Earl Scruggs

It's actually two fingers, middle and index finger, and your thumb.

Some of the rolls will go, if you number your thumb one, index two, and your middle finger three, it's like a one, two, three roll over and over.

But to do a tune,

it's like trying to say every word with the exact same amount of syllables in the word.

You've got to alternate the role some to make the tune flow better.

I guess the old days, you have one main room you take company to when they come.

that you don't use every day.

So I was in what we call the front room with a banjo one day, and I was in a mode where if somebody had asked me what was I thinking about, and I bet you've been in that mode yourself, you couldn't tell them what you was thinking about.

You were just kind of sitting there.

And I was picking the banjo, and I was playing a tune that's still played today called Reuben.

And when I realized what I was doing, I was playing the way that I play now.

It was like

having a dream and wake up, you're actually playing the tune.

So that was the motive then and what I was doing when I learned exactly what I'm doing today.

Oh yeah.

Nobody had had this style banjo in the group, and he just did the type tunes that would make the banjo sound good.

So it was a good shot to start with because he had Grand Ole Opry exposure, and that gave me a lot of exposure when I went to work with him.

And it got immediate attention because nobody had heard that kind of a banjo picking.

it caught on real fast with the public.

It was terrible.