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Magazine Volume 14, Number 4 May/June 2010
Scott Fore Jack Covell Aaron McCloskey
Scott Fore Scott Fore likes to play the “What if” game. When he learns a new tune he is not content to simply learn the melody and a few variations. He’ll learn the melody and then continuously challenge himself to find new ways to approach and express that melody. He’ll think, “What if I play this tune with a Latin rhythm?,” “What if I threw in some bebop scales?,” “What if I re-harmonize?,” “What if I threw in a bunch of double stops, or crosspicking, or harmonics?,” etc. His seemingly endless stream of “What if” ideas has led to some very creative approaches to flatpicking fiddle tunes, and has served him well in the studio, during performances, and on the contest circuit. Radford, Virginia, native Scott Fore came to prominence in the flatpicking world during the early-to-mid part of the past decade due to a string of prominent contest wins, including the National Flatpicking Championship in 2002. Although he is known nationally as a talented contest player, Scott’s guitar playing skills encompass a much wider and deeper scope. In addition 6
to performing solo on the national folk festival circuit and in local venues in the southwestern part of Virginia, Scott has also recently recorded with a bluegrass band from South Carolina and performs regularly with a Contra dance band and a Gypsy jazz band. His musical tastes and abilities on the guitar are not limited to contest style flatpicking tunes, or bluegrass. Additionally, Scott is a talented guitar teacher and soundman. We first featured Scott in the January/ February 2002 issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. At that time he was busy on the contest circuit (he won the National Championship later that year) and he was finishing up a flatpicking book that presented a number of his contest winning arrangements for fiddle tunes. That book, titled Flatpicking Solos, is published by Cherry Lane Music and distributed by Hal Leonard Publications. Since we have already presented Scott’s background in the previous article, this article will focus on by Dan Miller
Scott’s ideas about learning, studying, and teaching the flatpicking style of guitar. After talking with Scott for several hours one day at the Flatpicking Guitar Magazine office in Pulaski, Virginia, I felt like his ideas about learning how to flatpick would be of great value to our readers. Years ago I attended a workshop that was given by one of flatpicking guitar’s “founding fathers,” Dan Crary. Part of Dan’s presentation that day addressed individuals who are perceived as being “gifted,” or having “natural talent.” Dan’s observation was that if you analyze the way all of these individuals approach their instrument you will find that they all have certain common traits. A few of those traits include determination, focus, and a willingness to constantly challenge themselves to learn new material and push beyond their current capabilities. Another common trait is their willingness to explore and create beyond what they have heard, been shown, or read. These individuals are always taking the initiative to discover
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May/June 2010
new ways to build upon what they’ve been shown and constantly push forward in an effort to create something new. During my interview with Scott Fore, I discovered that Scott’s relationship with the guitar has been very much in line with the traits that Dan Crary observed in all “gifted” individuals. As Scott was teaching himself how to play his instrument, he didn’t only listen to Doc Watson and Tony Rice, he also listened to rock and roll players, folk music performers, jazz players, and blues players. And he didn’t only listen to the guitar. He listened to, and was influenced by, every instrument in the band. He also didn’t just listen to guitar-oriented music. Scott said, “I try to listen to the sounds of the World with big ears.” While the music on his iPod does include music that has been born and bred in the United States, it also includes music from all cultures and traditions spanning the globe—from Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia. While Scott’s exploration of music in general has opened him up to rhythms, melodies, dynamics, and phrasing that takes his ear far away from what can be found in your standard fiddle tune or bluegrass song, his ability and willingness to absorb what he hears and then make it his own is what has allowed him to create music that is unique. If Scott hears a lick or phrase that was played by anyone from Doc Watson to John Coltrane to Stephane Grappelli, he will first learn and absorb that lick or phrase. The next thing he will do is begin to explore that lick or phrase by playing the “What if” game. He will say, “What if I played that lick in another position on the neck?” or “What if I played that lick in a different key?” or “What if I combined that lick with this other lick I already know?” or “What if I played the same notes, but changed the timing?” or “What if I emphasize the notes differently?” It is Scott’s natural curiosity and willingness to explore and ask those “What if” questions that has made him the guitar player that he is today. The difference between musicians who “have talent” and improve rapidly and those who struggle to make progress lies in their ability to look beyond the surface of any given lick, phrase, or song. Those who stay on the surface are content with simply learning and memorizing an arrangement of the song so that they can eventually play that arrangement up-to-speed at a jam session. Once they are able to do that, they then move on to learn a new song in the same manner. Those “gifted” players
