NORTH AMERICAN TRADITIONAL MUSIC

The United States and Canada

A MIX OF DIFFERENT CULTURES

Different regions and cultures have vastly different music.

Influences from Native American, European, Hispanic, and African cultures. Native American Cajun Appalachian Blue Grass Gospel Hawaiian

Other terms you might hear to describe types of American folk music would be , old time, jug band, country, and fiddle.

NATIVE AMERICAN

Tribal groups from different areas have varying traditions.

Musical Areas Southwest Eastern Woodlands Plains Great Basin Northwest Coast Sub-Arctic

EXAMPLES OF NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC Navajo - Blackfire Navajo Squaw Dance Hoop Dance Harmonized Peyote So

ng Lakota – Lullaby Yaqui – Deer Dance Iroquois Iroquois – Flute Iroquois – Stick Dance Inuit Singing Smithsonian Folkways

WHERE THESE TRIBES LIVE

Inuit

Navajo

Yaqui

Lakota (Sioux)Iroquois

CAJUN

Louisianna Instruments

Accordion Fiddle Triangle Guitar

Language – Creole Major keys The waltz and two-step are

common dances. Balfa Brothers L'anse aux pailles D.L. Menard & the Louisiana Aces Zydeco

RUBBOARD

APPALACHIAN – OLD TIME

Eastern United States mountain range. Maine to Georgia.

Anglo-Celtic – First Settlers

APPALACHAIN CHARACTERISTICS

Influences from various cultures – immigrants. British African German, Polish, Czech

Instruments Fiddle Appalachian (Fretted)

Dulcimer (modified zither) Concertina (Accordion) Mandolin Guitar Banjo

APPALACHIAN CHARACTERISTICS CONTINUED…

Songs borrowed from Anglo immigrants. Lyrics are often changed. References to revenge or

the supernatural were changed to repentance and place in heaven.

This was due to a strong religious culture and the fear of superstition and explicit content. (i.e. Salem Witch Trials)

Pretty Polly/The Gosport Trajedy.

Christian Hymns

CLOGGING

Also known as flat footing, buck dancing, hoedown, stepping, etc.

Borrowed from European cultures.

Style of dance where the sound from shoes is a percussive part of the music.

Flat footing example. And another. Ok, one more.

BLUEGRASS VS. APPALACHIAN/OLD TIME

BLUEGRASS OLD TIME

Newer genre than Old Time

Soloists take turns playing the melody (much like jazz).

Often played in a concert setting.

Quick tempos.

Precursor to Bluegrass Many instruments play

melody at the same time, or one person plays melody while others accompany.

Main function is for dancing.

Variety of tempos.

Instrumentation is mostly similar. Instruments in common –

Fiddle Guitar Banjo Mandolin

BLUEGRASS AND APPALACHIAN EXAMPLES

Earl Scruggs – Ground Speed

Foggy Mountain Top Chet Atkins –

Bill Cheatham Cumberland Gap Square Dancing –

Wabash Cannonball Bill Monroe –

Bluegrass Breakdown

Down in the Valley Devil’s Dream English Folk Songs fr

om the Southern Appalachians

Wabash Cannonball Old Joe Clark Angeline the Baker Red River Valley

CANADIAN FIDDLE TRADITION

Just like American fiddle tradition, Canada received their tradition from European cultures, with the addition of a heavy French influence.

Ook Pik Waltz Jean Carignan –

Hangman’s Reel Medly of fiddle

tunes.

GRAND OLE OPRY

American country television program which features artists of all varieties of country music.Office WebsiteYoutube

GOSPEL

African American Christian Culture

Origins from: spirituals work songs slave songs white Pentecostal hymns evangelistic

congregational songs Influences from:

blues, jazz, rock, soul, classical, and country

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOSPEL MUSIC Lyrics

Sacred Simple and clear Expressing God’s love and forgiveness

Commonly heard instruments. Piano, Organ, Guitar, Bass, Drum Set, Tambourine, Violin,

Brass – Depends on specific sub-genre. Rhythm

Frequent clapping Repetition

Often features a soloist. Call and response between soloist and choir/congregation.

EXAMPLES OF GOSPEL MUSIC

Swing Low Sweet Chariot Oh Happy Day Go Down Moses

HAWAIIAN

Melody Falsetto vocals – most often by men. Long duration of notes

Music is functional. Used to express praise, communicate genealogy and mythology, and accompany games, festivals and other secular events.

Mele – Chant (song), Hula – Dance Innovations on the guitar – Slack Key and Steel Guitar was brought over by outside settlers, most likely

Mexican workers. Immigrant influence – Pacific, Asian, Hispanic, and

European cultures influencing and bringing new styles.

HAWAIIAN GUITAR STYLES

SLACK KEY STEEL

Most slack-key tunings can be achieved by starting with a guitar in standard tuning (EADGBE) and detuning or "slacking" one or more of the strings until the six strings form a single chord, frequently G major.

Adapted to accompany the rhythms of Hawaiian dancing and the harmonic structures of Hawaiian music.

Usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use of a bar or slide called a steel.

UKULELE

Small version of a guitar. Said to be adapted from the Portuguese

machete. 4 nylon or gut strings. Softer in dynamic than a guitar – why?

FALSETTO

Singing is the main focus of Hawaiian music.

 In Western falsetto singing, the singer tries to make the transition between registers as smooth as possible. In Hawaiian-style falsetto, the singer emphasizes the break between registers. Sometimes the singer exaggerates the break through repetition, as a yodel.