Bill Keith | |
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 Bill Keith on stage at the 1985 Cambridge Folk Festival | |
| Background information | |
| Born | William Bradford Keith (1939-12-20)December 20, 1939 Boston,Massachusetts, US |
| Died | October 23, 2015(2015-10-23) (aged 75) Woodstock, New York, US |
| Genres | Bluegrass,Country |
| Occupation | Bluegrassartist |
| Instrument(s) | Banjo,steel guitar |
| Years active | 1960s – 2015 |
William Bradford "Bill" Keith (December 20, 1939–October 23, 2015) was an American five-string banjoist who made a significant contribution to the stylistic development of the instrument. In the 1960s he introduced a variation on the popular "Scruggs style" ofbanjo playing (an integral element ofbluegrass music) which would soon become known as melodic style, or "Keith style". He was inducted into theInternational Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2015.
Keith was born inBoston,Massachusetts, United States.[1] He attendedAmherst College and graduated in 1961. In 1963, he became a member ofBill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.[2]
Keith's recordings and performances during these nine months with Monroe permanently altered banjo playing, and his style became an important part of the playing styles of many banjoists. After leaving the Bluegrass Boys, he joined theJim Kweskin Jug Band playing plectrum banjo.[1] He began playing the steel guitar and soon after 1968, worked together withIan and Sylvia andJonathan Edwards.[1]
In the 1970s, Keith recorded forRounder Records. Over the years he performed with several other musicians, such asClarence White andDavid Grisman inMuleskinner,Tony Trischka, Jim Rooney and Jim Collier.[1] Today,Keith style is still regarded as modern or progressive in the context of bluegrass banjo playing. He was inducted into theInternational Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame at an awards ceremony inRaleigh, North Carolina on October 1, 2015, and delivered a heartfelt address on that occasion, just three weeks prior to his death from cancer at his home inWoodstock, New York, on October 23, 2015, aged 75.[3]
Joe Boyd, who was producing the music for the movieDeliverance, offeredDuelling Banjos to Bill, but as Bill was travelling in Europe and wanted to visit a girl in Ireland, he turned it down suggestingEric Weissberg instead.[4]
Keith made a mechanical contribution to the banjo, as well. He designed a specialized type of banjo tuning peg that facilitates changing quickly from one open tuning to another, while playing. Earlier famed banjoistEarl Scruggs had designed a set of cams which were added to the banjo to perform this task.[citation needed]
Keith's invention made the extra hardware unnecessary, replacing two of the tuning machines already on the banjo — a more elegant solution. Scruggs himself became a partner in the venture for a while, and the product was known as "Scruggs-Keith Tuners". Known today simply as Keith Tuners, they remain the state of the art, and Bill Keith continued to manufacture and market them personally as the primary product of his own company, theBeacon Banjo Company, until his death. Beacon Banjo tuners continue their proud tradition, now in the hands of his son, Martin.[5]
TheKeith style of playing the 5-stringbanjo emphasizes the melody of the song. Also known as the "Melodic" or "Chromatic style", it was first developed and popularized independently by Bobby Thompson and Bill Keith in the early 1960s. It is used primarily bybluegrass banjoists, though it can be applied to virtually any genre. Most banjoists who play Keith style do not use it exclusively, but integrate it as one aspect of their playing, a way of adding spice to the more common 3-finger style ofEarl Scruggs.
The Keith style is a fingerpicking style played with picks on the thumb, index and middle fingers. It centers on playing scales in a linear fashion. This contrasts with "3-Finger" orScruggs style, which is centered onarpeggios, or chord tones played in rapid succession. Generally speaking, in the Keith style the fingers of the picking hand alternate between strings, rarely picking the same string twice. Frequently open strings are alternated with strings that are fretted halfway up the neck or more. These aspects contrast with "Single String" orReno style, which also emphasizes linear (playing the same string multiple times) playing. InReno style, however, scales are played out of closed-chord positions, where the entire scale may be played without moving the fretting hand up or down the neck, by moving from the lowest to highest string in a linear fashion. In the Reno style, the index finger and thumb generally alternate while picking, and often pick the same string two or more times in succession. One aspect of Keith style which makes it difficult to learn is that one often moves to a higher note in the scale by picking a lower string, albeit fretted to give the higher note.
A distinct advantage of melodic style is the ease of playing fiddle tunes using the melody verbatim while maintaining a right hand technique in line with Scruggs-style. Accomplishing the same goal in single string style often requires a different right hand approach. While at times the thumb may be used in a manner inconsistent with abanjo roll-based style, the "cascading" effect of the roll is still present in many examples of melodic style playing (especially with the bombastic descending runs, popular in the 1970s).
The earliest recordings of the melodic style were made by Bobby Thompson in the late 1950s when he was inJim and Jesse's band. The style came to prominence when Bill Keith joinedBill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in 1963. He impressed audiences with his ability to playfiddle tunes note-for-note on the banjo. Other early proponents wereMarshall Brickman andEric Weissberg. During the 1960s and 1970s, the style steadily gained popularity among progressive bluegrass banjoists likeAlan Munde,Tony Trischka,Courtney Johnson,Ben Eldridge, and Gordon Stone. However, the style remains somewhat controversial among strict traditionalists.
Tony Trischka has written several instructional books that discuss the Keith Style:HotLicks For Bluegrass Banjo,Teach Yourself Bluegrass Banjo, and especiallyMelodic Banjo. The latter has interviews with many prominent Keith style banjoists, including Bill Keith and Bobby Thompson. Ken Perlman has helped to popularize the style inclawhammer banjo playing.
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