Terminology

Break – an instrument solo, usually the lead line of the verse.

Fiddle Tune – an instrumental song without any singing.

Guitar Billboard – an experienced guitar player who plays the chords straight and without any fancy licks so that beginners can follow the chord changes.

Jam – a gathering of people who want to play music together.

Jam Buster – a song that is too hard for the group to play for any one or more of these reasons: too many chords changes, too many odd chords, tempo is way too fast or way too slow, unusual chord structure that is hard to follow, or the song leader isn’t “directing traffic” clearly.

Kick Off – a way to start a song. A kick off can be an instrument solo (“break”) or a quick turnaround by one instrument (the last phrase of the song) or some quick pickup notes by an instrument.

Mac Wiseman Method – a technique for starting a song. Typically the guitar and/or bass will play the “boom-chick” (root and 5th notes of the chord) on the 1 chord at the tempo determined by the song leader. Other instruments join in until all instruments are playing the 1 chord together; soon after the song leader starts singing the song. Named after the famous Mac Wiseman who used this method to play with session musicians on stage for the first time as he traveled from performance to performance.

Nashville Number System – a method for using numbers instead of letters to identify the chords in a song. In a typical bluegrass song in the key of G, the other chords would be C and D. These would be identified as the 1 (G), the 4 (C) and the 5 (D) chords. By using numbers instead of letters, each musician can transpose the song as needed. This is handy when (for example) a guitar play wants to play using chords in the key of G, but with the capo on the 2nd fret. While the guitarist is playing G/C/D chords, it’s the key of A for everyone else. Instead of having to talk about two different keys (“Well, it’s a C for me, so I guess that’s a D for you”), everyone just reference the number instead. More information can be found here and here. You can also print any one of many charts available as a quick reference.

Tag – to tag a song is to sing (typically) the last line of the chorus again as a means of finishing the song. Sometimes the song leader will say “tag it!” meaning to repeat that last line.

Typical Song Structure – many bluegrass songs follow this structure. Sometimes a song will begin with a chorus.

• Verse #1
  • Chorus
    • Break
• Verse #2
  • Chorus
    • Break
• Verse #3
  • Chorus
    • Break
• Final Chorus
  • Tag the last line or last two lines