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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2016 16:07:26 GMT
Elizabeth Cotten, a self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar (usually in standard tuning), not restrung for left-handed playing, essentially holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".
It's the first time I've seen her playing - very unusual!
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Post by Michael Messer on May 2, 2016 17:20:13 GMT
Elizabeth was wonderful. To get you head around her playing you have to turn your TV upside down!
Shine On
Michael
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Post by Stevie on May 2, 2016 18:25:28 GMT
My (forum member) friend from Shropshire plays this way. Great because I get to play his guitars too!
He has an MM Lightning and finds slide playing a problem though.
e&oe...
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Post by bluesinthestreet on May 2, 2016 19:00:33 GMT
I saw this lady in a You Tube clip recently - it got quite emotional. Frail, yes, but still delivering great music. Being a leftie I'm always interested in the many ways guitarists can get their sounds from what's available. Good left handed guitars are so rare that maybe I really should have taken the advice all those years ago to learn to play right handed, but alas it was too little too late. So, I play a conventionally strung LH guitar, sixth string where my thumb is. But I think that's why the guitar's such an incredible instrument - Django Renhart with those missing fingers, Cedell Davis using a knife as slide due to paralysis - all getting there, any which way they can. By any means necessary.
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Post by ken1953clark on May 2, 2016 19:21:02 GMT
If you do the same as everyone else you might sound the same as everyone else. Do something different and you can stand out. Albert Collins always played in open Em, always with fingers no slide, he had to approach tunes in a different way and sounded unique
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Post by bluesinthestreet on May 2, 2016 21:13:35 GMT
Yeah. Individuality, because we are all individuals to some extent.. And there are so many reasons that even if you try to do the same as everyone else, you still won't sound the same - at least not exactly - even though others may just hear someone trying to be Albert Collins, or John Lee Hooker etc. The way you play, the fact that no two guitars even if the same model don't sound exactly the same, etc... I suppose you stand out when you're happy about the way you approach guitar but, importantly, also know that the sound you're producing is you. Your sound. I didn't know Albert Collins only played in open Em. But then, why use different tunings if you've got something? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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