are not content to just learn to play that technique by trying to get the same tone and one arrangement of the song. They have a volume out of an upstroke that they get out natural curiosity and desire to dig deeper. It of a down stroke. I’ll have them work on is when they start to dig deeper that the real pushing the pick through the strings—like learning begins. pulling a bow—instead of slapping at the Looking beyond the surface of a song string. And I’ll have them do all of this involves diving in and exploring every with a metronome. Once they have created aspect of that song. You analyze the chord an improvised song using only one note, progression and melody. You ask, “What then I’ll have them do the same thing with are the most important melody notes?” two notes, then three notes. As the number “Which melody notes are chord tones, and of notes increases, they will continue to which are passing tones?” You strip the focus on the same aspects—varying the song down to its bare essentials and then same musical components as they did you build it back up. You explore playing with the one note song—but they will also the melody all over the neck, you change add in elements like left and right hand the phrasing and dynamics, you change the coordination.” note articulation and timing, you modify In teaching his students how to explore the rhythms, you work to come up with an just one note on their instrument, Scott is arrangement that flows seamlessly from exposing them to many elements of music one phrase to another, and all the while that are typically overlooked. Most students you are working on efficient right and left are only concerned with finding the notes hand technique to insure that you have good so that they can play the song, scale, lick, timing, good tone, clean notes, and a fluid phrase, or arpeggio. If they can play all expression of the tune. And then you work of the notes to a song or exercise in the on variation after variation with all of these right sequence, with the right timing, at the important factors in mind. right tempo, they feel as though they have Scott Fore’s approach to learning and “learned” that song or exercise. Once they teaching does not involve memorizing an feel as if they have “learned” it (have it arrangement of a tune and then moving memorize in their head), they feel like they on to learn another tune. Memorizing how to play the melody of a tune is just the first baby step in the process of really learning a tune. In fact, when Scott Fore teaches new students he backs way up from the process of learning any tune. One of the first exercises that Scott will give a student is to request that they play a “song” using only one note and learning how that note interacts with all of the chords in the progression. Scott said, “A note by itself is just a note. It’s when the note interacts with other notes or chords that it becomes something more. I want students to know how every note sounds and relates to every other note or chord.” I’ll have students close their eyes and just play one note over and over. I have them vary their timing, their phrasing, their right hand attack, their dynamics, their Scott Fore competing at the rhythm, and their tone. I’ll National Flatpicking Championship also have them focus on
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are ready to move on and “learn” the next song. What they end up with after practicing this way for a couple of years is memorized arrangements to 20 or 30 songs. But have they really learned any of these songs, or the style, or the music? Scott said “I want students to learn music and to find their own voice on the guitar. The difference between a beginning player and a more advanced player does not have anything to do with how many songs they know or even how many arrangements of those songs they can play. The difference is in the things that are more subtle like tone, timing, dynamics, fluidity, phrasing, and overall expression.” By starting his students out by exploring just one note, Scott has them focus on those elements that are lost when the only thing the student is focused on is memorizing a new song arrangement. When Scott does teach a new song to a student, he guides them through a step-bystep methodical approach. He said, ‘The first thing I do is have students learn the basic melody of the song. In my mind, the melody is King. So I have them learn the melody. It is not my arrangement, or Doc Watson’s, or Steve Kaufman’s, it is just the basic melody.” Once students learn the melody in the open position, the next step is to learn the exact same melody, with the 8
exact same pitches, in a position up-the-neck. Scott said, “If the first note of the melody in the open position was an open G note, I’ll have them start on the G note at the fifth fret of the D string, or the G note at the tenth fret of the A string, so they are working with the exact same pitches, but learning how to move those pitches to a different place on the neck. “ The next step is to learn the tune in different octaves. If the original version started on the open G string, the student will now explore that melody starting on the G note on the low E string, or the G note at the eighth fret of the B string. They are still playing the same sequence of notes, just at a different octave.” In addition to learning the basic melody at various positions on the neck, Scott will encourage the student to also find the chord shapes and scales in those positions as well. If the song is in the key of G, he will ask that the student learn the G scale that relates to the positions on the neck where they are trying to find the melody. He also asks that they learn the chord shapes of the chord progression to that song in those positions as well. Knowing the scale and the chord shapes not only helps the student learn the neck, it also provides a road map to help them find the melody notes, since most all of the melody notes will come from scale tones and, most prominently, chord tones from the scale. Scott said “One of the most important things for the student to know is the names of the notes on the fingerboard. Once this is learned everything else is easy.” Once the student has learned the basic melody of a song at several positions on the neck—and the corresponding scales and chord shapes—Scott will then teach the student how to combine those positions to create an expression of the melody that moves around to several positions on the neck. He will also show them how they can employ open notes to either help change positions, or add texture to the melody in the form of “floating” phrases. Scott now may also ask that the student start the whole process over again, using the same melody, but this time do it in a different key. After working with the same note sequence over and over again and finding it
