Fiddle Playing as Accompaniment to Vocals

Hi. In this lesson, we're going to talk about fiddle playing as accompaniment to vocals. This is a very important element of bluegrass.

The Importance of Accompaniment in Bluegrass

In most bluegrass bands:

• The singing will take up about 2/3 of the material
• Instrumentals account for only about 1/3

So, it's crucial to know what to do while the singer is performing or when other people are soloing.

Fills in the Music

Focus on Fills

In this lesson, we will discuss fills. What should you do while a singer is singing in old-time music?

If you listen to people like Fiddling John Carson, the normal approach was to:

• Play the fiddle in unison with the melody throughout the song.

However, with bluegrass, that certainly won't suffice. You must find ways to weave in and out of the vocals.

Tune Example: "Rolling My Sweet Baby's Arms"

We will use a tune called Rolling My Sweet Baby's Arms, which is a classic bluegrass standard. It is a simple tune with little gaps.

Melody Overview

I will play the melody with the backing so you can hear it. Notice the small gaps at the end of each line:

• Gap, gap, very small gap, gap.

The singing is doing what I've just played, and the gaps are where you want to find something to do.

Approaches to Creating Fills

1. Using Major Scales

One approach is to play a bit of the A major scale during the gaps. For example, for the first gap:

• Running down the C major scale.

Next, you can use the G chord and run down and up the G major scale. Then, you can include a bit of the F major scale.

To hear how this works, let's play the melody and the fills together with the backing.

You could also choose to:

• Just play the fills without anything in between.
• Play long notes in between.

Ultimately, when the vocals are going, it's important to be in the background and avoid playing anything too obvious.

2. Using the Pentatonic Scale

Another approach is using the pentatonic scale.

• For C, it would be:
• For G, it would be:
• For F, it would be:

You can actually use just the C major pentatonic through all three chords if you want, but it's better to follow each chord as you go through.

Let's go over some fills in the pentatonic and then perform it with the backing.

When you are familiar enough with the pentatonic scale, your fingers can move through it without much thought. This allows you to easily improvise during one or two bars. Let's do this again, but up to tempo and with the backing.

3. Using the Major Blues Scale

The third approach is to use the major blues scale. The major blues scale is similar to the pentatonic scale but includes an extra flattened third.

• In C, it would be:
• In G, it would be:
• In F, it would be:

You can create fills based on that scale, which offers a bluesy feel and is probably the best approach. Let's try that slowly, and then with the backing.

Practice and Assignment

When playing this kind of accompaniment, you want to be able to dip in and out of these different ideas naturally.

While learning, it's wise to practice each approach separately:

• Concentrate on the major scale.
• Focus on the pentatonic.
• Work on the blues scale.

Over time, this will become automatic, and you won't have to consciously think about your playing.

Your Assignment

For this lesson, your assignment is to try each of these approaches. However, I encourage you to make up your own fills rather than just copying the ones I've demonstrated. Enjoy!