Hi folks,
I've been playing for a year now and have been thinking a lot about different playing styles lately. What I've been going with thus far is Scruggs style, which I feel pretty comfortable with, but after seeing my favorite banjo player using 2 finger thumb lead I've been very curious about that specific approach.
However, after some experimenting, I can't really figure out why you would use 2 fingers instead of 3? I can see why clawhammer is useful, because it uses a whole different hand gesture, but I don't see what you can do with 2 finger thumb lead that you couldn't do with scruggs style?
The reason why I wanted to try it out was because David Eugene Edwards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBPPa3sLTbo&feature=player_detailpage#t=28s) creates this really amazing sound when he plays that I love, and I want to be able to re-create that sound myself. But everytime I try to practice his picking style I find it difficult and impractical. For example, he strikes with the thumb twice and then index finger, where I would strike first with my thumb and then index and then middle finger.
So, what I'm looking for here is some motivation to actually get familiar with this style, and if you guys have some insight as to why you would want to play 2 finger thumb lead instead of scruggs?
Thank you for your time!