If you been following along for the almost 8 years I’ve been inhabiting this space, you would know I’ve made a welcome column career sharing my views and tales regarding a number of areas and topics in my musical life that have caused me some level of frustration, relatively speaking. I mostly try to tackle these things in a humorous or self-deprecating way. Among these topics are, in no particular order or consequence: syncopation, minding mice, crummy tuners, band dynamics, bass fishing, lack of band dynamics, old time music, seasonal stress disorder, finding gigs, farmers markets, hanging out in Seattle, publicity, woodshedding, tequila and other topics I’m sure I’m forgetting. I have tended to recycle, if you will, a number of these topics more than once for my own, and I hope your amusement and to of course meet my monthly deadline. Well my meds must be kicking in because today I’m branching out and adding a new topic…singing or as Jimmy Martin called it…sangin’.
I never have been much of a singer although I have had aspirations of being a one, illusions of grandeur so to speak. In my previous music career, prior to bluegrass, I was a bass player, the kind that stood in the back trying to look cool. That was more than enough for me at the time.
It wasn’t until I got into bluegrass that I thought that it would be fun to sing. I started out trying to sing harmonies in my jam classes but it turns out that I have this affliction of latching on to the melody while trying to figure out the harmony. That would lead to corrections by the jam leader and who wants to be corrected… continuously. So I used a tactic that I have used in other musical endeavors that I was trying to learn, I stopped singing harmonies. It’s not that I don’t understand the principles of harmony or hear the harmonies; it is just that when I sing with someone, my ear takes me right to their part and I can be quite adept at doubling a part. Doubling for those of you who don’t know, is not what audiences are willing to pay to hear or what bands are looking for when they are hiring a bass player who can sing back-up.
Having been stymied by harmony singing, I took a different approach. I began learning some songs singing the lead. I took to this diligently and took some lessons around singing particular songs. A number of half hour blocks in that closet in the corner of Gryphon, singing classes at music camps, one on ones with instructors at camps, woodshedding and more. This one worked somewhat. I learned to sing about 5 or 6 songs this way. There was some Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Carter Stanley and even a Danny Paisley / James King cover. I learned these using the above methods about 8 years ago and have been singing them since. You can be assured in most cases I dropped the key a few steps from the originals. A frequent comment I use in a jam after finishing one of them is “about 20 BPM quicker and 2 whole steps higher and we might have some bluegrass.”
Now I was a “sanger” although not naive enough to try a Jimmy Martin song. Even with key and tempo modifications I’d be scared to try. Anyway I sang these songs for years with my bands. You know one or two a set to break up the program so the good singers could be featured. I also didn’t have the same problem with these melody parts that I had with harmonies, as I am the melody and I spent a lot of woodshed time getting my version down so others could sing with me.
Sounds like problem solved …nope. I have been singing these same songs in jams for about hundred years now and while I still can sang’ em pretty well, it is time for new material for my jam partners and me. So using my tried and true methodology to learn new songs, I began the process of trying to find some new material. The problem is that all the cabin and mountain songs have been done and I now get out over my skies so to speak in picking new material. For example, I tried to learn some Seldom Scene tunes and even with my modifications, I can’t seem to get there. Maybe I should try the harmonies.
I do have a couple of new songs in my woodshed queue and maybe am close to kicking them out. My jam friends certainly hope so.
So that’s what I have to say about sangin’ and no matter what I plan on keeping sangin’. Who knows, I may add sangin’ to my topic mix going forward.
