Talk:Elizabeth Cotten
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[edit] =Picking style
Cotten's picking style exemplifies the movement of black musicians from banjo to guitar. It is very similar to frailing. It sounds like how those musicians very well may have strummed/picked their instruments.
[edit] =Possible redirect
It is my opinion that there ought to be a rediretct here to the article "Elizabeth Cotten" from her nickname, of "Libba" Cotten
--done. --Batula 21:22, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
--I agree. These two pages need to be merged (not that I know how that is done)
[edit] ???
I don't understand what's meant by Mrs. Cotten having "no knowledge of tuning in the traditional sense". --RobHutten 03:25, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
re: ??? I think it's referring to the standard tunings of a guitar, eg. EADGBe or standard, commonly used "open tunings." Most often than not, autodidactic folk musicians, when picking up a stringed instrument will tune the strings by ear to notes that sound nice to them, not to some set, established, traditional tuning. --Batula 21:20, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Merge
There's an article with the spelling of her last name "Cotton" where it should correctly read as in this article "Cotten" I have suggested they be merged so the proper spelling is maintained. --Batula 21:22, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
- Go ahead. It's obviously the same person. Bruxism 04:20, 22 September 2006 (UTC)
I knew Elizabeth Cotten from 1968 until her death, and was her manager and agent from 1975 on. Her name was often mispelled "Cotton", sometimes even by me, if I didn't catch myself. Merging these two articles is the correct thing to do.
Regarding Ms. Cotten's use of open tunings, non-standard tunings were a standard practice for guitar and fiddle players, and the banjo has a large number of tunings. Some of these stem from the model scales which preceeded the standard 12 tone scale in Western music. The use of modal scales is found world wide. The most commond tunings were an open G (or A) chord and an open D (or E) chord. These two open tunings were widely used by blues players and songsters throughout the South. In her concert appearances, Ms. Cotten usually played Vastapol in an open D tuning and Spanish Flangdang in open G.
John Ullman JohnU@tradarts.com
