Music Unit 9 Review

Music Unit 9 Review

Folk, County and Bluegrass Review​

9.2.4 4/29 - last Monday
9.3.4 5/01 - Today
9.4.4 5/03 - Friday
9.5.2 5/06 - Monday
Looking forward:
Seniors last day - May 15
No class on Monday, May 27
We start Unit 10 next Tuesday


End of Semester 06/04/2024




W

​

​Assignments

Unit 9

We discussed and discovered bluegrass, country and folk music in this unit. Please do the review BEFORE taking the quiz.

Bluegrass Timeline - started around 1945

"Hillbilly music" or "country music" Considered "conservative" music

Traditional original musicians in Bill Monroe's band in 1945:

Bill Monroe - Played mandolin

Earl Scruggs - 5 string banjo (left in 1948 to form own band)

Lester Flatt - acoustic guitar (left in 1948 to join Scruggs in new band)

Chubby Wise - Fiddle

Cedric Rainwater - Acoustic bass

Modern musicians:

David Grisman - Mandolin - produced more than 50 records; owns Acoustic Disc record label

Chris Thile - Mandolin player - founded country band Nickel Creek

Tony Rice - Acoustic guitar player (got a guitar from his teacher)

Multiple Select

Four of the five major bluegrass instruments

• Acoustic Guitar

• Piano

• Banjo

• Fiddle

• Mandolin

Multiple Choice

Which instrument did Bill Monroe play?

• Guitar

• Drums

• Mandolin

• Dobro

Multiple Choice

Is this statement true or false?

The size of a bluegrass band has stayed constant over time and is almost always a four- to six-piece band.

• True

• False

During the 1950s, bluegrass became more popular. More bands followed in Monroe's footsteps. For the first time, people were actually calling it "bluegrass," instead of "hillbilly music," "country music," or "folk music."

Josh Graves - applied Earl Scrugg's banjo technique to the Dobro

Fiddle - least important rhythmic role; provides melody

Mandolin -can sound like drum beats

Techniques and change

​1960 and beyond

Elvis Presley - Popular entertainer who performed rock and roll version of a bluegrass song on the Grand Ole Oprey in 1954.

Singer and guitar player from Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis was known for a bevy of chart-topping hits and as a rock-and-roll crossover artist

Died in 1977 from a heart attack.

His band - one electric guitar, one acoustic guitar and an electric bass.

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Jamming - musicians playing together informally

Composing - to write music - lyrics or tune

Virtuosos - people who are exceptionally talented at playing a particular instrument

Syncopation - rhythmic approach that stresses off-beats

Arpeggio - A chord that has been broken into individual notes. A chord played one note at a time instead of all at once, usually in ascending or descending order.

Sideman - Musicians who play in a band alongside the band's more prominent leader. One celebrity band leader may have many different sidemen throughout a career, and a single band member may play as a sideman for many band leaders.

Terms - 9.3.3 Study

Country music is often designed to be easy to listen to. On the contrary, jazz musicians may write complex pieces that explore unusual harmonic and melodic ideas; rock musicians may create aggressive, in-your-face music that's meant to challenge the audience.

Country musicians are more likely to work like craftsmen, trying to create music that, in the long run, will have to please someone else — the person who buys and listens to it. It adds to the feeling that the music is connected to a long history and tradition, and that's important in country music.

Multiple Select

Which of these are characteristics of country music?

• Designed to be easy to listen to

• Performers closely connected to their audience

• Musicians trying to please their audience

• All of the above

Country music shares its history with folk music and bluegrass. In fact, there really wasn't anything you could officially call "country music" until about 1923, when Fiddlin'

John Carson

recorded "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane." That was the first country song, and "country music" as a genre started with that record. So the country music timeline will start in 1923 and continue right through today

Multiple Choice

Officially, country music timeline started in

• 1923

• 1953

• 1973

• 1993

​There's one dramatic difference that separates country music from bluegrass and folk. Country music has had much greater commercial success. Country artists have sold millions and millions of records. An enormous music industry, based in Nashville, has grown up around country music. Refer to:

9.4.2 Study, page 2 - Timeline 1920 on

Multiple Choice

Which city is considered the capital city of country music?

• Austin, Texas

• Bakersfield, California

• Louisville, Kentucky

• Nashville, Tennessee

Multiple Choice

Which one of these is not a characteristic of folk music?

• Folk music tends to be simple, rather than complex.

• Folk music is often performed using portable instruments such as acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle.

• Folk music is only found in Appalachia.

• Folk music is usually inspired by traditional music.

Multiple Choice

Cecil Sharp traveled the Appalachian Mountains because...

• He liked the scenery

• To find the musical culture

• His grandpa lived there

• You have no idea

What do these have in common?

Here are several modern sources of music:

• A rock concert

• The radio

• Listening to a church choir

• The soundtrack in a movie

• Background music in a mall

Someone else chose the music you are going to listen to

Multiple Choice

Three of the following instruments are very common to bluegrass, folk, and country music. One is less common and was introduced to these styles later. Which is the following is least common

• Banjo

• Mandolin

• Steel guitar

• Mandolin

​Folk music

In the early days of song collecting, only the lyrics of a song would be written down and published. People wanting to sing one of these songs would have to find or write their own melody and chord progression. Sometimes these songs had dozens and dozens of verses, and singers would just leave some out to make the song shorter.

Folk music is much more of a performer's art form; in folk music, the performer is king.

​Many folk songs share two things in common:

1. Short musical ideas

2. Repetition

Most folk music uses short musical elements, like verses and choruses, and repeats them over and over again with different words.

One common structure in folk music is verse and chorus. This is a very familiar way to organize a song. You can find some lyrics and choruses to a typical song. - Page 3, 9.2.1 Study

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

If you have all the assignments from Units 1-9 done, that is awesome!!

Students are still struggling - are you?

Have you reached out for help? I am here to help in whatever way I can!

​

​So...where are you?

9.2.4 4/29
9.3.4 today
9.4.4 5/03 - Friday
9.5.2 5/06 - Monday
Looking forward:
Seniors last day - May 15
No class on Monday, May 27
Final class will be Monday, June 3
We start Unit 10 next Tuesday


End of Semester 06/04/2024




W

​

​Assignments