Editing Bluegrass music (section)

==Characteristics==

===Instrumentation===
[[File:BluegrassBanjo.jpg|right|100px|thumb|A [[Banjo#Five-string banjo|5-string banjo]]]] The [[violin]] (also known as the [[fiddle]]), [[five-string banjo]], [[acoustic guitar|guitar]], [[mandolin]], and [[Double bass#Use in bluegrass and country|upright bass]] ([[string bass]]) are often joined by the [[resonator guitar]] (also referred to as a [[Dobro]]) and (occasionally) [[harmonica]] or [[Jew's harp]]. This instrumentation originated in rural dance bands and is the basis on which the earliest bluegrass bands were formed.<ref>van der Merwe 1989, p. 62.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A Guide to Instruments In Bluegrass|url=https://www.zzounds.com/edu--bluegrassinstruments|access-date=13 April 2020|website=zZounds Music|publisher=zZounds Music, LLC}}</ref>

The fiddle, made by Italians and first used in sixteenth century Europe, was one of the first instruments to be brought into America.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Lornell|first=Kip|title=Exploring American Folk Music : Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2012|isbn=978-1-61703-264-6|location=Mississippi|pages=29–30}}</ref> It became popular due to its small size and versatility.<ref name=":2" /> Fiddles are also used in [[Country music|country]], [[Classical music|classical]], [[Cajun music|cajun]], and [[Old time fiddle|old time]] music.

Banjos were brought to America through the African slave trade.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Institution |first=Smithsonian |title=Banjos |url=https://www.si.edu/spotlight/banjos-smithsonian |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref> They began receiving attention from white Americans when [[minstrel show]]s incorporated the banjo as part of their acts.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lornell|first=Kip|title=Exploring American Folk Music : Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2012|isbn=978-1-61703-264-6|location=Jackson, Mississippi|pages=28}}</ref> The "[[clawhammer]]", or two finger style playing, was popular before the Civil War. Now, however, banjo players use mainly the [[Scruggs style|three-finger picking style]] made popular by banjoists such as [[Earl Scruggs]].

Guitars are used primarily for rhythmic purposes. Other instruments may provide a solo on top of the guitar during [[Break (music)|breaks]], guitarists may also provide these solos on occasion. The instrument originates from eighteenth century Spain, but there were no American-made models until the [[C. F. Martin & Company|C.F. Martin Company]] started to manufacture them in the 1830s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lornell|first=Kip|title=Exploring American Folk Music : Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2012|isbn=978-1-61703-264-6|location=Mississippi|pages=31}}</ref> The guitar is now most commonly played with a style referred to as [[flatpicking]], unlike the style of early bluegrass guitarists such as [[Lester Flatt]], who used a thumb pick and finger pick.

Bassists almost always play [[pizzicato]], occasionally adopting the "slap-style" to accentuate the beat. A bluegrass [[bass line]] is generally a rhythmic alternation between the root and fifth of each [[chord (music)|chord]], with occasional [[walking bass]] excursions.

