Bluegrass Standards

[JGregs]

I have a buddy of mine that plays banjo and some friends that play guitar. I wanted know the best place to find a list of those songs that I "have to know" or that are old standards that you need to know so you can jam with some friends. Would a fake book be a good place to go to?

[Denny Gies]

Listen to Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers. You will get an excellent grounding in the "standards". Listening to the originals will be more productive in the long run than getting stuff out of a fake book.

[mahoganyfolk.com]

I'm not sure exactly but trying searching for stuff on youtube!

[re simmers]

I'll second Denny's choice of Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs & Stanleys. Learn about 15 of those songs in G, A, C & D and you're there. You'll have enough for jam sessions. They all sound alike. Then start playing some good stuff from the Seldom Scene, Newgrass Revival, Charlie Waller in the 60's & 70's and you will have fewer pickers in the jam session.....but you'll have more listeners.

Bob

PS- Seriously, learn everything that the Bluegrass Album Band did and that will be a great help. A lot of it is on youtube. They did 5 projects/cd's.

[doc holiday]

Don't forget B flat & B & Larry Sparks sings lots of songs in F. Better to start working with those keys from the start. The positive trade-off is that 4 finger chop chords are easier up in those keys.

[onassis]

Pete Wernick's list here.
Lots to choose from.

[JGregs]

When you are learning a song, do you learn it in a lot of different keys or do you just end up transposing it around the fret board?

I will get to listening. I think I will probably grab a fake (or "Real") book just so I can have an easier time knowing what the notes are rather than having to go super slow and learn 100% ear. Good idea?

[Shanachie]

I have found the Parking Lot Picker's Songbook to be a big help. It has over 200 songs in it with tabs, dots, and chords. It also comes with two CDs so you can hear what the song sounds like.

http://www.amazon.com/Parking-Lot-Pi.../dp/078667492X

[onassis]

When you are learning a song, do you learn it in a lot of different keys or do you just end up transposing it around the fret board?

As you learn a bunch of these "old standards", you'll begin to see that the chord progressions follow a few standard patterns. This makes it really easy to transpose to different keys at will. Likewise, as you learn more and more of these melodies, you''l find they're typically easy to play in closed positions, which makes them easy to move around. One of the great beauties of the mandolin is that it's so logical and predictable - transposing is very simple once you get the knack.

[banjoboy]

Pete Wernick's list here.
Lots to choose from.

Some of these are surprising. Steam Powered Aereo Plane...really? Rebecca? While these are great tunes, I'd be suprised if you could call these out at any jam and have everybody know the tunes. I recently went to a mandolin camp and was calling out other tunes that were on this list (i.e. Gold Rush) as well as, what I would consider to be standards (Cherokee Shuffle), only to have everybody looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language. Standards are really a matter of geography. What's popular out here on the west coast are not necessarily popular in other areas of the country.

[Willie Poole]

I have found that the best way to break up a bluegrass jam session is to name a tune that isn`t considered standard...A lot of instrumentals are hard to follow so try and suggest songs that you know the words to and can sing...Also most others in a jam do`nt know what chords you are playing on a mandolin so they can`t follow by watching your hands so keeping it simple is the way to go, If some of the others are more advanced let them go off to another jam that is more to their talents....Most Jimmy Martin, Flatt and Scruggs and Stanleys songs will go over pretty good a jam session....

Try as many jams as you can and at first just sort of stand in the back and soon you will get the idea of how they are run and can join in without any worries....Good luck

Willie

[UsuallyPickin]

What Banjo Boy say is true . What is considered a standard one place isn't ..... standard somewhere. I am currently imersed in a fiddle tune book 60 Tunes Every Parking Lot Picker Should Know. I knew about half of them to begin with. There are tunes in that book I have never heard called out in a jam. So it goes. Good for the fingers and the gray matter. And there are of course tunes I have learned that aren't in the book that I have heard called out at a Jam and some I play alone that just aren't played by many folks. I often contact folks that are going to a camp I am attending and ask for a song or five so we have "something " in common to start on. I ran into some folks recently that had never heard of Old and in the Way......... hmmmm. I digress ... you pays your money and you takes your chances. Any song or tune new to me is good to learn and increases my possibilities of musical interaction. I like to pick and sing .. if you do surely we can work something out.... Right? ... Oh yeah I can play two or three off Steampowered Aeroplane and Rebecca is a great tune I'm still working on.My brain confuses it with Goldrush........ Tell your Buddies to give you a set list with Keys and get to work.... You've gotta start somewhere.......... that seems like a good place... R/

[John Ritchhart]

Play the tunes that get to you personally. Some are very popular but just don't do anything for me. I still haven't learned Salt Creek properly yet and just fake it when it comes around because it doesn't blow my skirt up for some reason like Cherokke Shuffle does, or many others. I find a minor shift in the B part usually does it for me. Lots of waltzes are cool but you'll never hear them at a jam. Anyway just play what you like and don't worry if Cripple Creek isn't on your list.

