Howdy guys!
Well it’s been a long road, peppered with all sorts of pot holes. As luck would have it after my first Bluegrass Jam in December of last year the Mandolin bridge collapsed. Went through the warranty process with Breedlove. Those guys couldn’t have been nicer but it took a while to get fixed. Then travels, health issues, surgeries, everything that could get in my way did. Long story short, I just got back to a BG Jam last night.
You could have shucked the rust off me with a wire brush, but I was able to chop (or when I didn’t know the chords, percuss) enough to get involved. It was really great, but like all things, now I want to do more.
The thing I can’t seem to understand is how to go from chopping and the like to doing a solo/melody/lead/?
I found Ben’s video on “licks” but what do I do with that? Is there a simple process to start building this up? These guys meet once a month, so I have picked two songs and aside from working on the chord progression, I also need to figure out a way to play the “solo”.
The first song is “Will the Circle be Unbroken” which is well known, often played, and should be a good starting point. I picked up the Bluegrass Fakebook and found a rendition of it in there.
Any suggestions would be welcome and very much appreciated.
Thanks!
Matt