Earl Scruggs (1924 to 2012) is the reason the banjo sounds the way it does in bluegrass. His three-finger roll, now called Scruggs style, turned the five-string banjo from a rhythm instrument into a lead voice. He joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1945, then co-led Flatt and Scruggs with Lester Flatt for 21 years. Every bluegrass banjo player today plays some version of what he built.
Why Scruggs matters
Before Scruggs, most banjo players frailed or played two-finger styles. Scruggs picked with the thumb, index, and middle finger, each in a pick, and kept a steady stream of notes rolling under the melody. That one change made the banjo loud, fast, and clear enough to take a break in a band. When he joined Monroe in 1945, the sound of the Blue Grass Boys became the sound of bluegrass. Foggy Mountain Breakdown is still the first big tune most banjo players learn.
Life and career
Scruggs was born on January 6, 1924, in the Flint Hill community near Shelby, North Carolina. His father, a farmer who frailed the banjo, died when Earl was four. His brothers and sisters all played banjo and guitar. At age six he heard a blind finger-picking banjo player named Mack Woolbright, and he took up the instrument soon after. A local player, DeWitt “Snuffy” Jenkins, was an early model for his three-finger picking. He played on the radio at age 11.
At 15 he played a few months with the Morris Brothers. He then worked in a thread mill near home to support his mother during World War II. In 1945 he went back to music with Lost John Miller on WNOX in Knoxville. Late that year he joined Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys for $50 a week. With Monroe and Lester Flatt he played the Grand Ole Opry and, in September 1946, recorded Blue Moon of Kentucky.
In 1948 Scruggs and Flatt left Monroe and formed Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Foggy Mountain Breakdown came out on Mercury in 1950. In the mid-1950s they added Buck “Uncle Josh” Graves on Dobro. In the early 1960s The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the theme for The Beverly Hillbillies, became the first Scruggs record to reach number one. In 1967 the film Bonnie and Clyde used the old Mercury recording of Foggy Mountain Breakdown, and a new generation heard it. Over 20 years the duo made more than 50 albums and 75 singles.
Flatt and Scruggs split in 1969. Scruggs wanted a more modern sound. He formed the Earl Scruggs Revue with his sons Randy, Gary, and Steve. The Revue played colleges and festivals beside acts like the Byrds and James Taylor. Back problems took Scruggs off the road in 1980, and the Revue ended in 1982. He came back to the stage in 1997. His 2001 album Earl Scruggs and Friends won a Grammy for a new Foggy Mountain Breakdown. In 2003 he recorded The Three Pickers with Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs. He died on March 28, 2012, at age 88. The Earl Scruggs Center opened in Shelby in 2014.
Playing style
Scruggs played with a thumb pick and two metal finger picks. His right hand stayed planted while the thumb, index, and middle fingers moved. The thumb picks down, and the fingers pick up. The result is a set of rolls, eight notes to a measure, with the melody notes sitting inside the roll. He added hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides with the left hand, so the melody stays clear at speed. Listen for how the melody notes ring out over the roll. That is the core of the style.
He also changed the instrument itself. On Earl’s Breakdown, recorded in October 1951, he used a cam device he built to detune the second and third strings mid-tune for a downward bend. Those homemade tuners now sit in the Earl Scruggs Center. His main banjo was a Gibson Granada Mastertone that had passed from Snuffy Jenkins to Don Reno before it came to him. Gibson later built the Earl Scruggs Standard as a copy of it. His family gave the original to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2023. The Foggy Mountain Boys tuned a half step high in the early years for extra brightness.
Influences and legacy
Scruggs learned from his family, from Mack Woolbright, and from the finger style of Snuffy Jenkins. Don Reno, who knew him as a young player, said his early playing sounded like Jenkins. Fiddler Jim Shumate talked Monroe into hearing him in 1945, and he joined a band with Chubby Wise on fiddle. His partner for 21 years was Lester Flatt. Fiddlers in his bands included Benny Martin, Paul Warren, and later Vassar Clements in the Revue.
Most banjo players on this site learned from Scruggs first. J.D. Crowe, Sonny Osborne, and Bill Emerson built on his rolls in the 1950s. Béla Fleck and Tony Trischka pushed the style further, and both name him as the root. He published Earl Scruggs and the Five String Banjo in 1968, and it is still a standard method book.
Signature tunes and songs
Foggy Mountain Breakdown Earl’s Breakdown The Ballad of Jed Clampett Cripple Creek Blue Moon of Kentucky, with Bill Monroe (1946).
Essential recordings
Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Flatt and Scruggs, single (Mercury, 1950) Earl Scruggs and Friends (MCA Nashville, 2001) The Three Pickers, with Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs (Rounder, 2003) Earl Scruggs with Family and Friends: The Ultimate Collection, Live at the Ryman (Rounder, 2008)
Awards and honors
Grammy Award for Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Flatt and Scruggs (1968 award year) Country Music Hall of Fame, with Lester Flatt (1985) National Heritage Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts (1989) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, inaugural class (1991) National Medal of Arts (1992) Grammy Award for Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Earl Scruggs and Friends (2001 award year) Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (2003) Foggy Mountain Breakdown added to the National Recording Registry (2005) Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2008) North Carolina Music Hall of Fame (2009)
Watch and listen
Scruggs shows the banjo up close in this film by David Hoffman. Watch the right hand. It stays planted while the fingers roll.
Here he plays Cripple Creek at home with Doc Watson. It is a relaxed take on a tune every jammer knows.
What to learn from Scruggs
Learn Cripple Creek the way Scruggs plays it, then move to Foggy Mountain Breakdown. The technique to steal is the forward roll with the melody on top. Play the roll slow with a metronome. Then pick out the melody notes and make them a little louder than the rest. When the tune sings through the roll, you are playing Scruggs style. Speed comes after that.
Sources
Earl Scruggs, Wikipedia Earl Scruggs, BluegrassBios.com Flatt and Scruggs, Wikipedia
Related players
See the banjo players hub and the bluegrass banjo guide for more pickers. Scruggs learned from Snuffy Jenkins and played beside Lester Flatt for 21 years. J.D. Crowe and Sonny Osborne carried his style into the next generation.