crosspicking

[Dave Hanson]

I've been having a discussion on another forum, mandolin.org.uk about crosspicking, someone has stated quite categorically that crosspicking didn't exist until Jesse McReynolds invented it, I find this very hard to believe, for the hundreds of years mandolins have existed that no-one crosspicked before Jesse.

In Irish dance music, tenor banjo players and mandolin players have been adapting fiddle tunes for a long time, turning crossbowing into crosspicking.

What do you all think ?

Dave H

[swampstomper]

I think Jesse invented his style -- combines the rolls like a banjo with some stretched chord positions playing off (usually) an open E string. He can play other crosspicked patterns (more conventional string skipping) and he can play straight, but the "Jesse crosspicking" is really unique. Can you point me to anything before 1952 that sounds like "Too Many Tears" or "Are You Missing Me?"? Not to mention "Hard Hearted" from the Starday years.

[Dave Hanson]

Yeah I think you are right swampstomper, it seems we've been at odds about the definition of ' crosspicking ',
apparently the style created by Jesse McReynolds only applies to bluegrass picking, certainly in Irish music, crosspicking is defined as, ' playing successive notes of a melody accross two strings ', the Jesse McReynolds style being more akin to a banjo roll.

Dave H

[swampstomper]

Right, and he is quick to say he was consciously imitating three-finger banjo picking as he saw it with his banjoist Hoke Jenkins, who was attempting to learn Scruggs style. A similar style in guitar is George Shuffler -- again the first who did a lot of forward and backward "rolls" with the flatpick, trying to get that syncopated rhythm a la Scruggs. Of course, Jesse is a great musician and wonderful stylist, not restricted to any one technique.

[glauber]

Here's a frailing/crosspicking (http://www.frailing.com/index.htm) guitar site i came across, which has interesting sound samples.