[JGregs]

. . . and don't worry if Cripple Creek isn't on your list.

Hahaha! Cripple Creek is the one song that I do know. I am learning Whiskey before Breakfast and I really want to learn Cherokee Shuffle

[Cindy]

Now what. I want a list of 10-20 bluegrass fiddle tunes I should know to able to hold my own in 80% of jams that emerge randomly in the contiguous United States. Is that really too much to ask? Or do I need to be reincarnated as a 10-year-old and learn a few hundred. A few I think might be on the list are: Angeline the Baker, Old Joe Clark (which I do not like), Salt Creek, Whiskey for Breakfast, Bill Cheatham, Blackberry Blossum (which I love)...

[Mandolin Mick]

The 3 songs that always come to mind when this question is asked are Salty Dog Blues, Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms and Cripple Creek!!!

[John Duncan]

.. A few I think might be on the list are: Angeline the Baker, Old Joe Clark (which I do not like), Salt Creek, Whiskey for Breakfast, Bill Cheatham, Blackberry Blossum (which I love)...

Around Western North Carolina your list might read like:

1. Angeline the Baker
2. Old Joe Clark
3. Salt Creek
4. Whiskey Before Breakfast
5. Bill Cheatum
6. Black Berry Blossom
7. Big Sciota
8. St. Anne's Reel
9. Leather Britches
10. Billy in the Lowground
11. Temperance Reel
12. Flop Eared Mule
13. Old Dangerfield
14. Brown County Breakdown
15. Grey Eagle
16. Lonesome Fiddle Blues
17. Big Mon
18. Bluegrass Breakdown
19. Cowboys and Indians
20. Sledd Ride

Now, keep in mind that these are 20 of the tunes that do get jammed on frequently in my neck of the woods. I know that WNC is not representative of the rest of the US bluegrass jamscape. Happy learning!

[Cindy]

Great to know I'm on track with the first 6!

[Rob Fowler]

I will get to listening. I think I will probably grab a fake (or "Real") book just so I can have an easier time knowing what the notes are rather than having to go super slow and learn 100% ear. Good idea?

Just FYI. Here's the REAL Bluegrass Book

I have had it for awhile and it' got most of the tunes you could expect to come up at a bluegrass jam. Like the other books mentioned already is also has some you wouldn't expect.

[f5loar]

Sir Duncan has quite a few "jam busters" on his list. He's hanging out at the Bobby Hicks jams! I think if Dr. Banjo says it's a jam favorite then it's got to be right and I like his list except for a few like Rebecca and Friend of the Devil. He's thinking more Hot Rize jams there. Even a simple 3 chord pattern song that no one has heard of can cause a jam to fall to pieces. I think that's the main thing in selecting a song for a jam is trying to pick one that 90% of the jammers at least have heard of.

[AlanN]

Sparks tunes can be tough. Either nobody knows all the words or the chord progressions are a bit off the beaten path or there is a crooked thing in the changes.

Larry (at a show many years ago): Now we'll do a tune I wrote called Blue Virginia Blues. Bill Harrell just recorded this number and if you listen to his version and then mine, my version is a bit slower. You get more for your money.

[f5loar]

Alan got that right. Sparks is up there. Try John Deer Tractor at a jam. You'll see the bathroom full of pickers. Once you stray from the songs by the original line-up of first and second generation bluegrass you loose the crowd pretty quick.

[onassis]

That's the beauty of the great first gen songs from Monroe, F & S, Jimmy Martin - they are deceptively simple yet instantly recognizable. The chord progressions can be almost the same, yet the melody and lyrical content make them completely separate. Even when you encounter one that's unfamiliar, a good listen on the first trip through lets you drop right in.

[lespaul_79]

Pete Wernick's list here.
Lots to choose from.

1+.....

[AlanN]

One guy around here insists on doing Tennessee 1949. A fine tune no doubt, but as the guitar man, he needs to forcefully drive the changes. He don't. So, it's a train wreck, every time. Horrid.