The Carter Family repertoire is centered around songs, as opposed to instrumentals, even though this course is focused on Maybelle Carter’s instrumental style. Singers, of course, choose the key that suits their voice the best, but Maybelle’s playing is centered around the C, F, and G7 chord shapes. When she wanted to change keys, instead of using different chord shapes, Maybelle used a capo to play in keys higher than C, and, to play in keys lower than C, she did what she called “running her guitar down.” For example, the Carter Family recorded their classic song “Wildwood Flower” in the key of Bb, so Maybelle tuned her guitar down a whole step, which makes the key-of-C shapes sound in Bb.
