American Banjo: Three-Finger and Scruggs Style (liner notes) — Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Claims

1. jenkins-picks-tunings
   Snuffy Jenkins was, as far as Mike Seeger knew, the first to record, broadcast and perform regularly using the three-finger style, and his contributions included using picks, which Hammett and Brooks had not used at first. Banjos on the 1956 recording were tuned in "G". Smiley Hobbs also used a "D" tuning (ADF#AD) and "Scruggs tuners", then a new development, to retune in the course of a piece; and Oren Jenkins played the same tune in both three-finger style and the old-time "rapping" style, an ability Seeger describes as not common and growing rarer.

   "His contributions to the style were using picks (which Hammett & Brooks didn't use them, at least at first) ... He was, as far as I know, the first to record, broadcast and play performances regularly using the three finger style. ... recording session is performer's home in October 1956 and banjos are tuned in “G” ... On “Rosewood Casket” he uses a “D” tuning (ADF#AD) and the “Scruggs tuners,” at that time a new development. ... For “Cripple Creek,” Oren takes off his picks and plays the banjo first in three finger style and then briefly in the “rapping” style. The ability to play both styles well was not common and has become even more rare amongst the younger players."

   Locator: section: About the performers · Quote language: en
2. origins-of-the-roll
   In the rural South, the old African-based style of rapping or frailing the banjo, and possibly some picking styles, were learned from both Black southerners and white minstrel-style musicians. In the late 1800s banjo virtuosos played finger-picking styles that fed back into rural southern tradition and created folk styles of chording or playing melodies within a two- or three-finger roll, or arpeggio. The development of this technique in Earl Scruggs's area of southwestern North Carolina was the basis for his new picking style, and the shared element of the three-finger style is an arpeggiated pattern using the thumb, index and middle fingers.

   "In the rural South, the old African-based style of “rapping”(or “frailing”) the banjo, and possibly some picking styles, were learned from both Black southerners and white minstrel-style musicians. ... In the late 1800s, banjo-playing virtuosos played European style concert music on the banjo as well as ragtime, novelty and black face minstrel songs. Most of this was a finger-picking style of music that then fed back into rural southern tradition in the early 1900s and created a variety of folk styles of either chording or playing melodies within the framework of a two or three finger “roll,” or “arpeggio” ... It was the development of this technique in a unique way in Earl Scruggs' area of southwestern North Carolina that was the basis for his creation of a new banjo picking style. The stylistic element shared by the 15 banjo pickers on this recording is that they play an arpeggiated three finger style using their thumb, index and middle fingers."

   Locator: section: Introduction · Quote language: en
3. scruggs-synthesis
   Earlier three-finger players such as Junie Scruggs, Snuffy Jenkins and Earl Scruggs himself patterned their playing on that of Smith Hammett and Rex Brooks, locally famous banjo pickers; Charlie Poole of North Carolina was another influential pre-Scruggs three-finger player of the 1920s. In Rinzler and Seeger's account, Earl Scruggs combined the best elements of the rhythmic and the melodic approaches, projecting the melody clearly within a variety of rolls and fills over a rock-solid rhythmic foundation, and his characteristic right- and left-hand patterns became the basis for thousands of banjo players.

   "J.C. Sutphin's style is a very good example of the old-time, pre-Scruggs type of three finger picking which he said he learned from North Carolinian, Charlie Poole, one of the influential banjo picking recording artists of the 1920s. ... Junie Scruggs (Earl's older brother), Snuffy Jenkins, and Earl Scruggs himself patterned much of their playing after that of Smith Hammett and Rex Brooks, two locally famous banjo pickers ... Earl Scruggs ... has in a sense combined the best elements of these two styles as he projects his melody clearly within a variety of rolls and fills over a rock-solid rhythmic foundation. ... He has created a style, an instantly identifiable language of banjo playing, characterized by certain right and left hand patterns, which have been the basis for the playing of thousands of banjo pickers around the world."

   Locator: section: Introduction (continued) · Quote language: en