What is Bluegrass Crosspicking, and why should you use it? 

Wow, you went the extra mile for this, Marcel! I felt like I just got done watching an episode of "Bluegrass Supernatural" where you defeated the sweep picking evil "real" Batman from another dimension with a George Toussaint spell created from an ancient Euclidean algorithm...with help from James Stiltner playing the part of Bobby Singer! And now I feel the need to get one of those Crosspicking Nose shirts!!

The humanity and brotherhood of guys that like plucking wooden boxes together never ceases to amaze me. Love the collabs

I'm a banjo player. We have the problem of fitting three rolls into a 4 beat measure. For years I didn't understand why some banjo playing sounded good and some sounded bad. Finally I found a bluegrass banjo teacher who taught me about emphasizing particular notes in the roll systematically. First learn to emphasize the first of every 4 notes. Then learn to emphasize off beat in a particular pattern which can start to sound like a polly rhythm if done right. This makes the difference between good and bad playing. I'm trying to pick up guitar now and crosspicking just seems to be an emulation of this sound.

As an old man(54) that loves to play and listen to bluegrass, I am amazed at the knowledge you are presenting to us. I don't read, just played by ear all my playing days, but you sir have gotten me interested in actually learning some of the theory involved in BG music. I'm probably too old to learn the stuff and employ it as you do, but I sure enjoy watching it and learning from you. Thank you so much for sharing your talents and expansive musical knowledge with all of us, you've gained a new fan!

James is a badass- such great tone. Seems like a nice guy, too.

“The intent of your words” sums up your videos quite well, Marcel. You speak with intention and that’s what makes your videos so watchable. I’m a newer bluegrass picker so I’m not quite at the cross picking level yet but I appreciate your knowledge and devotion to the art. Keep on doing your thing!

Really good.... while I am a "Ricer" I appreciate you honoring this old style of picking. My uncle plays this way, he is around 70yrs old now,.he always said don't worry about the pattern, just play whatever sounds good and feels good to you...lol. BTW,...one of your best videos!!!!

Someone put a Netflix documentary on this bluegrass channel. I'm late to this one (quarantine's got me learning guitar), but I'm just really impressed by the production and the research that went into this video. Really really top notch stuff, thanks for making it.

James is a national treasure!

This is amazingly edifying, you blew right past “video essay” and straight to “video dissertation!”

Brother your videos are EXTREMELY well put together! So many tutorial videos out there fail to cover the history and basics. By covering this you present a fuller version of the topic which I feel leads to a more developed knowledge of the subject. IMO. Thank you.

Aware of these difficulties I've come to call them (and also teach them for distinction) as "cross-picking" as the general term with two traditional sub-categories: Shuffler-picking (DDUDDUDU) and McReynolds-picking (DUUDUUDU) frecuently found as "forward" and "backward" rolls, but this does not distincion in what picking should be used but just only the direction of the notes. I refer to the other - the modern one - as "alternate-cross-picking". Just only my approach. I hope that helps to keep on with the reflexion. I think terms are labels to concepts and for that not negligible. Keeping a term for a concept, makes that concept more accurate in terms of what specifically are we refering to. Thanks for yor videos and your channel dear Marcel, geetings from Uruguay!

Bravo, Marcel. This is a topic that is really near and dear to me, and you just did a great and well-supported job of researching this nomenclature issue. I completely agree that the biggest difference is in the syncopation of the two different general techniques (DDU/DUU and alternate) but that the biggest schism comes from unspecific terminology. In practice, I use both Shuffler picking as well as alternate crosspicking, depending on the situation, and with all the guitarists I know, whenever the topic comes up there's aost always a short preface to clarify exactly what technique is being used. Online however, as you have noted, there's a pretty sloppy use of general terms that has become quite confusing, befuddling, and contentious. You really nabbed the heart of the matter here. Well done.

Love this! I've tried to emulate the voicings/styles of Doc, Clarence, and other flat-pickers and usually come to the conclusion (right or wrong) of doing "whatever it takes" to play cleanly at speeds I can handle. ...Keep up the great work Marcel, much appreciated sir!

Mind blown in the best of ways. Many of us "learning" will go back to this video. Keep it up! You're a bad Billy Goat.

Been a James Stiltner fan for a few years now, and have learned a lot from his videos. Thanks for including his insight in you discussion of this topic!

