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Doc Watson on Drop-Thumb Banjo

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Uploaded by on Jun 12, 2010

Is it true that Doc Watson doesn't use the drop-thumb technique when he plays banjo?

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Music

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  • @VerticalUnion1

    no, no. People are born with adeptness. Talent is the ability to practice for hours and devote your life to an art to perfect it.

    A talented man is one who has perfected his art.

  • I love Doc Watson!!!!!!!!!

    some were born with talent, some of us have to work really hard to get there.

    I'm off to practice for a few hours.

  • If you watch a different version of the video you will learn that he is talking about how he *used* to play banjo. He picked upward with his fingers and avoided drop thumbing. But the entire implication is that he went on to use other techniques later--including drop thumb.

  • Watch even closer, sometimes his thumb moves down instead of resting on the 5th, call this a floating right hand but yes he does hit the second string with his thumb a little, The second string is usually the easiest for people to hit at first. Because Doc said on the Mike Seeger tape/DVD some time ago doesn't mean he has stood still, musicians are always learning.

  • And he's pulling off some of those "drop thumb" notes...As my old mentor Jeff Cooper said...PII.....preoccupation with inconsequential increments. Drop thumb is a good technique to learn...so let's get off this dang computer and go practice!!!

  • Call it what you want, this is a blind-man playing clawhammer, and playing it well. The banjo is in Open G tuning and he's hitting the fifth string (tuned in G) to make an eighth note.

  • Perhaps this evidence should be delivered to a fornesic lab for more careful analysis. Doc seems to be a God-fearing man and I can't imagine him saying he don't drop his thumb if in fact he has been guilty of it. This is huge! Best get it right though before mass media gets wind.

  • I heard him say in an interview (I believe it was with David Holt on a project they did) that he didn't use it because he didn't have an use for it.

  • Watch closer, his thumb never hits any string other than the fifth.

  • Isn't it the double-C tuning?

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