Bluegrass music is the old time country music, which has been influenced by Scottish-Irish, British, the blues, Negro spirituals and gospel music as well. It had its start on the rural south and came about in the 1940’s after World War two. It was “basically a fusion of “hillbilly”, ”folk” and various types of “country” that were popular with the farm families and blue collar workers” (Pendergrass pp. 4). In the beginning it was called by var

A close cousin of country music, bluegrass music is an acoustic musical style. Its music was a combination of homeland, popular and folk. Pioneers like Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs all contributed to the genuine genre of bluegrass. Bluegrass music is now performed and enjoyed around the world. “It remains a vibrant musical form in touch with the past and constantly looking toward the future” (Pendergrass pp. 288).

Bluegrass has always been played on acoustic instruments. The typical bluegrass band consists of these six instruments: banjo (five-string), guitar (flat-top), fiddle, mandolin, dobro and bass. In early bluegrass history they occasionally used spoons, bones, washboards and harmonicas as instruments. Along with close vocal harmonies, especially high-tenor harmony singing called the “high lonesome sound.” Unlike country, singing tends to be high pitched and harmony is never sung in unison. Depending on the type of harmony, it is always above or

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