When Cecil Sharp Came To America
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Which instrument would one be least likely to find in someone's home in North Carolina in the year 1916?
piano
Most settlers in Appalachia came from which part of the world?
England, Ireland and Scotland
What do the music in iPods, television commercials, radios, movie soundtracks, and malls all have in common?
they are all prerecorded
When Cecil Sharp came to America, did he find bluegrass music?
no
Which best describes life in the Appalachians in 1916?
people were isolated from the rest of the world
Were bluegrass, country and folk music all discovered by Cecil Sharp?
no
How many strings does a typical banjo have?
5
What best describes the song that Cecil Sharp had found when he came to America?
they were from England, more than 200 years earlier
Which two instruments are both tuned to the notes G, D, A, E?
fiddle and mandolin
What is not a type of acoustic guitar?
five-string
What is not a characteristic of folk music?
folk music was invented in the 1930s by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger
What is primarily a performer's art form?
folk music
What structure do most folk songs follow?
verse and chorus
"Going Up On the Mountain", performed by Jody Stecher, had several characteristic that are common for folk melodies... what are they?
- the melody uses a pentatonic scale - the melody is easy to sing - the melody is short
Are "traditional music" and "folk music" always the same thing?
no
Who is no known for being a songwriter?
Cecil Sharp
Who is known for being a songwriter?
Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Stephen Foster
Which came first: radio, recordings, movies with sounds, or minstrel shows?
minstrel shows
Who came first: Ralph Peer, Stephen Foster, Alan Lomax, or Guglielmo Marconi?
Stephen Foster
What happened first: World War II, the first Newport Folk Festival, the release of The Anthology of American Folk Music, or the first broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry?
the first broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry
What social cause did folk singers in the 1930s not become involved with?
protesting the Vietnam War
What social causes in the 1930s did folk singers become involved with?
fighting segregation, workers' rights, helping the poor
Which instrument is among the "big five" of bluegrass instruments?
Dobro
What instrument is Chris Thile known for playing?
mandolin
What technique did Josh Graves take from Earl Scrugg that he took from one instrument and applied it to another?
he applied Scrugg's technique on the banjo to the Dobro
What is primarily the fiddle's role in bluegrass music?
to provide melodies
Who came first in the history of bluegrass: Bela Fleck, Bill Monroe, Bill Keith, or Alison Krauss?
Bill Monroe
Which two musicians joined Bill Monroe's band in 1945 and had a major impact on the band's sound?
Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt
Who wrote and performed the theme song on a famed 1960s TV show that featured a bluegrass theme song?
Flatt & Scruggs
What movie that came out in the year of 2000 began a sudden increase of interest in bluegrass music?
"O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
What is "jamming"?
musicians playing together informally
What performer crossed over to country from bluegrass and became a big star?
Ricky Skaggs
What instrument is widely used in country music and almost never used in folk or bluegrass?
the pedal steel guitar
What most closely describes a good country song?
it is simple and direct
Which of these was recorded first: "Ropin' The Wind" by Garth Brooks, "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music" by Ray Charles, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" by the Carter Family, or "Little Old Cabin in the Lane" by Fiddlin' John Carson
"Little Old Cabin in the Lane" by Fiddlin' John Carson
What song was on country's first million-selling record?
"The Prisoner's Song"
What African-American musician was named to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000?
Charley Pride
Which city is considered the capital city of country music?
Nashville, Tennessee
What are the characteristics of a pedal steel guitar?
- played with the strings facing up - has keen levers for changing pitch - played with a steel bar in one hand
What was revealed by the introduction of Soundscan in 1991?
country music had more listeners than the music industry realized
What two ideas has country music been trying to find a balance between throughout its history?
traditional things and modern things
What part of the United States did the Dust Bowl affect most directly?
the central plains states
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