I am from the same little town as George Shuffler. I never met him until after he had retired, but heard the Shuffler family perform many times.

Great video. “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone” is my all time favorite bluegrass song.

I'm definitely interested in more history and breakdowns of famous bluegrass techniques and musicians

So cool Ralph loved Captain D's Saw him in Wal-Mart All The Time.

I'VE GOT IT! It's in the NAME, man! Real cross picking has to be a real cross! One down stroke, one horizontal stroke! Its not about the down-ups, its about the sidee to sides!

7:40-7:52 jeez man that was awesome! I thought the thing was going to spontaneously combust 😂😂

I knew this would be a great video once i saw George Shuffler's name. Keep up the good work!

My mind is blown by the D-U-U roll: Peter Buck of REM used that all the time on their early stuff.

I’ve just found this channel after downloading a Billy strings tab (that was perfectly accurate btw). And wow what a gem 💎

Thanks!

Great to see James Stiltner giving credit to the overlooked Bill Napier. He was the originator of the Stanley guitar sound, everybody from Shuffler to Blankenship followed in his footsteps. It's well worth checking out his work with Charlie Moore, particularly "Folk 'n Hill". His guitar is the only lead instrument throughout the album and it's up front and loud in the mix. Superb picking.

Excellent video, Marcel. It really does a great job in summarizing the different approaches.

Great video man. Love the in-depth look at this stuff.

Hey Marcel I really enjoy videos like this one! It would really be nice to have one like this every now and then!

Excellent video. Great information and research. I am subscribed to both you and James. Nice to see the two of you guys coming together. This was super informative and very well done. Thanks man.

I like your format for this video! Always enjoy your content.

Fantastic video. Very informative--more like this, please!

Great video essay!!! Super good stuff! Thanks!

Wisdom beyond your years Amigo, thoroughly informative and enjoyable all the way through. Thank you

Fantastic, really enjoyed the in depth analysis!

Just what I was looking for! Great content!

Thank you for this video Marcel, I think it's one of your best!

Marcel, you are phenomenal!

That was very interesting and informative. Thanks for getting to the bottom of the crosspicking controversy!

love the in-depth and unbiased explanation here - many thanks

I would wax on about the high quality, research and educational value (not to mention the inspirational value) of your tutorials, but it has all been said very well below. I'm on board.

Fantastic video and discussion. More!

Great lesson! I think it is interesting and beneficial to know the history behind these picking techniques.

Good one Marcel. I always thought it was called cross picking because it made you angry learning how to do it. So much to learn.

Great video! Just worthy of note, George Shuffler was not the father of crosspicking as he did not invent crosspicking on the guitar. As James Stiltner said, Bill Napier was cross-picking before Shuffler, Shuffler credits Bill as where he first learned it, while Shuffler was still on Bass in the Stanley Brothers

Great explanation, thank you 😊

This is a very interesting video. I agree with your final analysis.

great video Marcel!

This was awesome, thank you

Amazing video. Greetings from Italy!

great video! i learned lot, efficiently.

great stuff. As usual. Thanks.

Agree with your summary. I use all three patterns in my playing, and use them interchangeably. It depends on the emphasis and feel I want for a particular phrase, or the need to set myself up for the next phrase. As Tony Rice says, playing guitar is like playing chess, in that you have to plan moves ahead. As far as definition, I think of crosspicking as picking across the strings, rather than picking in a linear fashion. I also don't limit it to patterns of three exclusively. Patterns of two and four get thrown in for variety as well, although I do think the syncopation of the patterns of three sound the best in most cases.

Great explanation

Great video. Thanks for doing this!

