Americana is where country, blues, folk and bluegrass collide – and players like Steve Earle, Jason Isbell and Lucinda Williams are masters of the craft
Americana is a century-old musical melting pot where country, blues, folk and bluegrass collide. Originally this music would have been performed on banjos, fiddles and mandolins with guitars arriving later.
The earliest known guitarists in this style would have been the country music pioneers like Hank Williams and mandolin genius Bill Monroe. Americana came into its own via artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Elizabeth Cotton and The Carter Family, blending country, blues and folk to create the genre’s blueprint sound, before superstars like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash made it their own.
Today it’s shaped by hard-edged artists like Steve Earle, and other Americana heroes like Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton and Lucinda Williams. Fingerpicking is at the core of Americana.
Iconic artists Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie used fingerstyle techniques extensively. They influenced the next generation of players like Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, who took folk Americana into the mainstream.
In our examples you’ll find simple pieces that will help to get your fingers working, others where chords are added to or altered, others where bass runs and fills are added, and some that will test your fretting and picking-hand skills.
Example 1
Here’s a basic accompaniment pattern to get you playing Americana fingerstyle. Try my suggested picking pattern first – p means that you pluck the note with the picking hand thumb and this usually applies to sixth, fifth and fourth strings; i denotes the first finger and is often used to pluck the third string; m refers to the second finger and can often be found playing the second string. Finally, a refers to the third or ‘anular’ finger and this is usually used for the first string.
Example 2
Next, bass notes are played alongside notes on the third, second and first strings for a more ‘open’ sound. This style leads to instrumental fingerstyle guitar and you’ll hear Paul Simon perform some complex solo fingerstyle pieces early on in his career.
Example 3
As guitars superseded the banjo in early Americana and folk styles it became more of an accompaniment tool to the voice.
Creating the illusion of more than one instrument playing was important, so alternating basslines became a huge part of fingerstyle guitar too. The bass movement typically alternates root-5th.
Example 4
An alternating bass/picking pattern thickens the sound by combining the bass notes with melody strings (the third, second and first strings).
This fuller sound allowed many artists from the early American folk scene, like Woodie Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, to perform with just their voice and guitar.
Example 5
There are also techniques like Carter picking, developed by Maybelle Carter of the famous Carter Family.
Rather than using the typical pima picking finger combinations, Carter would pluck a note with the thumb and then follow this with a downward first finger flick to sound a chord.
Example 6
This second Carter picking example develops the technique further with embellishments such as hammer-ons to the fourth string and the down/up first finger brush/flick technique to make you play on and off the beat.
Ask yourself this question: “How many artists have had a technique named after them?”
Example 7
In this example the thumb has a more detailed role and plays simple bass runs in the 2nd and 4th bars.
These ‘connecting lines’ were a mainstay of the Carter style forming both intros and accompaniment patterns, or filling the role of a bassist. Listen to Maybelle’s Wildwood Flower and you’ll hear all these elements at play.
Example 8
Carter frequently used bass runs to connect chords together, say from the 3rd to 4th bar. The first-finger flick approach is quite arbitrary; although there are times when I’ve indicated to brush just the first and second strings it won’t matter if you catch the third too, as total precision is not an essential element of this style.
Example 9
Did I say name another artist with a technique named after them? Merle Travis’ Travis picking style allows for two independent parts to be picked together; a bassline, usually on the sixth and fifth or sixth and fourth strings, and a separate melody over the top.
Place the heel of the picking hand lightly on the saddle so it rests on the sixth, fifth and fourth strings, as a ‘half palm mute’ , while letting the third, second and first strings ring out.
Play this simple alternating bassline with the picking-hand thumb, making sure that the notes are muted all the way through. While not essential, most Travis pickers use a thumbpick.
Example 10
Here’s another version of the Travis-picked bassline. The previous example was root-octave (sixth to fourth string) but this pattern is root (fifth string), fifth (fourth string) to fifth an octave below (sixth string).
This is just as common so spend as much time as you can on this and the previous example before progressing.
Stuart Ryan’s guide The Americana Guitar Book is priced at $19.99 and available from Amazon and Fundamental Changes.
