Topic: Mance Lipscomb's Guitar Style--Queries and Tips

[banjochris]

Lucy -- Grossman's definitely playing the same song but the feel and some of the notes are very different, particularly that hammer-on-pull-off deal he does. Also he doesn't play the last line with the same melody. That said, if you watch that lesson and listen to Mance's version, you won't have any trouble figuring it out. The really hard part of that song (for me) is singing it -- I can't get down to that low E, so I have to capo up.
Chris

[Monkeyhanger]

Hi all, long time lurker infrequent poster here.
Just like to add a big thanks to Blue in VT for igniting my passion for this great Bluesman. Cannot get enough now and all these links will have me not seeing the light of day for quite sometime.
Checkout  a cpl of my attempts at Mance tunes here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrBlindBart

Trying to work up a breakdown on 'Ain't you Sorry' at present but its tough going, anyone else have this tune in the bag(soundfile)?

Cheers
Ian

[uncle bud]

Hi Ian - nice picking on Ain't You Sorry. Tricky little tune. That Texas Blues is a great song as well. Somehow it reminds me of Little Hat Jones, can't place why. Hurry Blues? Something about that IV chord move I think. And welcome to WeenieCampbell.

[Blue in VT]

 

Cheers Ian...great to see you here!

Blue

[Slack]

Nice job Ian - and welcome to WC - glad you came out of lurk mode!

[Monkeyhanger]

Thanks for the welcome, it really is a great site you have here and such a wealth of knowledge.  Look forward to making a contribution

Ian

[Parlor Picker]

Very nice, Ian. Welcome to the forum.

[cc132]

Hey folks,

Mance is one of my absolute favorites.  Fortunately for me, his left hand, while fantastic, is rarely doing anything that I'd need to take advanced music theory courses for.  His left hand, on the other hand (the most appropriate use of this cliche ever?), is much more difficult to approach.  

A few questions:

• Does anyone know if he ever used fingerpicks?  I know from watching videos that he used a thumbpick, but I've yet to spot a fingerpick.  I've worked out "A Rag" (track 12 on the "Songster" album), and while the thumb is pretty straightforward, I am incapable of getting everything else to sound even close without a fingerpick -- but I don't hear any metallic "pick noise" in the recording.  Am I just missing that, or was his index finger stronger than a team of oxes?  
  
• Another thing that I should be able to see, but can't, is how many fingers he's using.  Everything of his that I've worked out has been with just my index, but if he's using three fingers, that might explain some of the fullness I'm missing.  

This video shows two-fingers with no fingerpick, but I'm having a fit of cognitive dissonance believing that a bare finger could produce some of the recordings that he did.  Maybe that's why he's Mance Lipscomb and I'm just some guy on the internet talking about him.

(Also, the heck is that bandage on his hand in that video?  I've seen it in several of his.  Any idea what happened?)

[TX_Songster]

CC-
I'm no expert on the Great Mance Lipscomb, but I have some thoughts on your questions.  First, I'm almost positvie Mance only picked with his thumb and index finger.  I know it seems impossible to think that he can fill out his songs by picking with just one finger, but that puts him in the ranks of Rev Gary Davis and the other great one-finger pickers. 

Second, I don't think used fingers picks, and yes, I'm sure his fingers were as tough as a team of oxen.  Mance was a farmer, and like the other kids in that region he started picking cotton shortly after learning to walk.  Also, as a kid he started accompanying his father who played fiddle at community dances.  He would have been unamplified so he had to dig in to be heard over the fiddle and crowd noise.  Regarding the bandage, I think those videos are all from the same recording session.  I think it may be explained by the fact that he was a farmer, and cuts are just a hazzard of the vocation.

Have fun with playing Mance tunes!  I only know a couple, but he's also one of my favorites.

[banjochris]

Definitely a bare first finger. Speaking personally, it helps to have just a little bit of nail as well, but I wouldn't say you're picking with the nail exactly.

I would add though that Mance very occasionally used his middle finger. I've only seen him do it in the key of C, playing a little roll from the E-flat at the 4th fret of the second string to the open 1st string. You can see him do it in the concert on color videotape that's available from Stefan Grossman. But 99% of the time, just the thumb and index.

Chris

[LB]

Yeah me too, all I've ever seen was a honking thumbpick and first two bare fingers. Same as Lightnin' Hopkins who was in some ways cast from that mold. I know a couple guys like this, one works on a road crew, the other is an auto detailer. They both have fingers and thumbs like a rock. In fact my one buddy makes a special effort when cutting and piling firewood to toughen his hands by the way he holds and throws the wood. They also use both the up and down brush with the bare thumb. They are real bluesmen though, been playing all their life. I play like that too when not using fingerpicks and your tone does comes with time on the bare fingers. I've been playing a lot with fingerpicks the past couple years and lost a tiny bit of the tone from my bare fingers but it still comes back very quickly with practice. I can get fat tone with bare fingers but the the sharper attack of the fingerpick still can't be matched for it's own benefits.

[crookedtune]

I'm sure his fingers were as tough as a team of oxen. 

Verified.  My tender, sweaty nineteen-year-old hand shook his back around 1972.  It felt like sandpaper to me.  Mine probably felt like a used dish rag to him. 

My impression has always been that Mance used a plastic thumb pick, no fingerpick, and played almost strictly with thumb and forefinger.  Also on the bill that day was Joseph Spence.  Unforgettable!

[playdabooz]

Hey Ya'll This is my first post/reply here on this great new find of a website. I used to live in Navasota- Mance's hometown (even in an old "shotgun house" built in 1895). I have been to nearly all the Navasota blues festivals since its inception, met Glen Alyn a guitarist and author of the book on Mance "I Say for Me a Parable" as well as met/taken lessons from Michael Birnbaum and Bernie Pearl. All 3 are direct links to and proteges of Mance. I can tell you without a doubt that he did not use anything other than a thumb pick. He mostly used 1 finger and sometimes 2 for picking. Yes he had rough hands from years of hard work and guitar playing. If you notice he tends to kind of drag his fingertip over the strings. This will produce a callous and give more tone to the notes. Hope this helps.

[Jim67]

Stefan Grossman mentions that Mance had a farming accident prior to filming this session, thus explaining the bandage. Grossman, too, says Lipscomb was a thumb and forefinger picker.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Here is the merged thread on Mance Lipscomb's guitar style.
All best,
Johnm