Notes for Saturday – May 06, 2017
Today is the birthday of bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs, (1924-2012) and British comic actor Rowan Atkinson (born 1955).
Earl Scruggs
Earl was an American musician who popularized a three-finger banjo picking style, now called “Scruggs style”. This style is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His radically different three-finger style of playing the five-string banjo is radically different. Previously, the banjo was typically played with a frailing or clawhammer technique. He also popularized the instrument in several genres of music and elevated the banjo from its role as a background rhythm instrument, or a comedian’s prop, into featured solo status…