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I realize that probably 99.9% of the people here are more into Rock than Bluegrass, but this is a genre that requires a lot of technical skill.

 

Begins with the "G" run.

 

 

artistworks.com/blog/essential-bluegrass-guitar-licks-g-run

 

Listen at about 25 secs.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

Read more: http://guitarplayersforum.boards.net/thread/754/bluegrass-guitar#ixzz5hhzBESv1

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Yes, the current forums membership leans as you suggest, w/ a blues tinge, & has at times been more wide-spread stylistically

but there are many here w/ interests in jazz, country & classical gtr

+ music from other cultures that still haven't totally embraced the ever-spreading influence of Western pop

(although the mixtures are sometimes really great as well !)..

 

As for BGrass, it in itself was intended as a modernization of the older folk styles w/ a definite slant on virtuosity.

Proto-C&W-bebop or similar to what happened later w/jazz-rock, maybe, although it seems more trad since it generally stuck w/ a less adventurous harmonic skew. :puff:

 

Personally, I like all sorts of stuff & spent as much time as a teen catching C&W-ish acts such as (The) Wilburn Bros, Buck & the Buckaroos,

Porter Waggoner w/the-then-strictly-local Ms Parton + the loopy Speck Rose,

on TV outta Knoxville Tenn., as I did rock acts on Detroit & Ohio TV.

In college one of my music classes was w/ Raymond McClain of the McClain Family.

 

In fact this outfit, that dates back to the original C&W recording sessions in Bristol, Va

& has members still active, IIRC,

shows not just great music-&-showmanship

but how trad musics can keep abreast of times while retaining their roots.

BTW, that firecracker on mandolin is Donna Stoneman.

The opening tune is cool but chk some of the later bits

[1:50~2:45] / [4:05~6:30] / [27:13~29:20]

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCzGem5xfYY&t=25s

d=halfnote
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I play bluegrass but not on guitar.

 

I play Dobro and bad to mediocre Scruggs style banjo. I haven't touched my mandolin in years. I'm mostly a Dobro guy when it comes to Bluegrass.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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I've always called them a dobro (generic term) or a slide player...most of them play square neck dobro and the resonators don't sound the same as the lead, flat picking or chording on a regular acoustic guitar IMHO. :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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That's a different round neck dobro which can be played upright just like a guitar. Lots of blues players prefer them as you get both sounds. You will hear the resonator when you add a slide or bottleneck and a guitar when you don't. The square neck dobro like the ones used in blue grass are square necks and lay flat like a lap steel or pedal steel. They must use a slide or bar and the strings are set way up off of the fretboard. They get a full time resonator sound. I play mine fingerstyle on the picking hand, while most players use a thumb and finger picks... :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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As an aside. The father of the Bluegrass dobro is Buck Graves. Buck was original the bass player in the Flatt and Scruggs band. (Foggy Mountain Boys). He asked Earl Scruggs to teach him his 3 finger picking style and apply it to the Dobro. So Earl Scruggs in addition to creating modern Bluegrass banjo created Bluegrass Dobro.

 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Well, people will play whatever in any way they wish. I've seen "square" neck Dobros played "upright" (Let's say "standard" as "upright" makes me think of a stand-up bass ;) ) and ROUND neck played laying down like a lap steel. I even knew a girl who played her DULCIMER by holding it like a standard guitar! :o While most play them like this...

 

[video:youtube]

 

Of course, the girl here isn't the one I know. ;)

Whitefang

 

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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As an aside. The father of the Bluegrass dobro is Buck Graves. Buck was original the bass player in the Flatt and Scruggs band. (Foggy Mountain Boys).

 

Thanks for the post CEB. At the time Buck picked up the Dobro, it was only being used as a standard resonator guitar by some of the blues guys and occasionally at a barn dance where a little louder rhythm guitar was needed to back up the fiddle and banjo. So Buck really did pioneer the slide Dobro in a way. (Even though there were some old Blues guys and gals playing the resonator with a broken bottle neck or a piece of steel pipe.)

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Well, people will play whatever in any way they wish.

Ain't that da troof !

 

Light comedy but impressive

[video:youtube]

 

 

More serious but still kinda unusual

[video:youtube]

 

& finally, getting back to J Graves, check the position of his R arm & the gtr strap.

Was that a tactical decision to keep the gtr from shifting position ?

