Most of us in Appalachia consider how the sounds of banjos and fiddles are connected to this territory. What if we were to consider string band music on a global scale, and in a larger histories of culture flows and migration?  In the “Global String Band” project students engage with string band traditions from around the world, gaining cultural context as well as musical experience.  As we learn to play Mexican Son Jarocho, Indonesian Kroncong, and Bulgarian ruchenitsas, we are challenged to develop music techniques, we learn about the larger world, and we understand how bluegrass and old-time in the US fit into a larger world of roots music. In this presentation I describe what we’ve done with the GSB using recordings and live performance, reflect on challenges, and open discussion of possible directions our project and others like it could take in the future. 

Dr. Lee Bidgood teaches ethnomusicology and sound studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.