Carter Scratch
sundog
taken from the autoharp & applied to the guitar.She was self taught on both
but she learned the autoharp frist.It looks like a thumb lead followed by
one or two fingers in a down up motion.I play both & i see how her guiter
style would develop into the Carter Scratch...What do you people
think?....Bob
David Sanderson
That's the story I've always heard; thumb pick, then brush down with the
fingers. Lester Flatt always played that style, too.
--
David Sanderson
East Waterford, Maine
klan...@hsc.wvu.edu
>
Although Lester Flatt played guitar with a thumb and finger pick, his
style was distinct from the "Carter-Scratch" in that he normally only
picked upward on the strings with his fingerpick and simultaneously
downward with the thumbpick...a motion he described as a "pinch-lick".
This was an amazingly effective device for playing fast bluegrass
rhythm on guitar. Unfortunately, this wonderful guitar style has been
virtually overlooked by the current crop of bluegrass (and old-time)
musicans.
Ken Landreth
David Sanderson
Interesting; first time I've heard a detailed description of what he
did. It's a style that's not quite any particular style, sounds like.
And I can see how it would work for fast playing, since the motion is
basically in the fingers and you don't have to worry about flinging your
arm around with a flatpick.
Bob White
news:nwtge.3799$rt1....@fe04.lga...
> It seems to me Maybelle Carters guitar style known the Carter Scratch
I thought Gillian Welch did a poor job of demonstrating the "scratch" on
the recent PBS show on the Carters. She flat picked it! However, just
after that scene is great film footage of Maybelle playing close up. Looks
more like a banjo style to me. She played banjo too.
My opinion: "The Carter Family: Will The Circle Be Unbroken" show was good
but not great. Some of the photographs shown were wonderful. I just read
and thoroughly enjoyed Mark Zwonitzer's book, "Will You Miss Me When I'm
Gone?" which the show was apparently based on. Highly recommended!
Is it mandatory to use the same country music personalities on all these
type productions? In this case, Gillian Welch and Marty Stuart. I would
have much rather seen and heard someone like Dr. Charles Wolfe.
Joe Cline
> Unfortunately, this wonderful guitar style [thumb and finger picks
> for Bluegrass and/or old-time rhythm] has been
>virtually overlooked by the current crop of bluegrass (and old-time)
>musicans.
There are still a number of folk who do it this way -- Chris Sharp has
figured it out most recently, as has Beth Hartness. Curley Seckler
still does it, and I believe Moon Mullins does also.
Joe Cline
Charlotte
klan...@hsc.wvu.edu
> There are still a number of folk who do it this way -- Chris Sharp
has
> figured it out most recently, as has Beth Hartness. Curley Seckler
> still does it, and I believe Moon Mullins does also.
>
> Joe Cline
Althouth there are a bunch of excellent guitarists out there who use a
thumb-pick and finger-pick to play rhythm...Wayne Henderson and Beth
Harness being two of the best...I have yet to see anyone really use the
Lester Flatt "pinch lick" the way Lester did. The real shame is that
most of the current crop of bluegrass and old-time musicians have never
had the absolute pleasure of watching Lester play the way he did in his
prime (with the Foggy Mtn Boys between 1948 and 1965)...which is really
the only way to see just how different his style was from that used by
Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs (on guitar), and the folks you mention
above.
klan...@hsc.wvu.edu
Bill Dillof
It's thumb/index up/index brush down/index up. 1-2-3-4 beats. This is a not
uncommon banjo pick which you can hear from Lilly May Ledford and Oscar
Jenkins, though each musician has a unique take on how much is pick and how
much is strum. When I started playing guitar almost no one played with a
plectrum - that was strictly for jazz or that new "rock & roll". The big
three of bluegrass guitar - Carter Stanley, Charley Monroe, Lester Flatt -
were using thumb picks. Jack Elliott, the best flatpicker around in those
days, was heavily influenced by Bill Carlisle.
I have seen the autoharp played so many inventive ways that I be hard
pressed to say there's any correct way. With that as my hypothesis, I think
it more likely that the autoharp absorbed styles from other instruments,
rather than vice versa. Interestingly, that "pinch & strum" style used by
Lester Flatt is quite common nowdays for playing melody on the autoharp.
WRD
SquirrellyDave
and two finger picks.The index finger was upstroke strum and the middle
finger had the pick reversed and was used for a downstroke strum,
creating a bum-diddy rhythm that really rocked!