[video:youtube]

d=halfnote
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CEB's post of Josh Graves playing the dobro in the normal blue grass position, is what I was trying to describe to Fang. It is true that a square neck can be played in an upright position if one chooses to look a little out of place in a blue grass band. But, I am seriously thinking of playing one upside down like Junior Brown plays his lap steel Tele combo. I have tried it and it works by just hanging my dobro down low. It relieves the wrist from having to lift the bar. I might even design or buy a guitar holder like Junior's. Here's an example:

 

 

[video:youtube]

 

:cool:

Take care, Larryz
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Well, thanks for the effort to show me something I was already aware of, but I appreciate your taking the time! :)

 

Liked that 1st clip of d's up there with the Japanese "pickers" putting their instruments behind their heads(ala Hendrix)! I didn't watch the whole thing, so later I'll go back and see if they next try to play them with their TEETH! :laugh:

 

BTW: "Upside down" suggests(to me) that either the guitar is flipped over into the "lefty" playing position, or in the case of

 

HEALEY'S always fun to watch(and listen to!) and up until I first became aware of him 'bout 10 years ago( on some PBS program) he was already dead. And also up until that time the only other guy I saw play in that manner besides Kenneth "Thumbs" Carlille.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

BTW:

 

"Upside down" suggests(to me) that the guitar is flipped over to the "lefty" playing position, or in this case, the Dobro or "lap" steel guitar, while still hanging from your shoulders, is flipped over so that the strings are facing the floor, requiring you to reach underneath to get at 'em! ;)

 

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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Well, people will play whatever in any way they wish.

Ain't that da troof !

 

Light comedy but impressive

[video:youtube]

 

 

More serious but still kinda unusual

 

[video:youtube]

 

& finally, getting back to J Graves, check the position of his R arm & the gtr strap.

Was that a tactical decision to keep the gtr from shifting position ?

[video:youtube]

 

Under the strap is just the way you do it. It just doesn't work over the strap. You can't get the hand position right. Forearm needs to run parallel along the guitar top and the hand angle has to be where the picks hit the string at the correct perpendicular angle. One of the first hurdles a player needs to over come when he starts out is not striking strings at glancing angles.

 

Also good Dobro straps are expensive and sometimes it's hard to find the right one. They

Are Long. Standard straps don't work. A nice leather strap is practically a must. They cut into my neck. If I play a dobro gig it's in a Country band where I'm the steel player. I just play seated on my my bench and just back away from the pedal steel. I play better seated than standing. I think I paid $65-70 for my Old strap and I hardly ever used it unless it is an impromptu bluegrass jam.

 

The great thing about Bluegrass is how festival shows work. Generally there will be marque concerts that people will be there to see. Many times the musicians in these bands that can melt your face off will mill about the playing rooms or surrounding area if it's outdoors. It is not totally unusual to find yourself in a playing circle with some of the most famous best musicians in the world. Last year my friend found himself playing in a jam circle with Michael Cleveland. One of the best Fiddlers in Bluegrass. It's like if Rock Musicians took their instruments to Rock Festivals and all around they would cluster off and start jamming and guys like Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen would wander and join in.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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"Upside down" suggests(to me) that the guitar is flipped over to the "lefty" playing position, or in this case, the Dobro or "lap" steel guitar, while still hanging from your shoulders, is flipped over so that the strings are facing the floor, requiring you to reach underneath to get at 'em!" Fang.

 

 

That's Not at all what I'm referring to Fang. The square neck Dobro is played like a lap steel with a bar not upright like a guitar with a slide or bottle neck. However I have seen it done with a square neck and will post a video for you so you can see it for yourself. Notice when you watch a dobro or lap steel that they use a bar and play from the 6th to the 1st string while laying flat (or over the top like in the Junior Brown video I posted above). When using a bottle or slide and holding a square neck upright (as you described like a guitar) you will be going from the 1st to the 6th (upside down from underneath the neck). The reason blue grass players wear a strap as CEB describes, is they can stand up and play with the square neck doro laying flat like it's supposed to be played using a bar. Thus they can get close to the mic. Lots of bluegrass bands play acoustic and share a central mic. They step in close when playing lead and then back out. Many have mics for each instrument as well. Anyway here is a square neck being played as a round neck...it would be difficult to try and play one in the upright position coming over the top with a bar. You have to come from the bottom (i.e. upside down so to speak) if you want to play one bottle neck style. Not as you imagine with the strings facing the floor LOL!

