Blue Grass Music

1  Title of piece:

  Cripple Creek

2  Performers:

  Earl Scruggs

  Lester Flatt

  The Foggy Mountain Boys

3  Culture of Origin

  United States of America: Appalachia

  New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South      Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi

4 Instrumentation

  Banjo

  Upright Bass

  Guitar

  Fiddle

  Washboard

Bluegrass music has its origins in many states that are from Appalachian mountain region and others that are from the southern states that border the Appalachian Mountains. Settlers from the United Kingdom and Ireland influenced Blue Grass Music.  The musicians used ballads, dance music, and Irish reels that were traditions that the settlers carried with them from their homelands. Bluegrass music groups are mainly string groups with the occasional jug player and washboard player when desired. Bluegrass music also shared traits with two other genres of music Jazz and Country Music. Blue Grass shares Jazz traditions of a soloist that plays an improvised solo while other music plays the chords of music. Country Music shares the a portion of the listener of Blue Grass often times the listeners of Bluegrass are from the same region as the origin of Bluegrass music but have found homes in the west with the expansion of the United States. 

When looking at Ethnomusicology for Bluegrass music it applies to how the music of the settlers has evolved into the stories of the families that settled the United States. With the basis of music from the United Kingdom and Ireland the music brought communities together through music and carried on the traditions of their ancestors. This also gave the Bluegrass musicians a chance to add their own stories and lives to the music. This caused playing techniques to be passed down from generation to generation. These traditions eventually would be recorded in methods on how to perform bluegrass music has become a feature in the Appalachian region of the United States.