at various locations all over the fingerboard, and in different keys, the student now has the basic melody of this new song firmly ingrained in their mind. So now the student is ready to add some fancy licks to that bare bones melody, right? No. Now is the time to go back to the process that began with the one-note exercises. Now is the time to explore that basic melody by working on tone, dynamics, note articulation, timing, and technique. Scott has the student play the melody at a slow tempo while focusing on producing good tone and clean notes and making the melody “sing,” then gradually increase the tempo while working to stay relaxed. By this time the notes themselves are second nature, the fingers can find the notes without the brain having to think about where they are, so now the brain can start to pay attention to the more subtle aspects of expressing those notes. Scott said, “I want them to use this time to examine every aspect of their playing.” After the student has spent some time exploring the more subtle aspects of the melody Scott will begin to teach them how they can add texture and interest to the melody. First he shows them how to embellish with scale tones, chord tones, and neighboring notes. He also shows them how to employ techniques like slides, hammers, pull-offs, bending, pre-bending, double stops, harmonics, and crosspicking. In presenting different ways to add interest to the melody, Scott also introduces the concept of tension and release. Additionally, he will teach how to vary the rhythm and phrasing by using syncopation or by moving a melody note forward or backward in time. He also demonstrates how to change the chord quality by adding suspended chords or 9th chords to the crosspicking rolls. In this step of the learning process the student is exploring numerous possible ways to vary the melody, but still keep the song recognizable. After the student has worked with all of these steps, Scott then encourages the student to start playing the “What if ?” game. What if I tried to play the whole break using crosspicking, or double stops, or harmonics? What if I started the solo in an odd position? What if I tried to play the solo on one string, or in one position? What if I played the solo around a pedal tone? What if I started on a “wrong” note, how would I recover and keep it musical? What if I played an old time fiddle tune with a Latin or African rhythm? What if I played all quarter notes? What if I modified the chord
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progression and added chord alterations and extensions? Scott encourages students to explore every song as thoroughly as possible. He also requests that they listen to a lot of music to help come up with new ideas. He said, “Your phrasing tends to be a derivative of what you are listening to at the time. If students will listen to music outside of fiddle tunes and bluegrass and then bring that phrasing to a fiddle tune solo, they will likely discover some interesting variations. I try to take anything that catches my ear and bring it into what I do.” Scott steers his students away from directly copying licks and phrases. He said, “If someone comes in after having learned a Doc Watson lick, I think that is great. But then I ask them to see if they can change that lick in some way so they make it their own. I feel like the goal should be to find your own voice on the instrument, not copy others.” The next step in the learning process is to practice improvisation. Scott’s approach is to first teach his students that there are no “wrong” notes, just varying degrees of tension. He has student conduct an exercise whereby they play all of the notes in the chromatic scale against a rhythm track of one chord. He said, “I want them to get used to the sound of all the notes played against that chord, not just the ‘good’ ones. Eventually I want them to learn how to relate the song’s melody to scale tones and chord tones, and be able to find their chord centers, and know how to play all of those ‘good’ notes. But if I can teach them that it is OK to hit those ‘wrong’ notes and make them work, then maybe they will not be so anxious about making a mistake.” Scott added, “The hardest part of learning how to improvise is getting over the fear of playing wrong notes. If they practice playing both wrong notes and right notes against a chord, then they will play every note with confidence because when they hear that bad note, they will know how to resolve that tension with a good note. If you put intent behind every note, even the bad ones will sound OK. It will sound like you meant to play that note. I like them to know that when they hit that wrong note, there is no need to panic, they just need to move up or down a half step and resolve it.” Currently Scott is working on a new book that he calls “The Guitarist’s Toolbox.” He said that he plans to present the book in three parts. The first part will focus on ways to analyze and improve physical right and left hand technique. Scott has a very interesting
