Editing Earl Scruggs (section)

==Development==
[[File:Finger_picks_(1).jpg|thumb|upright=0.64|alt=Finger picks|Finger picks on thumb, index and middle finger]]
Scruggs is noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo-picking style now called "[[Scruggs style]]" that has become a defining characteristic of [[bluegrass music]].<ref name="trishka">{{cite book |last1=Trischka |first1=Tony |title=Banjo song book |date=1977 |publisher=Oak Publications |location=New York |isbn=0825601975}}</ref> Prior to Scruggs, most banjo players used the [[clawhammer|frailing or clawhammer technique]], which consists of holding the fingers bent like a claw and moving the entire hand in a downward motion so that the strings are struck with the back of the middle fingernail. This motion is followed by striking the thumb on a single string.<ref name="clawhammer-video">{{cite web |last1=Laird |first1=Brad |title=Basic Clawhammer Lick |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv-nYYJO_5k |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/vv-nYYJO_5k |archive-date=December 11, 2021 |url-status=live |website=youtube.com |publisher=Free Banjo Videos.com |access-date=March 2, 2017 |date=February 13, 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The three-finger style of playing is radically different from frailing; the hand remains stationary and only the fingers and thumb move, somewhat similar to [[classical guitar technique]].<ref name="brown-paul" /> Scruggs style also involves using [[Fingerpick|picks]] on three digits ''(see photo)'', each plucking individual strings—downward with the thumb, then upward with the index and middle finger in sequence. When done skillfully and in rapid sequence, the style allows any digit (though usually the thumb) to play a melody, while the other two digits play [[arpeggio]]s of the melody line. The use of picks gives each note a louder percussive attack, creating an exciting effect, described by ''The New York Times'' as "like thumbtacks plinking rhythmically on a tin roof".<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |last1=Lehman-Haupt |first1=Christopher |title=Earl Scruggs Dies at 88; Shaped Bluegrass Sound |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/arts/music/earl-scruggs-bluegrass-banjo-player-dies-at-88.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 29, 2012 |page=B17 |access-date=May 4, 2013}}</ref> This departure from traditional playing elevated the banjo to become more of a solo instrument—a promotion from its former role of providing background rhythm or serving as a comedian's prop—and popularized the instrument in several genres of music.<ref name="associated">{{cite web |agency=Associated Press |title=Bluegrass, banjo legend Earl Scruggs dies at 88 |url=http://blog.al.com/wire/2012/03/bluegrass_banjo_legend_earl_sc.html |website=blog.al.com |publisher=Alabama Media Group |access-date=March 1, 2017 |date=March 28, 2012}}</ref><ref name="telegraph">{{cite web |title=Earl Scruggs/Obituary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9174642/Earl-Scruggs.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9174642/Earl-Scruggs.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=telegraph.co.uk |date=March 29, 2012 |publisher=Telegraph Media Group Limited |access-date=February 9, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="instruction-book">{{cite book |last1=Scruggs |first1=Earl |title=Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo/Foreword by Nat Winston |date=2005 |publisher=Hal Leonard |location=Milwaukee, Wis. |isbn=0634060422 |edition=Rev. and enhanced ed. [CD included].}}</ref>

Earl Scruggs did not invent three-finger banjo playing; in fact, he said the three-finger style was the most common way to play the five-string banjo in his hometown in western North Carolina.<ref name="brown-paul" /> An early influence was a local banjoist, [[Snuffy Jenkins|DeWitt "Snuffy" Jenkins]], who plucked in a finger style. According to banjoist and historian [[Tony Trischka]], "Jenkins came about as close as one could to Scruggs style without actually playing it".<ref name="trishka" /> At age ten, when Scruggs first learned the technique, he recalled that he was at home in his room after a quarrel with his brother. He was idly playing a song called "Reuben" and suddenly realized that he was playing with three fingers, not two. "That excited me to no end", he later recalled, and said he ran through the house repeatedly yelling "I've got it".<ref name="brown-paul" /><ref name="websitebio" /> From there he devoted all his free time to perfecting his timing and to adding syncopation and variations to it. Controversy exists as to the actual origin of three-finger picking style.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jonassen |first1=Mikael |title=The Impact of Earl Scruggs on the Five String Banjo |url=https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/54135/Masteroppgave.pdf |website=Duo.uio.no |access-date=June 2, 2018}}</ref> [[Don Reno]], an eminent banjo player who also played this style and who knew Scruggs at that young age, described Scruggs's early playing as similar to that of Snuffy Jenkins.<ref name="willis" /> Scruggs, however, consistently referred to it as his own, saying that he adapted to it "a syncopated roll that was quite different."<ref name="willis" /><ref name="bader-brian">{{cite web |last1=Bader |first1=Brian |title="Foggy Mountain Breakdown"—Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (1949) Added to the National Registry: 2004 |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/FoggyMtBreakdown2.pdf |website=loc.gov |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> On the subject, [[John Hartford]] said, "Here's the way I feel about it. Everybody's all worried about who invented the style and it's obvious that three finger banjo pickers have been around a long time—maybe since 1840. But it's my feeling that if it wasn't for Earl Scruggs, you wouldn't be worried about who invented it."<ref name="willis" />