Early Bill Monroe style

[Mark Miller]

Hi folks, I just joined. I started learning mandolin about 9 months ago, and love it. After getting some basics going, I went right to the source, and started taking apart Bill Monroe songs with the help of my teacher. After a couple of tries with things that were just too hard (Rocky Road Blues, True Life Blues), we have gone back to the early Monroe, the stuff he did with Charlie, as well as a few early Bluegrass Boys tunes--no instrumentals, just the breaks to vocal tunes. In addition to being great great music, the leads are a bit simpler musically than the later stuff or than fiddle tunes, easier for my brain and fingers to process, and easier to get up to (or close to) speed, while still hitting a lot of the basics like double stops, slides, sliding up into unison notes, and mixing blue notes into the major scale. We have also been sticking with a single key for several songs in a row to get familiar with how songs lay on the fingerboard in a given key. So far I've been working on (Key of A) I'm Going That Way, Katie Kline, and Cryin' Holy Unto the Lord (as well as the first break Grisman takes on Nine Pound Hammer on the duet with Doc Watson from Home is Where the Heart Is) and (key of D) Some Glad Day and Kentucky Waltz (my first real tremolo workout). What fun. Anyway, I thought I'd see who else has been on the early Monroe adventure, and what advice you might have, as well as recommend this course to anyone just looking to start on playing leads but having trouble playing fiddle tunes up to speed (which I just can't do, and never could on the guitar either).

[Dave LaBoone]

I love that Grisman break on Nine Pound Hammer - it's my jumping-off point when I play that song.

[Andy B]

There's a lot of neat stuff in Bill's Monroe Brother's breaks and they are worth studying. The breaks on "Long Journey Home" (in G, I think) sound simple but are anything but. And "What Would You Give" is a nice workout in F.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Bill Monroe's style change many times during his career, & i'm pretty sure that he experimented a lot with styles to see ''what would fit''. There's a few breaks in tunes that i'd personally say were 'less than tuneful'' at times,but that was BM - if you don't try,you don't get !. I think in the early days with Charlie,the music was more simple,after all remember who his audience was - rural folk who were used to simple,straight forward music. As his audience became more used to the changes going on in should we call it, 'rural based' music,then BM changed his style accordingly - several times. 'Whatever' - it's all good & very interesting to listen to if you journey back & listen to some of his older recordings,
Ivan

[swampstomper]

Monroe Brothers were revolutionary in their duet harmonies, fast tempos, Charlie's bass runs and Bill's sparkling mandolin solos. He played lots of long arpeggios, very unlike what he did in the 1950's not to mention later. He kept some of that style in the early BH Boys, you might like to try Pike County Breakdown or his solo on Why Did You Wander. Charlie and Bill did a lot in F (so did the Morris Brothers), many tunes we think of as G or higher such as Katie Cline were in F. Not much is done in BG these days in F which is a pity. There is a very easy double-stop with slide on the 2nd and 3rd strings that gives a real Monroe Brothers feel to anything in F.

[Mandoplumb]

I think Monroe played what he heard in his head, I don't think it was " playing to a rural audience" from what I've heard in interviews with Monroe he didn't know or understand music theory he just played what he thought sounded right.I know how this works because my dad was like that. It was frustrating, as I was learning, to ask dad why he did something as he did because he couldn't explain it. He played 100% by ear and I think Bill Monroe did too.I wish I had that ability along with my limited knowledge of theory. I could be dangerous then.

[T.D.Nydn]

revolutionary,groundbreaking,yes,,other words for that are radical, and extreme.did you ever see that early photo of him and that haircut?thats radical,sort of even for today.he was young and rebellious.and his music reflected that,,it was radical,more agressive,faster style,,if we continue today to carry on Monroe's thinking,,we should really be playing more radically,more out of the box,faster and more extreme...