Allin Cottrell
>>It seems to me Maybelle Carters guitar style known the Carter Scratch was
>>taken from the autoharp & applied to the guitar.She was self taught on
>>both but she learned the autoharp frist.It looks like a thumb lead
>>followed by one or two fingers in a down up motion.I play both & i see how
>>her guiter style would develop into the Carter Scratch...What do you
>>people think?....Bob
>
> It's thumb/index up/index brush down/index up. 1-2-3-4 beats. This is a not
> uncommon banjo pick which you can hear from Lilly May Ledford and Oscar
> Jenkins, though each musician has a unique take on how much is pick and how
> much is strum. When I started playing guitar almost no one played with a
> plectrum - that was strictly for jazz or that new "rock & roll".
When playing rhythm / backup with thumb-pick and fingers, I find the
problem is how to get sufficient impact with the finger strokes. Some
folks manage using finger-picks installed backwards, but personally I
have never found that comfortable. Maybelle, however, achieved a big
sound without finger-picks (that I'm aware of). Maybe it's a matter
of how tough your finger nails are, and how strong your fingers.
Allin Cottrell.
Bill Dillof
"Allin Cottrell" >
> When playing rhythm / backup with thumb-pick and fingers, I find the
> problem is how to get sufficient impact with the finger strokes. Some
> folks manage using finger-picks installed backwards, but personally I
> have never found that comfortable. Maybelle, however, achieved a big
> sound without finger-picks (that I'm aware of). Maybe it's a matter
> of how tough your finger nails are, and how strong your fingers.
Hi, Allin. One contributing factor to Maybelle's power is that she does not
seem to have braced her hand on the soundboard, but throws a lot of wrist
and forearm into the downstroke, almost like you would with a flatpick. It
doesn't hurt to have a really loud, well-balanced guitar either. A 1920s L-5
would do the trick.
Bill
Peter Feldmann
Thanks for starting an interesting thread. Maybelle was more of
a banjo player in the early days than an autoharp player. She
took up the autoharp in later years because of difficulties with
arthritis. On the old Carter Family records, it is Sara Carter
playing the autoharp to back up Maybelle's lead guitar.
There are many old time banjo styles that use a thumb lead, some
with a "pinch", as Ken Landreth has suggested that Lester Flatt
used, some alternating with one or more fingers. Lester told us
in an interview that he began as a banjo player, just as
Maybelle did (and so did that old time guitar great, Riley
Puckett). Maybelle's thumb lead style is explored in some
detail on my instruction Lp, issued in 1975, "How To Play carter
Style Guitar". This has now been reissued as a CD and can be
found here:
http://www.bluegrasswest.com/ideas/sti-105.htm
Mike Seeger also has some instruction material on Maybelle, but
emphasises her fingerpicking style, so the two packages
complement each other nicely.
Note that, while Maybelle did record with a thumbpick most of
the time, she did in fact also use a flatpick. The fluidity of
her playing seems deceptively simple. She remains one of my
absolutely favorite guitar players.
__Peter Feldmann
--
Peter Feldmann
http://www.bluegrasswest.com
Bands, bookings, & etc. for old time and
neo-classic country music.
Mark...@aol.com
Maybelle, however, achieved a big
sound without finger-picks (that I'm aware of). Maybe it's a matter
of how tough your finger nails are, and how strong your fingers.
Allin Cottrell.
I read in a Johnny Cash book about The Carter Family that Maybelle used
a thumbpick and two steel finger picks while playing guitar. I've been
recently attempting to emulate her playing style while playing Carter
Family songs. If anybody has a certainty about Maybelle's use of picks
~ please post.
Mark
York
PA
timatp...@yahoo.com
I set face to face with Mother Maybelle backstage at the Opry and
watched her pick. She used a plastic thumbpick and a metal finger pick
on her index finger. Mostly she picked down with the thumb, up with
index finger and brushed down with middle finger. Often the middle
finger would follow the index finger on the upstroke. Sometimes she
picked up on a single string with the index finger to put in a note
while all the time keeping the time going with the thumb on the bass
strings and the middle finger brushing down. It was amazing to watch
her and listen to the way the rhythm keep going along so smoothly. She
made it look so easy. She said she played banjo that way before she
ever played guitar. You can see a pretty good clip of her picking on
the PBS show about the Carter Family.
Tim Ausburn
Mark...@aol.com
in your post, about The Carter Family's technique is not easy. I'm
having a good time learning th old Cater Family songs. I didn't get the
television program here so I didn't see the clip you mentioned. Are
there many films of Maybelle playing out there?
Thanks again.
Mark
York
PA