I’ve been going to bluegrass jams playing string instruments for years. Some are strict about instruction, songs, and style and some are more relaxed, more like folk-inspired acoustic. One jam I go to occasionally explicitly invites instruments outside the half-dozen traditional BG string instruments – accordions, harmonicas, etc – as long as it is acoustic volume and fits with folky style music. No one would be offended if I showed up at this jam with whistles in a few keys.
The thing about BG jams is most of they time you play backup and occasionally take an ad-libb solo (break). So if I played whistle, what would I play on backup? Droning chord tones would be a start. Often the fiddle would play a shuffle rhythm 1/4 1/8-1/8 1/4 1/8-1/8. Don’t know if that would sound good on a whistle toot toot-toot toot toot-toot. I don’t have a good enough ear to ad-lib a counter melody.
Anything thoughts on what to play when playing backup at a folk/BG jam?
This seems like musically trying to fit a square in a circle hole. Seems like this jam is very liberal but I can’t see backup whistle tooting as contributing positively to the music in any way, tbh. But the beaty of Bluegrass is that you can take a break, lay out, find fills the accompany the vocals, and just kinda find your place in the song. Not everyone has to play the whole time. If you do want to play the whole time, consider double bass.
Never tried a whistle, but the bodhran actually fits quite well… The beat is just a little faster than I’m used to, so laying out sometimes is a good option.
I’d add that while the genre is defined today by particular stringed instruments, in the early years of development things like pianos and accordians were also used. Which doth sound a rather odd thing nowadays. Been 30 years or more since I read a bunch o’ books on the history so I don’t remember but I wouldn’t be surprised if flutes were used during the same period .
Right, Michael, you wouldn’t be the most popular guy there! Could even be worse than that too! That would have to be a very relaxed bluegrass session if they didn’t mind!
Edit; Of course, then there were the Transatlantic Sessions, so there you go! It got pretty close to bluegrass with Jerry Douglas in the mix! They did sound great too; one of the best blending of boundaries!
Even in Irish music, whistles are really only ever playing melody or maybe a slight harmony/countermelody. If you’re playing slower songs you can either play the melody along with the singer, or maybe a couple fills in between phrases. But I wouldn’t do anything more than that backing-wise, and I honestly wouldn’t take a whistle to a bluegrass or old-time jam, even one that is supposedly inviting. It just doesn’t work, it’d be like playing trombone in a trad session.
Staying in the background, then when called upon doing a solo, is exactly what sax and flute players do on “pop” music gigs.
You’re trying to keep out of the way of the melody, yet not playing a busy harmony part.
You could try playing long notes that move with the chord changes.
Now in “old time” fiddling there’s a thing called “playing 2nd fiddle” where you’re bowing more or less as if you were playing melody, but droning on double-stops that fit the chord changes, not a harmony part per se.
Perhaps the best thing to do is listen to what the fiddlers are doing, and coming up with a whistle equivalent.
I think of bluegrass as a countrified version of Dixieland jazz, so you could do what the clarinet does in Dixieland. Or you could look at country bands with horns, like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
I think the answer will often be “sit out until it’s your turn”.
But if there are other players with single line instruments, you could try to do a discreet accompaniment part. I’ve seen horn players do this impromptu, and I think it works like this: decide together which note in the tonic chord each person takes to start, then move to the closest chord tone whenever the chord changes.
I think it sounds better with more than one note at once, which is why fiddlers usually do double-stops in such situations. So you need to work it out with another person.
Keep in mind it’s a long way outside what is normally expected in bluegrass, but it might pass in Western swing.
Slide whistles were used in early jazz, including the kind of jazz that borders on country music, but I don’t remember hearing them as a accompaniment. I think that the whistle was usually played by someone who was playing another instrument and just did a chorus of whistle as a novelty thing.