So as a fiddle player too, every so often on the Guitar I find myself copycat'ing my own fiddle solo's on Guitar. Fiddle players have to bow every note, there is the shuffle pattern and also the Georgia bow pattern, and a million others for Jazz players! Yet for me it's pretty much Shuffle, and Georgia bow. Some songs on fiddle you have to end on an up bow stroke to set up the next down bow on the down beat! So the down down up down down down up down down up (Pause) next pick stroke is down. On the down beat. Maybe not a big deal when playing slow or playing fancy flatpicking licks, but if you're just trying to sound like a fiddle then it's a very big deal... I am not giving away my top secret licks on you tube, but tell you what, listen to Tater Tate's fiddlin cricket and there's a break there where he does a really similar lick to what George Shuffler does on guitar, 2 down bow strokes, pluck, 2 pluck, 2 pluck, 2 pluck- pause and it always ends up on the down bow! If you don't set up the down bow on the fiddle you're toast at high tempo stuff. So I agree with Mr James Stiltner basically, that down down up has it's special place in the music world. For special situations and special people, by that I mean people that are very, very particular about these sorts of things. I get really tired of "oh well, I can play the song good enough" types of players, yet they seem to get hired in bands all the time. Just plain old double shuffle fiddle and down up down cross pickers. The real McCoy's do a down down up every so often! People should be able to do both in my opinion. Depends on the song, and where your next down beat is happening. Once I figure a picking pattern out, that's it forever... end of story. Unless I play live and crash, then it's probably one pick stroke off somehow. Can't Explain it very well, but any fiddle player would know what I am talking about. Cross picking is imitating banjo, and fiddle, believe it. If it's new five cents Paul Warren double shuffle bowing, then I'm down up down cross picking. If it's Georgia bowing, I will try the down down up pattern. If it's too fast for guitar, I grab my fiddle! (*Easy Peasy...) No one can kick a song into high gear like the fiddle player in my opinion... Sorry Bill, he might agree though, not sure. Banjo is pretty fast, maybe faster but I've only seen the crowd jump up and dance immediately to the Fiddle! And it's usually a double shuffle pattern, or the Georgia bow (slurring three notes,then down bow, 3 up, down bow) My fiddle teacher taught me this stuff way back in 91 or so. It has to be set up right. Not so easy as it sounds. Maybe I'll submit a sound byte with no video, maybe... People are going to rip off my stuff! Not letting that happen. I just told everyone the secret though, right there. It's all there in my first 4 paragraphs. Keep on pickin' on the back porch! JM

Wow. Great vid. I’m new to bluegrass and picking in general but I’ve played rhythm guitar for years. My focus is more choir and opera. One thing I think I’ve noticed is that everything is either duple or triple. It seems like the alternating pattern is a basic duple and there are two basic triple patterns, the DUU and the DDU. The other main part is figuring out which one to use when.

great detail and history lesson!

Great video. I just do happened to master Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick before getting into bluegrass.. so I had the down down up pretty much under control, but in a 3/4 context. I'm learning both alternating and down down up. Seems like a great exercise to improve bluegrass chops either way. I also used to play African music about a decade ago... Loved the music research and ethnomusicology bent of this video. Thanks Marcel.

In the end, I have to agree with you. What you call it isn't as important as being able to do it... either way or better yet, both ways! Very informative, tho! Thanks.

Great lesson!

Good talk! Philosophically, this is gold, and applies far more broadly than bluegrass, or guitar or even music. Much like other topics, discussion of music gets hung up on descriptive versus prescriptive. Understanding transmits better when we focus on the descriptive,. And when categories are imprecise, we need to clear up the imprecision by whatever means necessary, not argue about the categories . . . . . . because once we're in the wild after Pandora's box has been opened? Yu just can't make everyone use categorical terms the exact same way. Once muddied, the muddiness will persist. Because 7 billion human, and no global vocabulary police force. So if we're trying to communicate about playing, and picking, it's "what is the pick doing?" And once we are into the prescriptive, the should, the "right" way, we're all gonna wonder "who decides?" The picker decides. The picker literally picks. It seems apt that picker also means chooser.

This video was very interesting, I really did like your answer the best, for me it is all one and the same what ever suits your fancy or blows your mind I love it all.

Awesome video man you just earned a sub and im telling my dad to follow you too. My dad was a BEAST back in the 80s and 90s with crosspicking but welding and busting knuckles so much kinda got to him, I learned how to "crosspick" too. Mine never sounded like his tho and we couldn't figure out why, I mean the main notee were still there and the melody was the same but it just sounded different, I play down up up and dad played down down up

Great video!

Marcel, thanks for your educational videos. I just watched your 10 Blue grass pickers that everyone should know. And then I watched your cross trip picking video. I played with a fella, Kasper " Stranger"Malone for 15 years, and his

I thought the same thing when Troy said that I was like ask George

Great video Marcel !! As a relative newbie I learned using alternating picking strokes. As I progress, I find myself changing that pattern up as I go. Maybe it’s my ear or efficiency kicking in. I don’t know. As long as what I’m playing and practicing sounds good is on time and makes me happy I don’t care what its called.