and efficient right hand method that allows the player to execute quick and strong up and down pick strokes while remaining relaxed and comfortable. Describing this technique in words would be confusing; however, Scott teaches his right hand approach on an instructional video that can be found on line at: www.virtualwoodshed. com. Scott has a number of instructional videos on the site. The one you want to look for is called “Bluegrass Guitar Lesson with Scott Fore.” Seeing Scott talk about and execute the technique at the same time is much clearer than trying to describe it in words or photos in this article. Do yourself a favor and check it out. After addressing right and left hand technique in the first section of the book, Scott plans to present his ideas regarding musical techniques on the guitar, to include hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends, harmonics, double stops, crosspicking, floating licks, etc. He will not only present the techniques, but also show how to use these techniques most effectively in arranging guitar solos. Part three of the book Scott calls “The Theoretical Game.” In this section he will lead the reader through a series of “What if?” scenarios so that the reader can become familiar with playing the “What if” game. Scott said, “I want to provide the reader with different perspectives and a variety of options. A lot of times coming up with something new simply involves a change of perspective. A fly buzzing around a window can’t see that there is an open door a few feet away
Flatpicking Guitar Magazine May/June 2010
unless it backs up away from the window and changes its perspective. I want to provide the reader with ways to back up and question what they are doing so that they can gain new perspectives. Ultimately, I hope the book will be something that will help any guitar player take their playing to the next level.” Given Scott’s success on the contest circuit, I asked him about his approach to arranging tunes for a contest. The first thing that he pointed out was that, to him, a good arrangement is a good arrangement, whether it be for a contest, a live performance, or a recording session. He said that when preparing for a contest he would typically come up with about 20 different arrangements of each tune. He would then record these arrangements and listen to them in order to decide which arrangement had the best feel, the best flow, the best phrasing, the best employment of dynamics, and the best representation of the melody and harmony. Scott said, “To me, melody is King, so in any arrangement I want to first plant that melody in the listener’s ear. Even if I deviate from the melody, I don’t want to just play flashy licks over the changes. I want the melody to remain prominent. You also want to arrange your solo so that the judges can hear the harmony. That way the solo can stand on its own without the backup. At some contests the judges can’t hear the back up player, so you have to arrange your solo so that the chord changes are identifiable in the solo. Dynamics and
Scott Fore working with student Cheryl Lunsford 9
accents are very important as well. If you play a string of eighth notes it can sound dull or it can sound interesting depending on how you accent the notes. It is not just the notes you play in your arrangement that are important; it is way that you play them that makes the difference. For me it is all about exploring and listening back to hear what sounds best.” Recently Scott has not been playing in many contests. Some of the contests that he has won in the past don’t allow winners to come back and others, like the National Championship, will have winners sit out for a number of years. In the mean time Scott has enjoyed performing as a solo act on the folk circuit where he presents a show that combines singing, flatpicking, fingerpicking, and banjo playing. He compares the variety of content to a typical Doc Watson or Norman Blake show. Scott is also busy performing with a Contra dance band, Toss the Possum, and his Gypsy jazz band, The Hillbilly Hot Club. He also recently recorded on a bluegrass project with banjo player Rudolph Rustin and may do some touring with that band in the near future. Scott has also been awarded the
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title “Master Folk Artist” by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and was featured in their book In Good Keeping, which tells the story of the first five years of the Virginia Master Folk Artists and their Apprenticeship program. Over the years Scott has formed a friendship with David Doucet, the guitar player from the famous Cajun band BeauSoleil. The two have recently recorded a guitar duet album together that has gotten interest from several labels. On this recording David and Scott sat down in front of a couple of microphones and just jammed. The recording’s content includes vocal tunes and instrumental numbers from both the Cajun and Appalachian traditions. We featured Scott and David playing “Black Mountain Rag” on a recent podcast broadcast (FGM podcast #26). If you would like to hear that tune, visit our podcast page: http://flatpick.libsyn.com/ For those of you who are interested in guitars and gear, Scott plays a Bourgeouis Country Boy Deluxe as his main guitar for bluegrass and folk gigs. In the Gypsy jazz band he plays a Dell’ Arte Jimmy Rosenberg model. For sound reinforcement Scott uses
a DPA 4099 microphone. This is a “mini shotgun” mic that sits on a gooseneck. He blends the microphone with both a Schertler Bluestick (under the saddle) and Schertler DYN (glued to the bridgeplate). He plugs in to either a Schertler or Ultrasound amp. In addition to all of that gear, Scott uses Wegen or John Pearse picks, Elixir strings, and Shubb or Elliott capos and uses and favors Pegasus cases. For this issue’s audio CD and transcription Scott has provided two traditional tunes. The first is “Wildwood Flower” and the second is “East Tennessee Blues.” Both of these are traditional tunes with a few “What if” twists. In “East Tennessee Blues” you’ll find some blues, some Western swing, and a little bit of bebop influence. “Wildwood Flower” starts off with a standard treatment, but then moves into the realm of jazz with some chord substitutions behind the melody. If you have enjoyed reading Scott’s ideas relating to the study of the flatpick style of guitar, he is available for private or group lessons, workshops and performances. You can contact him via email at:
[email protected].
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