By Bill Gilson

Anyone trying to learn to play bluegrass music will eventually have to learn to play breaks. These improvised solos are an essential part of the music and no amount of rote learning will make up for their lack. As a novice mandolinist I am struggling with the task of learning to play breaks, and therefore I thought it might be interesting and helpful to try and begin in these pages a discussion of how best to approach this difficult task.

Stage performances by well-known bands often include rehearsed or arranged breaks, but sessions are different. Ideally, in a session, a bluegrass break is improvised, that is, it is composed while playing. The player creates a new melody which fits the chord progression of the song and reminds the listener of the original melody; it is itself coherent, balanced and musically satisfying.

John McCann, a guitarist and mandolinist in Boston, Massachusetts recommends the following simple method that makes sense to me:

1. Take the melody of the song and simplify it to its bare bones.
2. Play it with a metronome, slowly and clearly, but with musical feeling, until you can do it well.
3. Then, still working slowly, begin to add embellishments and make small modifications.
4. Eventually bring the melody up to speed, continuing to play clearly and in time.

The process of changing and embellishing never stops, but if your feel and knowledge of the melody is sure, you will never find yourself just repeating rote licks over chords.

This is the ideal. In reality the task is a bit more chaotic, especially when I find myself in a picking session and someone nods at me and off I go. My inclination at this point is usually to look down, watch my fingers moving around, and hope for the best. My main aim is often to try at least to end on the correct beat so as not to completely embarrass myself.

Mandolinists have the advantage while playing rhythm of only needing to play on two beats in a measure, that is, on the second and the fourth beats in 4/4 time and on the second and third beats in 3/4 time. This makes it possible to accompany relatively fast songs. But when it comes time to play a break not only must one suddenly double one’s speed; one must instantly switch the feel of what one is doing to an emphasis on the first and third beats (and to the first in 3/4 time). To test the truth of this just tap your foot to any good bluegrass break and note where most of the emphasis beats are falling.

To help with this particular problem I use the following simple method when practising. I play along with a recorded song I know fairly well, chopping rhythm chords on the two and four. Then when someone on the record begins a solo I try to land precisely on the one-beat, and keep playing only on the one-beat throughout the break, returning to rhythm chopping at its end. At first I play only single notes (hopefully fitting the progression) on the one-beat, not whole chords.

I think there is a good deal more to be said about learning to play breaks and I would welcome reading other people’s thoughts on this.

Bill Gilson, Sedgwick, Nr. Kendal

Updated 23rd Jan 1999