 

[video:youtube]

 

:cool:

Take care, Larryz
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(Regarding Graves's R hand entanglement w/ gtr strap, )

Under the strap is just the way you do it. It just doesn't work over the strap. You can't get the hand position right. Forearm needs to run parallel along the guitar top and the hand angle has to be where the picks hit the string at the correct perpendicular angle. One of the first hurdles a player needs to over come when he starts out is not striking strings at glancing angles.

 

Also good Dobro straps are expensive and sometimes it's hard to find the right one. They

Are Long. Standard straps don't work. A nice leather strap is practically a must. They cut into my neck. If I play a dobro gig it's in a Country band where I'm the steel player. I just play seated on my my bench and just back away from the pedal steel. I play better seated than standing. I think I paid $65-70 for my Old strap and I hardly ever used it unless it is an impromptu bluegrass jam.

 

The great thing about Bluegrass is how festival shows work. Generally there will be marque concerts that people will be there to see. Many times the musicians in these bands that can melt your face off will mill about the playing rooms or surrounding area if it's outdoors. It is not totally unusual to find yourself in a playing circle with some of the most famous best musicians in the world. Last year my friend found himself playing in a jam circle with Michael Cleveland. One of the best Fiddlers in Bluegrass. It's like if Rock Musicians took their instruments to Rock Festivals and all around they would cluster off and start jamming and guys like Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen would wander and join in.

So that's a standard method w/ the strap ?

As a kid, I saw a lotta dobro players---not so much since ---but I'd never noticed that.

Per the music fest open jams, I dig...in fact similar open performance situations used to be the way many pop/folk fests operated.

I've read of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez & even the Dyl dong workshops at Newport Folk.

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Yes. You need to either run the arm under the strap or over the strap. In order to be able to Palm mute and hit with proper picking angle and keep everything relaxed I don't think you could do it any other way. Your forearm on the top can give you some control over the angle of the guitar. It's the only way I've ever done it.

 

Here is a picture of Jerry Douglas.

B1pNCck5QkS._SL1000_.png

 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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That's Not at all what I'm referring to Fang. The square neck Dobro is played like a lap steel with a bar not upright like a guitar with a slide or bottle neck. However I have seen it done with a square neck and will post a video for you so you can see it for yourself. Notice when you watch a dobro or lap steel that they use a bar and play from the 6th to the 1st string while laying flat (or over the top like in the Junior Brown video I posted above). When using a bottle or slide and holding a square neck upright (as you described like a guitar) you will be going from the 1st to the 6th (upside down from underneath the neck). The reason blue grass players wear a strap as CEB describes, is they can stand up and play with the square neck doro laying flat like it's supposed to be played using a bar. Thus they can get close to the mic. Lots of bluegrass bands play acoustic and share a central mic. They step in close when playing lead and then back out. Many have mics for each instrument as well. Anyway here is a square neck being played as a round neck...it would be difficult to try and play one in the upright position coming over the top with a bar. You have to come from the bottom (i.e. upside down so to speak) if you want to play one bottle neck style. Not as you imagine with the strings facing the floor LOL!

 

:rolleyes:

OY!

 

I KNOW what you were referring to, All I was doing was facetiously pointing out what your phrase "upside down" could also be taken to mean. ;) DAMN! If you ain't the life of the party! :freak:

 

Take that last photo posted above this....

 

Flip that axe "upside down" and where would the strings be facing? :/

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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Fang, take a look again at the two pictures CEB posted of what a real blue grass player looks like playing a "Bluegrass Guitar" style of dobro. That's kind of what the thread topic is about and that's all I was trying to comment on. You can play a Tele on your lap, or a Dulcimer as a guitar, or lap steel at the bluegrass jam. Or you can turn the square neck Dobro up and play it bottle neck style and be "the life of the party". Or turn the strings toward the floor and play it as a bongo if you want to...Don't get hung up on the "upside down" comment as it has to do with square vs. round neck and bar vs. slide or bottle neck...I'm just not acknowledging the concept of being an unconventional dobro player at a bluegrass party. :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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Fang, take a look again at the two pictures CEB posted of what a real blue grass player looks like playing a "Bluegrass Guitar" style of dobro. That's kind of what the thread topic is about and that's all I was trying to comment on. You can play a Tele on your lap, or a Dulcimer as a guitar, or lap steel at the bluegrass jam. Or you can turn the square neck Dobro up and play it bottle neck style and be "the life of the party". Or turn the strings toward the floor and play it as a bongo if you want to...Don't get hung up on the "upside down" comment as it has to do with square vs. round neck and bar vs. slide or bottle neck...I'm just not acknowledging the concept of being an unconventional dobro player at a bluegrass party. :cool:

