Breaks
Many people are first attracted to bluegrass because of
the power of its instrumentals. Indeed, there is little that
can compare to the power and excitement of Earl Scruggs playing
a banjo solo or Tony Rice playing a guitar solo, and you can
find many wonderful instrumentalists in a bluegrass parking
lot.
As a rule, most bluegrass songs start with a kickoff,
which is just an initial (sometime abbreviated) instrumental
solo. After that, a full instrumental break is played after
each of the choruses except the last. Each break is played
by an individual instrument, with all the other instruments
playing a backup role as discussed above. Each successive
break is generally played by a different individual instrument,
unless there are not enough different instruments, in which
case one of the instruments gets to repeat. In this way, each
of the people in the jam session gets his or her individual
chance to show out on a break.
The break itself can range from a simple rendition of the
melody to some wild jazz-like improvisation which never comes
even close to the actual melody. Most good breaks are somewhere
in between these two extremes. The cardinal rule for breaks
is that when it is your turn, give it all you’ve got
-- at all other times, play good backup, support whoever is
playing lead as best you can, and generally stay out of the
way.
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