In this lesson, you’ll learn Maybelle Carter’s picking-hand technique, commonly called the “Carter scratch.” Maybelle used a thumbpick and a fingerpick on her index finger, but she turned her fingerpick around so it was opposite to the way fingerpickers wear fingerpicks. This is because the Carter scratch includes a down strum with the finger, not an up pick used in fingerpicking. You don’t need to wear a fingerpick, though, In fact, you can play the Carter scratch with a flatpick, but it’s worth trying it with a thumbpick. Maybelle’s daughter Anita said that what her mother did was play the melody notes on the bass (with the thumb) and “stirred the other strings with her fingers.” Maybelle played everything out of C position, with standard shape C, F, and G7 chords. Cathy starts by showing you the basic “Carter scratch” with a boom-chuck rhythm and then some rhythmic variations, and shows you how to play them with a thumbpick or a flatpick.
