CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
Bluegrass Picking — Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky
- Key
- wolfe1982-bluegrass-picking
- Authors
- Wolfe, Charles K.
- Issued
- 1982
- Type
- chapter
- Container
- Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky
- Publisher
- University Press of Kentucky
- Publisher place
- Lexington
Raw CSL JSON
{
"URL": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130j2kb.9",
"type": "chapter",
"title": "Bluegrass Picking",
"author": [
{
"given": "Charles K.",
"family": "Wolfe"
}
],
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
1982
]
]
},
"publisher": "University Press of Kentucky",
"container-title": "Kentucky Country: Folk and Country Music of Kentucky",
"publisher-place": "Lexington"
}
Claims
-
Although bluegrass is widely associated with the five-string banjo, Monroe's prototype of the music had no banjo: the first Blue Grass Boys of 1939–1940 had none, and his first banjo player was used mainly in a rhythm role. Monroe called the banjo "about the fifth child that was born to bluegrass". In 1945 Earl Scruggs joined and added a three-finger banjo style that soon threatened to become the music's prime characteristic.
"Many people tend to associate bluegrass with the five-string banjo ... Yet Monroe's prototype of bluegrass music had no banjo in it; his first recording band, the first incarnation of the Blue Grass Boys ... in 1939-1940, had no banjo, and his first banjo player, David "Stringbean" Akeman, was used more in a back-up rhythm role than as a lead. ... A banjo was about the fifth child that was born to bluegrass, but it's helped bluegrass. ... The advances went into overdrive in 1945, when Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and Chubby Wise all joined within a few months. ... and Earl Scruggs added an electrifying three-finger banjo style that soon threatened to become the music's prime characteristic."
-
Sonny Osborne broke away from Scruggs-style banjo playing after 1957, when he decided he could no longer copy Scruggs; he began to improvise solos, basing them on horn or piano solos, and even added a sixth string to his banjo.
"They continued to innovate: Sonny broke out of his Scruggs-style banjo playing. He later recalled: "I realized in 1957 that I couldn't copy Scruggs anymore because, when he was through and couldn't play anymore, that I'd still have some time left." He began to improvise solos, and to base them on horn or piano solos, and he even added a sixth string to his banjo."
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