From: Glenn Weiser Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 01:23:14 -0500 Subject: Re: any accidental OK in bluegrass improv
Mike Curtis wrote: > > Most bluegrass is in ionian major, so first position is usually best > suited. Second position can be used by omitting the natural seventh, > except in tunes in Mixolydian mode or others incorporating the natural > seventh. > > There's a difference between "playing blues harp" and "playing bluesy > notes", which I assume means "bent notes". I use a lot of bends playing > bluegrass, just as the fiddle uses a lot of slides. Glenn mentions > playing 8th note licks, and I agree this is a good rule of thumb. They > sound great in bluegrass (which is generally a busier sound), but in > blues (which is often a simpler sound, especially older style blues) > they often sound too "busy". This is one of the things I had reference > to when mentioning "not playing blues harp" when playing bluegrass. > > -- > IronMan MIKE CURTIS, the One Man Blues/Jazz Band
It's not accurate to say that most bluegrass is in the Ionian mode. The frequent use of accidentals as pioneered by Bill Monroe really makes it a chromatic (I don't refer to the harp here, just the theory) style. The term Ionian refers to purely diatonic music, and that's true of most fiddle tunes, but not bluegrass, which is too full of sharps and flats to call it modal at all. And the best bluegrass harp player out there -MS-uses second position, which is Mixolydian only if you don't bend. And you can also use the flat seventh freely-it's done all the time. Remenber, I play bluegrass guitar, banjo and mandolin as well, read music, know theory, and can analyze anything I play or hear. I also own tons of bluegrass instructional books for various instruments and have studied the music carefully on paper. In bluegrass as well as blues you can use all twelve notes of the octave if you know how. To think otherwise is to limit yourself. I don't see why bluegrass harp could'nt work in first position.