Instrumentation has been a continuing topic of debate. Traditional bluegrass performers believe the "correct" instrumentation is that used by Bill Monroe's band, the [[Blue Grass Boys]] (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and bass). Departures from the traditional instrumentation have included dobro, [[accordion]], [[Diatonic harmonica|harmonica]], [[piano]], [[autoharp]], [[drum]]s, [[electric guitar]], and electric versions of other common bluegrass instruments, resulting in what has been referred to as "new grass." Despite this debate, even Monroe himself was known to experiment with instrumentation; he once even used a string orchestra, choir, and pre-recorded bird-song track.<ref>{{Cite web |author=steelman1963 |title=Bill Monroe Last Days on Earth Video|date=2013-05-15 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zov5eZBPfs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/4zov5eZBPfs |archive-date=2021-10-30 |publisher=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2 June 2024}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Vocals===
Apart from specific instrumentation, a distinguishing characteristic of bluegrass is vocal harmony featuring two, three, or four parts, often with a [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonant]] or [[musical mode|modal]] sound in the highest voice (see [[modal frame]]), a style described as the "high, lonesome sound".<ref>[http://www.jargondatabase.com/Jargon.aspx?id=131 "High Lonesome Sound"]. ''Jargon Database''.</ref> Commonly, the ordering and layering of vocal harmony is called the "stack". A standard stack has a [[baritone]] voice at the bottom, the lead in the middle (singing the main melody) and a [[tenor]] at the top, although stacks can be altered, especially where a female voice is included. [[Alison Krauss and Union Station]] provide a good example of a different harmony stack with a baritone and tenor with a high lead, an octave above the standard melody line, sung by the female vocalist. However, by employing variants to the standard trio vocal arrangement, they were simply following a pattern existing since the early days of the genre. Both [[the Stanley Brothers]] and [[the Osborne Brothers]] employed the use of a high lead with the tenor and baritone below it. The Stanleys used this technique numerous times in their recordings for both Mercury and King records.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Reid|first=Gary|title=The Music of the Stanley Brothers|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2015|isbn=9780252096723|location=Urbana, Illinois|pages=44, 49, 71–72, 74, 76, 79, 146}}</ref> This particular stack was most famously employed by the [[Osborne Brothers]] who first employed it during their time with MGM records in the latter half of the 1950s. This vocal arrangement would become the trademark of the Osbornes' sound with Bobby's high, clear voice at the top of the vocal stack.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Artis|first=Bob|title=Bluegrass|publisher=Hawthorne Books|year=1975|isbn=9780801507588|location=New York |pages=92, 93}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Weisberger|first=Jon|date=March 1, 2000|title=Osborne Brothers – A High Lead, a Long Run|url=https://www.nodepression.com/osborne-brothers-a-high-lead-a-long-run/|journal=No Depressiion in Heaven: The Journal of Roots Music}}</ref> Additionally, the [[Stanley Brothers]] also utilized a high baritone part on several of their trios recorded for Columbia records during their time with that label (1949–1952).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=David|title=Lonesome Melodies : the Lives and Music of the Stanley Brothers|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2013|isbn=9781617036477|location=Oxford, Mississippi|pages=86–89, 110}}</ref> Mandolin player [[Pee Wee Lambert]] sang the high baritone above Ralph Stanley's tenor, both parts above Carter's lead vocal.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Reid|first=Gary|title=The Stanley Brothers, a Preliminary Discography|publisher=Copper Creek Publications|year=1984|location=Roanoke, Virginia|pages=2–3}}</ref> This trio vocal arrangement was variously used by other groups as well; even Bill Monroe employed it in his 1950 recording of "When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosenberg|first=Neil|title=The Music of Bill Monroe|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2007|isbn=9780252031212|location=Urbana, Illinois|pages=86}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Himes|first=Geoffrey|date=January 14, 2000|title=Longview: A Mountain-Wailing Ensemble|work=The Washington Post, p N06}}</ref> In the 1960s, [[Flatt and Scruggs]] often added a fifth part to the traditional quartet parts on gospel songs, the extra part being a high baritone (doubling the baritone part sung in the normal range of that voice; E.P. Tullock [aka Cousin Jake] normally providing the part, though at times it was handled by Curly Seckler).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bartenstein|first=Fred|date=April 27, 2010|title=Bluegrass Vocals (unpublished paper)|url=http://www.fredbartenstein.com/bgvocals.html|url-status=live|access-date=October 7, 2021|website=Bartenstein Bluegrass|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911193158/http://www.fredbartenstein.com:80/bgvocals.html |archive-date=2012-09-11 }}</ref>

===Themes===
Bluegrass tunes often take the form of [[narrative]]s on the everyday lives of the people whence the music came. Aside from laments about loves lost, interpersonal tensions and unwanted changes to the region (e.g., the visible effects of [[mountaintop removal|mountaintop coal mining]]), bluegrass vocals frequently reference the hardscrabble existence of living in [[Appalachia]] and other rural areas with modest financial resources.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-10 |title=The surprising history of Bluegrass music {{!}} Article {{!}} Denison University |url=https://denison.edu/academics/music/feature/145693 |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=denison.edu |language=en}}</ref> Some protest music has been composed in the bluegrass style, especially concerning the vicissitudes of the [[Appalachia#Coal mining|Appalachian coal mining industry]]. [[Trains|Railroading]] has also been a popular theme, with ballads such as "[[Wreck of the Old 97]]" and "Nine Pound Hammer" (from the legend of [[John Henry (folklore)|John Henry]]).