Talk:Elizabeth Cotten

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Contents 1 Ms Cotten's Tunings and Being "Self Taught" 2 =Picking style 3 =Possible redirect 3.1 ??? 3.2 Merge 4 Uncited 5 Citation 2

[edit] Ms Cotten's Tunings and Being "Self Taught"

Elizabeth Cotten said she taught herself banjo and guitar, but it is clear she didn't do that in a vacuum. Her brother, her immediate community, including her church, and popular music of the time, such as brass bands and early records would would have influenced her music. In those days music was spread by itinerant musicians who Elizabeth likely heard.

For example, she is on record, literally, saying the banjo was her first instrument. (Track 5, about 14 seconds in, Elizabeth Cotten Live, Arhoolie 447) She "borrowed" her brother's banjo, which certainly was tuned in some commonly used tuning. On the same album, (track 9, about 3:20 in) she talks about a tune being played by a man walking down the street and reworking it into "Honey Babe, Your Papa Cares for You.) In the liner notes, for her first album, I believe, she talks about being inspired to write "Graduation March" after hearing a brass band at a University of North Carolina commencement. Her ragtime pieces, like Wilson Rag, cut 1 of her first album, clearly show the influence of the popular ragtime music of her childhood.

Most of her tunes are in "standard" EADGBE tuning which she certainly learned from others. The two open tunings she uses on her four recordings are the common open tunings used by other Southern guitar players in the early 20th century, open D and open G. These are sometimes called open E and A if the instrument is tuned to concert pitch rather than a step flat, a common practice which was kinder to the instruments and easier to play because of less tension on the strings. Ms. Cotten had her own names for these tunings, Vastopol for open D and Spanish for open G, but they were the two most common open tunings, none the less.

John Ullman (talk) 21:55, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[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

[edit] Uncited

"This album is considered one of the most influential folk albums ever recorded." If this is a quote it needs to be cited, if not it should probably be removed for not being NPOV—The preceding Dannygutters 15:17, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation 2

"Her influence is felt by many guitarists today."

This may be true, but should be expanded to support or cited if a quote. As a single statement it's not NPOV Dannygutters 15:22, 24 April 2007 (UTC)