Cotten picking, ‘picking and flicking’, open tunings, Travis picking and banjo techniques on guitar – learning Americana guitar styles opens up a whole new world for your acoustic playing

In this lesson, we’ll look at the folk-blues fingerpicking style of Elizabeth Cotten, and revisit Maybelle Carter’s famous ‘pick and flick’ approach.

You’ll discover how folk legend Pete Seeger translated banjo techniques to the guitar, and then learn how the great Chet Atkins built on the Travis picking style to make it his own.

To be a well-rounded Americana guitarist, it’s essential to have all these techniques at your disposal, along with a good knowledge of the most commonly used tunings.

This means drop D, D (D-A-D-F#-A-D) and G (D-G-D-G-B-D), so we’ll work on exercises featuring each of these tunings.

Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train (Rare Live Performance) - YouTube

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Example 1

Replicating Elizabeth Cotten’s style is challenging. Left-handed but playing a right-handed guitar upside-down, she plucked the bass strings with her first, second, and third fingers, and played melodies on the upper strings with her thumb. She frequently picked out of C and G chord shapes which is a great way to get started.

Example 2

Open tunings get to the heart of Cotten’s ‘country blues’ sound that would influence future singer-songwriters in the genre. This example is in open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D), which harks back to the Travis picking alternating bassline approach.

The picking-hand thumb plays the bassline but note how, unlike Travis, Chet Atkins who followed her and later Tommy Emmanuel, Cotten did not mute the bass notes, instead letting them ring out against the melody.

Example 3

This example uses open G tuning (D-G-D-G-B-D), another Cotten favourite. When playing in open G the emphasis is typically on the key of G so the fifth string (tuned down to G) is used as the root and the sixth and fourth strings (the two Ds) are the 5th. This strong root-5th relationship makes this a very useful tuning.

Example 4

This example looks at Maybelle Carter’s techniques with a capo at the 7th fret. Focus on relaxed thumb-finger interplay and the gentle ‘brushing’ of the picking-hand first finger on the treble strings. Make the hammer-ons and pull-offs as strong as the picked/brushed notes and make sure that the legato phrases aren’t rushed or pushed.

Example 5

Pete Seeger was a legend in the American folk scene playing old-time banjo. He translated banjo techniques to guitar, and was a deft fingerpicker who often played 12-string guitars, but this challenging example will stay on six! The alternating bassline is still there but now we have a more complex melody to play over the top.

Example 6

Pete Seeger’s accompaniment parts weren’t all about complexity and this example shows how he would take a nuanced approach to self-accompaniment on guitar. Note the connecting lines that are used to get from one chord to another, a technique you’ll also see in the guitar style of Johnny Cash.

Example 7

At the heart of Chet Atkins’ approach is the palm-muted alternating bassline, but Chet played complex melodies on top and took influence from farther afield. He also arranged well-known pieces for solo guitar and became a superstar in the process. This example features advanced chord ideas with integrated melodies.

Example 8

Atkins was also adept at moving basslines music and went beyond the alternating bass approach. This example shows how a bassline can move around even within the Travis picking style. It’s complex and may take some time, but stick with it as you are truly on the way to sounding like two instruments playing together.