Carter Picking the Uke

Hello All, New to the Tenor uke from a clawhammer banjo/acoustic folk guitar background. Have found information on Travis Fingerpicking patterns and uke clawhammer but nothing on Carter Picking. Maybe using a pick and low G would be useful in formulating a Carter style?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Stu

As I see it, "Carter picking" is rather like clawhammer style, but with a bass note under the thumb (that varies with chord shape) rather than a treble note, that can remain the same. So, a low G would be more or less mandatory on a ukulele, a pick maybe not. However, the Carter style on a guitar is a very "full" sound, having several treble strings to brush plus two or three bass note to choose from. That variety simply isn't available on a four-string instrument, so the resultant sound may prove a little "thin" or monotonous/unvarying ... call it what you will.

To me, the Carter-style is effectively an alternative to more conventional strumming on a guitar, whereas clawhammer, both on a ukulele and a banjo, has more of a melodic content, with a backing drone. I'm not sure that a Carter-style brush-thumb will work well on a ukulele ... a brief try on my low-G strung soprano was "uninspiring", but could possibly improve with time and/or appropriate choice of tune.

You've nothing much to lose (except perhaps the cost of a low-G string) ... and you'll probably not be satisfied until you try it anyway

Just remember, if you're fitting a low-G string on an instrument that's been set up for a hi-G you'll probably have to widen the groove in the nut. Also, if you've got a compensated bridge, it won't be best suited for a low-G and may need changing for best results.

Good luck

Most concert or tenor ukes will work fine with a low G string. If you use a fluorocarbon low G rather than a wound string you should not have any problem with needing to file the nut. Carter picking is very bass string reliant so I don't know that it's that enticing on a uke, but you can certainly try a variant of it.

My understanding of Carter Picking for the uke comes from a workshop with Aaron Keim. The style he taught involved picking melody with the thumb and brushing chords with the index finger. It works with high or low G, depending on the arrangement.

Aaron has a Carter Picking work sheet on His website. I think it's under His favorite strums page.

Carter Picking is a style where you play the melody in the bass with your thumb (usually the E, A and D strings of the guitar) and brush the treble strings with your fingers to fill out the chord and establish rhythm. Some players do it with a flat pick, but usually the style is played fingerstyle, with or without a thumb pick. Youtube 'Mike Seeger Carter Style' for an awesome demo from a true master.

Travis style is also fingerstyle, but completely different. The melody is played in the treble with the fingers, and the thumb plays a (usually) octave alternating bass, which is damped with the heel of the hand for a boom-chuck rhythm. Youtube Merle Travis to see travis style. Or just 'thumb style guitar.'

Both are great guitar styles but tough to adapt to the uke due to the lack of bass strings. Even with the low G, you need lower notes, to get the melody notes for Carter style, and to get the octave for the alternating bass for Travis. Otherwise your bass notes are overlapping your treble. I think of those styles as basically needing six strings.

But if anyone can adapt those styles to the uke, it would be Aaron Keim. It would be an adaptation, maybe giving something of the feel of Travis or Carter. To me, both styles need a deep, loud bass, which the uke hasn't got, even with the low G.

Oh, and I don't see a clear connection between either of those styles and clawhammer, which is a banjo style developed to accompany a fiddler (bum-ditty) while Carter and Travis are guitar styles (boom-chick) -- 3 vs 2. Travis is really derived from ragtime piano. They are all mountain styles, however...

Good timing folks- I am working on a detailed carter picking workshop, lesson and video right now. It is for publication in a magazine this fall and will also go on our website. Stay tuned: www.quietamericanmusic.com.

Oh, and I don't see a clear connection between either of those styles and clawhammer, which is a banjo style developed to accompany a fiddler (bum-ditty)

Click to expand...

I'm guessing this was commenting on my earlier post

I agree, the net result is different, but, to my mind, the mechanics of the picking style are similar. I use both, on banjo and guitar, (even though I didn't know it was called "Carter Style" until recently). In it's place, the treble drone of the banjo clawhammer is perfect. When appropriate, the bass progression or melody of Carter Style is great, but, to me, it's all in the fretting hand, I feel the picking pattern of the right hand can be similar ... but that's probably just me

I find the same rhythm (bum-diddy with variations) in clawhammer and Carter style, they are just achieved in different ways.
The bum is the back of the nail in clawhammer and the thumb in the Carter scratch.
The did- is the back of the nail(s) in both techniques.
The -dy is the thumb on the 4th string (or inside string when you drop the thumb) in clawhammer and the finger (or nail) returning up on the treble strings in the Carter scratch.
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Some players use a bump-a-diddy in both techniques. The -a- is obtained by a hammer or pull off in either technique or a dropped or 4th string thumb in clawhammer or a index pluck in Carter style. Bob Baxter played the Carter scratch using the bump-a-diddy.

The Carter Scratch, is certainly not impossible on the ukulele, high or low G, and I can't wait to see Aaron's arrangements.

Here's a simple tab, Carter style, of the first tune many Carter style players learn, Wildwood Flower.

Aaron, thank you very much for the instruction. So sweet and good! I am experimenting using a low G uke for now until I purchase another so I have both options. Delicious!

Carte picking

studemobile said:

Hello All, New to the Tenor uke from a clawhammer banjo/acoustic folk guitar background. Have found information on Travis Fingerpicking patterns and uke clawhammer but nothing on Carter Picking. Maybe using a pick and low G would be useful in formulating a Carter style?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Stu

Click to expand...

I guess you may have found out about this by now, but just in case you are still looking, try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io65SSmIvME#t=127...
All the best, Knotty