Scruggs style
Scruggs style is the most common style of playing the banjo in bluegrass music. It is a fingerpicking method, also known as three-finger style. It is named after Earl Scruggs, whose innovative approach and technical mastery of the instrument have influenced generations of bluegrass banjoists ever since he was first recorded in 1946. It contrasts with earlier styles such as minstrel, classic, or parlor style (a late 19th-century finger-style played without picks), clawhammer/frailing/two-finger style (played with thumb and nail of the first or middle finger), jazz styles played with a plectrum, and more modern styles such as Keith/melodic/chromatic/arpa style and single-string/Reno style. The influence of Scruggs is so pervasive that even bluegrass players such as Bill Keith and Don Reno, who are credited with developing these latter styles, typically work out of the Scruggs style much of the time.
Influence[edit]
Some have debated how much of the "Scruggs style" was actually "invented" (instead of merely popularized) by Scruggs. For example, Scruggs names Snuffy Jenkins as a major influence.[5] Either way, no one doubts that Scruggs did more to popularize the elements of his eponymous style than any of his contemporaries; it is hard to overstate his influence. In 1968, the instructional manual Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo (revised in 2005 under ISBN 0-634-06042-2) was published. This made Scruggs' technique more widely accessible, and as one of the earliest books of its kind for bluegrass banjo, helped spread Scruggs' influence considerably. The style was also popularized by Scruggs' recording of the theme song of the television program The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971), "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", as well as the use of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" in the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
On January 11, 2019, a Google Doodle paid homage to Scruggs by featuring a "close-up" animated demonstration of the "Scruggs style".[6]