
setting in African American gospel music.
And that feature is sort of at play here,
where the vocal is the main, is the lead.
That's the call, and then whatever
you're doing in between is the response.
[MUSIC]
So that coming in to sort of comment on
and help frame the vocal,
that's a big important
thing you can do to make the band,
a bluegrass band or
even you're just a solo performer,
make that work well.
So let me demonstrate on mandolin here,
as well,
cuz you're not playing
bass notes on mandolin.
[MUSIC]
Here we go,
the ArtistWorks in-house mandolin,
[MUSIC]
getting a kick out of this.
The mandolin I play at home is an old
Gibson that's called a Snakehead because
of the shape of the head stock.
This is a dragon head, so
[MUSIC]
you could fight them.
[MUSIC]
Anyways, mm so if you play mandolin,
kind of the standard basic thing to do is
just to light chop on beats two and four.
One, two,
one, two,
[MUSIC]
and then,
[MUSIC].
So there I did a combination
of note fills and strum fills.
You hear mandolin players like,
[MUSIC]
kind of strumming a lot like
[MUSIC].
It just creates a lot of
clutter along the vocal.
And you really wanna have
the vocal forward and
give it plenty of breathing room.
So save the active strums for
the spaces in between.
Or sometimes, it can work to do the more
active strums behind a soloist,
like if it's a fiddle or a banjo,
where it's really cutting through,
then you can sometimes get
away with being more active.
[MUSIC]
But I think one issue is that when people
hear bluegrass music, in totality,
I mean, there's just so much going on,
there's so much eight-note holds,
so many notes happening.
The thing is, like everyone in
the band is contributing part of it.
No one instrument is
[MUSIC].
You're generally gonna be playing all
of the eighth notes all the time.
So it's good to just learn the role
of your instrument in the band,
but especially in relation to the vocal.
And just kinda get that back and
forth, it's just like a conversation.
Think of it as this conversation
between the lyric and the backing.
And so you can choose what to play,
depending on,
it could be what the song is about,
whatever line you just sang,
there could be some lick that you think
sort of comments on that in some way.
But it doesn't need to be anymore than
[MUSIC]
just a louder or more active strum for
that moment.
So here it is again.
[MUSIC]
So it just sets
up a conversation
that, it's more
interesting for
the listener.
So the vocal's in the foreground
when there's singing happening.
And then there's that gap when
the instruments come forward.
So it's just makes this
kind of dynamic thing.
It's gonna make the music sound better.
So learn to listen for that and
learn to stay out of the way of the vocal.
And then next time you're
jamming with people,
really pay attention to listening for
those gaps and the phrase.
And just do something to step
forward just in that gap.
And then go back to something
more simple and supportive and
make sure you're leaving plenty
of breathing room for the vocal.
[MUSIC]
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