Education

Andy Bing’s Bluegrass Blog, Week 7 This week’s subject is a 1965 documentary film by David Hoffman with Jonathan Gordon called “Bluegrass Roots.” (Thanks to Bill Walsh for calling this film to my attention.) The film is available on YouTube … Read More

Bing’s Bluegrass Blog – Week 6 When Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in late 1945, he popularized a relatively obscure style of five string banjo playing that had been known primarily in the southeastern United States through … Read More

Bill Monroe’s great mid-1940s band set the standard for bluegrass bands in more ways than one, but perhaps the most basic was the band’s instrumental lineup. The five bluegrass instruments were the fiddle, mandolin, guitar, banjo, and bass fiddle. Bill … Read More

This week, a little more about Bill Monroe and one part of the background of bluegrass. In shaping his music, Bill incorporated several strands of the music he heard as a boy and a young man. The strand I will … Read More

Last week’s post argued that Bill Monroe is rightfully called the “Father of Bluegrass,” although there were other country string bands active during the early 1940s, and other musicians, especially banjoist Earl Scruggs, played an important part in the creation … Read More

Bill Monroe Bill Monroe is known as the “Father of Bluegrass.” To my knowledge, bluegrass is the only musical genre whose existence is largely attributed to one person. Jelly Roll Morton claimed to have invented jazz, and W. C. Handy … Read More

This column is the first of a series about bluegrass music. My goal here is to talk a bit about the history of the music and some of the people who helped make bluegrass what it is today. One can … Read More

2019 was the year the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association presented six classes to senior citizens about Bluegrass Music. Andy Bing, a longtime member of the HVBA organized the sessions for the Lifelong Learning Institute held on the campus of Vassar … Read More