 

:freak:

 

"Slide OR bottleneck"??? :laugh: OK.... ;) So, do you drive a CAR, or an AUTOMOBILE? :roll: Yeah, I know you're referring to the choice between the heavy chromium bar held in one hand and versus the hollow metal tube(or glass, like mine) one slips over a finger, so don't go off 'cause I like to slip this type of ribbing about the way you tend to put things. ;) Mean nothing by it, and since this place isn't really a "tutorial debate", a little levity helps keep the head from swelling too big. :cop:

 

And BTW:

Over many years I've seen(both live AND on film, tape or otherwise on TV) plenty of bluegrass bands, and somehow managed to NEVER see a ONE of 'em with a guy playing a DOBRO until maybe the last 10 years or so. Which really don't mean much except only "luck of the draw". The ones I'm more familiar with have a bass( sometimes called a "bull" fiddle), banjo, mandolin, guitar and (sometimes) a fiddle. Mostly though, like THESE guys! ;)

 

[video:youtube]

 

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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Try 1955 for the resonator being introduced into blue grass...according to Wiki

 

"Josh Graves (September 27, 1927 Tellico Plains, Monroe County, Tennessee September 30, 2006), born Burkett Howard Graves, was an American bluegrass musician. Also known by the nicknames "Buck," and "Uncle Josh," he is credited with introducing the resonator guitar (commonly known under the trade name of Dobro) into bluegrass music shortly after joining Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1977."

I remember the Dillards on Andy Griffith and always admired their performances when they visited the show. You nailed it as far as the usual instruments in blue grass bands, but the resonator added a ton of vibe to the genre IMHO.

 

BTW automobiles are made of glass and steel. For bottle necks and slides you'll have to make a choice...In addition to sticking your finger inside a bottle, brass, steel, ceramic, etc. tube vs a bar, you'll find your hand position on the fret board changes from the top down using a bar laying the guitar flat and from the bottom up using that slide playing the guitar in the upright position. To my knowledge, the first slides were invented in Hawaii and were made of steel...no swollen fat head here, just my 2 cents. :cool:

 

Take care, Larryz
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Try 1955 for the resonator being introduced into blue grass...according to Wiki

 

"Josh Graves (September 27, 1927 Tellico Plains, Monroe County, Tennessee September 30, 2006), born Burkett Howard Graves, was an American bluegrass musician. Also known by the nicknames "Buck," and "Uncle Josh," he is credited with introducing the resonator guitar (commonly known under the trade name of Dobro) into bluegrass music shortly after joining Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1977."

I remember the Dillards on Andy Griffith and always admired their performances when they visited the show. You nailed it as far as the usual instruments in blue grass bands, but the resonator added a ton of vibe to the genre IMHO.

 

BTW automobiles are made of glass and steel. For bottle necks and slides you'll have to make a choice...In addition to sticking your finger inside a bottle, brass, steel, ceramic, etc. tube vs a bar, you'll find your hand position on the fret board changes from the top down using a bar laying the guitar flat and from the bottom up using that slide playing the guitar in the upright position. To my knowledge, the first slides were invented in Hawaii and were made of steel...no swollen fat head here, just my 2 cents. :cool:

 

I was thinking in "terminology" realms. For instance, I don't know if all along that the "Hawaiian" style of guitar playing was ever or always referred to as "slide" or not. Now, the stuff that old blues players did WAS done by placing the broken off neck of a beer or wine bottle( hence the "bottleneck" moniker)over a finger and then moving it up and down the guitar's neck. Over time, some guys got "inventive" and started using short lengths of pipe, or those metal lipstick tube covers from their women's lipstick. Anything else that could be used in that manner. And too, I mentioned in earlier discussions, that music critic STACEY WILLIAMS( an alias of NY times writer ROBERT SHELTON) in the liner notes of BOB DYLAN's debut album called the technique "fretting". Have NO idea what the HAWAIIANS called it. ;)

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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...I have no idea...
:hitt:

I think generally the name applied to "Hawaiian style" gtr (developed from imported Mex farm workers) is "slack key".

 

Back to BG gtr...the past & the future...

