What is Molly Tuttle doing here?

[DesertTwang]

I'm trying to learn "Salt Spring" after hearing for the first time at RockyGrass two weeks ago. I really like the version Molly plays in this video because it fills out the tune with just one guitar, but I have a hard time discerning how exactly she achieves that.

Picking the melody on the upper register strings is easy enough, but she throws in some picking on the lower strings while she plays the melody on top. It's a bit too fast for me to figure it out exactly, though. Is she cross-picking?

I'm looking only at the first 10 seconds of the video for now.

Perhaps someone more experienced can help me get started?

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHjwshkeEU4

[Mr. Jelly]

I'm not sure what exact point you are referring to. She is playing out of chords at times and I'm sure you've noticed that. My guess is that she is hitting the open G and D strings for a little more lower end. These strings are part of the G chord.

[DesertTwang]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

I'm not sure what exact point you are referring to. She is playing out of chords at times and I'm sure you've noticed that. My guess is that she is hitting the open G and D strings for a little more lower end. These strings are part of the G chord.

Right, exactly! But she is hitting those strings while doing the slides and hammer-ons on the upper melody strings. Take a look at the few seconds right in the beginning, between 00:02 and 00:06. That's what's baffling to me. Perhaps this is still over my head, technique-wise?

[JonPR]

You can see more clearly if you slow the video down to 0.5.
She's alternate picking all the way, and moving the pick around between the top 4 strings, depending on whether she's playing the melody line, or filling in with an open string (D or top E mostly). I think it's all one string at a time, although she seems to catch (strum) both B and E strings together with some downstrokes.
Obviously if the fret hand is sliding to a note or hammering on, the pick can move to another string while it's doing that.

It's not too hard once you're really confident with playing the tune alone. Then - because the pick is constantly moving up and down - you just fill in between the longer melody notes with neighbouring open strings. The tricky part would be to make sure the pick doesn't move too far away from the next string you need to pick for the melody. So, the melody (in those first few seconds) is almost all on the G and B strings, and she moves beyond those to the D and E strings.

[scotly50]

Brush up on your cross picking skills brother. Good luck with her arrangement. She is very good after all.

[DesertTwang]

Originally Posted by JonPR

You can see more clearly if you slow the video down to 0.5.
She's alternate picking all the way, and moving the pick around between the top 4 strings, depending on whether she's playing the melody line, or filling in with an open string (D or top E mostly). I think it's all one string at a time, although she seems to catch (strum) both B and E strings together with some downstrokes.
Obviously if the fret hand is sliding to a note or hammering on, the pick can move to another string while it's doing that.

It's not too hard once you're really confident with playing the tune alone. Then - because the pick is constantly moving up and down - you just fill in between the longer melody notes with neighbouring open strings. The tricky part would be to make sure the pick doesn't move too far away from the next string you need to pick for the melody. So, the melody (in those first few seconds) is almost all on the G and B strings, and she moves beyond those to the D and E strings.

Thank you so much for suggesting to slow down the video. I was going to ask about how to accomplish that, but a quick Google search revealed how easy it is to adjust the settings accordingly.

Learned something new!

[Rudy4]

I posted Salt Spring as "Tune Of The Week" at Banjo Hangout a while back. The original version as well as my "teaching version" is presented as well as others who have learned it.

https://www.banjohangout.org/topic/352954

[FwL]

Here's a quick and dirty breakdown of what she's playing:

e|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|------------------0-----------3-----------3---(3)-----------3-h-5---3--(3)-|
G|----------0---2-------2-/-4-----------0-----------------0------------------|
D|--0---2---------------------------0-----------------0----------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|


e|------------------5---3-----------------------------------------0----------|
B|----------3-h-5-----------3-----------------------------------------3------|
G|------0---------------------------0-------2-------2-/-4---(4)-----------4--|
D|--0---------------------------0-------0-------0----------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|


e|-------------------0---0-----------0---0---0-----------0---0---------------|
B|-----------1-------1---1-----------1---1---1-------1---1---1---------------|
G|-/-2-------0-h-2-----------0-h-2-----------2-h-4---2-----------------------|
D|-------0-------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

     triplet
e|--------------0------------------------------------------------------------|
B|--1-------1---------------1------------------------------------------------|
G|--2-h-4-----------4-p-2-------0--------------------------------------------|
D|----------------------------------2-p-0---2--------------------------------|
A|----------------------------------------------3----------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Notes in parentheses (3) are held, so skip the pick stroke. Skip the pick stroke on notes that are slid into as well. Keep your picking hand moving up and down with the beat.

.

[robj144]

You can slow down Youtube videos to 1/4 time. That will help.

[DesertTwang]

Wow, you guys are awesome. So helpful, each and every comment you made.