Roles of Guitar in Bluegrass
May 12th, 2008
There are the two roles the guitar plays in bluegrass and old-time music: rhythm and lead. The most important role of the guitar in bluegrass and old-time music is that of a rhythm instrument. In fact in the early days of bluegrass, the guitarist in the band never took a lead break. Now lead guitar breaks are common, but consider this: If you were playing guitar in a five piece bluegrass band, and in every instrumental song, each instrument took a lead break–you’d be playing rhythm guitar 80% of the time and lead guitar only 20% of the time. For vocals you would be playing lead even less.
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