Tune at the end is Beggar boy by Marcel.

Thanks for all the knowledge 🙏🏻 ur a saint

Good vid mate 👍🏻

Very interesting.

Outstanding

What a cool 😎 video ….. just subbed

Clarence White called his technique "McReynolds" picking after Jessie McReynolds.

I totally agree. Just play.

Liked very much, but couldn't fully discern what your T-shirt says. So, I'll just "fill in the blanks" with a lesson related meme: You can pick your nose but you can't cross-pick your nose. Works for me. Thanks for the lesson/essay. Very in depth and informative.

Hey Marcell I'm new to your channel and I've listened to classic bluegrass like Bill Monroe, flatt and Scruggs, Tony Rice, Doc Watson, and now the Stanley brothers and such, what are some other lesser known bluegrass bands to listen to. If you don't have time I get it but really love the channel and thanks for your time.

Second comment here recent sub lol. Yes I do like these styles out videos. I'm kinda broke this week man, but when I get my taxes back I'll deffintly be looking at your store to help fund more stuff like this. Please please please do something on Roy Lee Centers man not enough light gets shown on him and not enough people know the real story. Bluegrass was bloody, and wild, worse than country or rock, just kept quiet.

Great, Marcel - well spent 20 minutes. Recently picked up James Alan Shelton's Road to Coeburn. It has title tune and Tom's Creek, and got it out of curiousity just because I spent my early years in Coeburn & Tom's Creek. James was guitarist with Ralph Stanley, and seems to be a George Shuffler disciple. Nice album, often play along with it as warmup. Tony - crosspicker? Would Church Street Blues be a form of crosspicking, or just Tony being Tony and creating techniques to express his ideas? Seems that a lot of Tony's rhythm playing, to me, is fingerstyle but with flatpick jumping strings

This is great!!!...I really enjoyed!!.. not that Jerry was ever known for cross picking..but.. WWJD😀..I think the technique is important but making it work in the art is more important..thanks again.. great video!!

I have found it useful to practice both ways. I very much prefer Shuffler style down down up, and I am fine with that when crosspicking a whole tune, but if it is just one bar of crosspicking here and there in a tune I find it very hard to switch from alternate picking to down down up and back without losing the timing and so in that situation I use alternate. I know some of the great players like Norman Blake can make the switch effortlessly but I am not among that number.

Very interesting, I’m not sure if I cross pick or not, I’m not sure any more?

How about we just call it a roll and play it however. Because bluegrass.

That guy is a blazing player

Dude can play!

Loved the discussion. Where do I get those T shirts?

JAMES ALLEN SHELTON ... Bruh these guys are my neighbors lol... or were but I should embrace my heritage and talk about bluegrass play it ... See I used to and I lost my finger so can't really play fast but I I can Play like George

Man !! do u have courses ? or u reccomend going thru tabs by levels on ur website ?

Hi I’m from South Korea I want to learn “me and my guitar “ tony rice version .

Choice tune at the end of the video. Who was it?

Oh ya and I forgot don't sweat the small stuff. Do you have any John Prine songs in your lessons..?

Jim and Jessee

I'm not the greatest flatpicker, I usually play old time banjo/guitar anyhow in a Watson-like style. For anyone that knows a little bit about the history of bluegrass, it developed from folk traditions. If anyone says that you need to pick one way or the other, just remember that any traditional song can be played multiple ways. I know four ways to sing the chorus of Shady Grove, can play it on two instruments, in three different tunings, and I've played it both major and minor. I love the professionalism of bluegrass and the higher standards, but I don't like the knit-picking and the generic sound of it. If you can do a three string roll and keep it clean, the direction of the pick is as important as the color of it. But that's just my own opinion, I'm hardly a bluegrasser so I can't weigh in with the same experience.

Yo Marcel! Go talk to Tristan Scroggins about this. He's been putting a ton of stuff out there with cross picked arrangements of tunes.

Excellent, Marcel. I think the core concept is the syncopation. Earl and the rest of his followers would be lost, as would George, Jesse and Flatt runs, much of bluegrass, without it. So maybe judge the non syncopated, cream-of-wheat "crosspicking" by that?

So, you're saying that a guitar usually has 6 strings?

Check out Larry Sparks

Shout out to Shuffler's neighbour