 

SLOW IS FAST

[video:youtube]

 

DON'T ASK ABT THE CLAMP :idk

[video:youtube]

 

AN IMPORTANT CONCEPT, PEDESTRIANLY EXPLAINED

[video:youtube]

 

THESE SOUND LIKE BGRASS TO ME / WHADDA YOU THINK ?

TRAD TUNE / FUTURISTIC STYLE

[video:youtube]

 

TRAD STYLE / FUTURISTIC TUNE

[video:youtube]

 

d=halfnote
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Here's some history according to Wiki. A little light reading for those that are interested:

 

 

"History

 

The technique of using a hard object against a plucked string goes back to the "diddley bow" derived from a one-stringed African instrument. The "diddley bow" is believed to be one of the ancestors of the bottleneck style.[1]

 

When sailors from Europe introduced the Spanish guitar to Hawaii in the latter nineteenth century, the Hawaiians slackened some of the strings from the standard tuning to make a chordthis became known as "slack-key" guitar, today referred to as an open tuning.[2]

 

With the "slack-key" the Hawaiians found it easy to play a three-chord song by moving a piece of metal along the fretboard and began to play the instrument across the lap. Near the end of the nineteenth century, a Hawaiian named Joseph Kekuku became proficient in playing this way using a steel bar against the guitar strings. The bar was called the "steel" and was the source of the name "steel guitar". Kekuku popularized the method and some sources claim he originated the technique.[3] He moved to the United States mainland and became a vaudeville performer, later performing in Europe for several years.[4]

 

In the first half of the twentieth century, this so-called "Hawaiian guitar" style of playing spread to the US.[5] Sol Hoopii was an influential Hawaiian guitarist who in 1919, at age 17, came to the US mainland from Hawaii as a stow-away on a ship heading for San Francisco. Hoopii's playing became popular in the late 1920s and he recorded songs like "Hula Blues" and "Farewell Blues". According to author Pete Madsen, "[Hoopii's playing] would influence a legion of players from rural Mississippi."[6]

 

Most players of blues slide guitar were from the southern US particularly the Mississippi Delta, and their music was likely from an African origin handed down to African-American sharecroppers who sang as they toiled in the fields.[7] The earliest Delta blues musicians were largely solo singer-guitarists.[8] W. C. Handy commented on the first time he heard slide guitar in 1903, when a blues player performed in a local train station: "As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularised by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. The effect was unforgettable."[9] Blues historian Gérard Herzhaft notes that Tampa Red was one of the first black musicians inspired by the Hawaiian guitarists of the beginning of the century, and he managed to adapt their sound to the blues.[10] As an example, Tampa Red, as well as Kokomo Arnold, Casey Bill Weldon and Oscar Woods, adopted the Hawaiian mode of playing longer melodies with the slide instead of playing short riffs as they had done previously.[11]

 

In the early twentieth century, steel guitar playing divided into two streams: bottleneck-style, performed on a traditional Spanish guitar held flat against the body; and lap-style, performed on an instrument specifically designed or modified for the purpose of being played on the performer's lap.[12] The bottleneck-style was typically associated with blues music and was popularized by African-American blues artists.[12] The Mississippi Delta was the home of Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton, and other blues pioneers.[13] The first known recording of the bottleneck style was in 1923 by Sylvester Weaver, who recorded two instrumentals, "Guitar Blues" and "Guitar Rag".[14][15] Some of the blues artists who most prominently used the slide include Robert Johnson (sample above), Charley Patton, Son House, Bukka White, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Kokomo Arnold, Furry Lewis, Big Joe Williams, Tampa Red and Casey Bill Weldon.[16] " Wiki

 

Bottle neck has more to do with the style of playing the guitar in the upright position than the material the slide is made out of IMHO. I have a buddy who is big on playing bottle neck and he likes to correct me when I refer to a resonator guitar as a Dobro. Dobro is actually a brand name that has become generic for a resonator guitar. The square neck resonator is another style of playing with the guitar laid flat using a bar the same as a lap or pedal steel. I'm not the history buff he is and I really haven't used or learned to play my square neck yet. I have fooled around with it and can play a little. Nowhere near enough to play in a bluegrass band LOL! :cool:

Take care, Larryz
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I guess some would rather debate the fine points of the past (a debate that can't be won when one end of the scale admits that they "have no idea" :idk ).

We gonna get stalemated by that or consider what the future of this musical style might hold ?

:snax:

d=halfnote
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