Scott Fore is a flatpicking guitarist from Radford, Virginia. He won the National Flatpicking Championship at Winfield, Kansas, twice, in 2002 and 2015, and placed second there in 2000 and 2014. He also won the Wayne Henderson Music Festival guitar contest in 1999 and placed in its top five in 1997 and 2015.
Why Fore matters
Fore won Winfield thirteen years apart. Between those wins he placed second twice, which means four top-two finishes in a contest that draws the best flatpickers in the country. He also teaches, and his lessons stress right hand technique first. For a jammer, his arrangements of standards like Blackberry Blossom are a clear model of contest flatpicking.
Life and career
Fore started guitar at about age fifteen. He also plays banjo, mandolin, and bass. He is from Radford, in southwest Virginia.
His contest record starts in the late 1990s. He placed third at the Wayne Henderson Music Festival guitar contest in 1997 and won it in 1999. In 2000 he placed second at Winfield. In 2002 he won the National Flatpicking Championship and took home a Collings Winfield Model.
Fore taught guitar at The Fret Mill, a music store in Roanoke, Virginia. One of his students there was Gary Reid, who later portrayed Carter Stanley in a one-man show. In 2009 he filmed a four-part bluegrass guitar lesson series and several contest arrangements for the Virtual Woodshed.
He placed second at Winfield again in 2014. In 2015 he won his second title, along with a check for $3,000 and a Collings Winfield Model in mahogany and Adirondack spruce. He had entered the contest at least seven times by then. At the time of that win he worked as sales manager for Bourgeois Guitars. He also placed fourth at the Henderson contest in 2015. In March 2016 he won the guitar contest at RenoFest in Hartsville, South Carolina, playing Ragtime Annie.
Fore has published a book and CD of flatpicking solos.
Playing style
Fore builds contest arrangements on standard fiddle tunes. On Blackberry Blossom he plays the melody clean, then works in runs and position shifts that keep the tune’s shape. His lessons focus on the picking hand. He teaches a firm, relaxed pick grip and steady alternate picking as the base for everything else.
Influences and legacy
Fore came up through the Virginia and North Carolina contest circuit in the 1990s alongside Adam Wright, who placed second behind him at Henderson in 1999. At Winfield he has traded placings with Robert Shafer, who won in 2000 when Fore placed second. His teaching at The Fret Mill and on video has passed contest technique to players who never entered a contest.
Signature tunes and songs
Blackberry Blossom Alabama Jubilee Ragtime Annie.
Awards and honors
National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, first place (2002, 2015) National Flatpicking Championship, Walnut Valley Festival, second place (2000, 2014) Wayne Henderson Music Festival guitar competition, first place (1999) Wayne Henderson Music Festival guitar competition, third place (1997) Wayne Henderson Music Festival guitar competition, fourth place (2015) RenoFest guitar contest, first place (2016)
Watch and listen
Fore plays his contest arrangement of Blackberry Blossom for the Virtual Woodshed in 2009. Watch how the melody stays on top through every variation.
Fore wins the 2016 RenoFest guitar contest with Ragtime Annie. This is what a contest set looks like on stage.
What to learn from Fore
Learn Blackberry Blossom from his video. Play the melody by itself until it is clean at a slow tempo, then add his runs one phrase at a time. The technique to steal is his picking hand setup. Hold the pick with a relaxed grip, keep strict down-up alternation, and let the wrist do the work. Fore teaches that this base is what makes speed clean instead of messy.
Sources
Winners archive, alphabetical, Walnut Valley Festival Scott Fore, Pickers Paradise Guitar competition winners, Wayne Henderson Music Festival A Life of Sorrow revisited, Gary Reid talks portraying Carter Stanley, Bluegrass Today Scott Fore plays Blackberry Blossom, Virtual Woodshed, YouTube Bluegrass guitar lesson with Scott Fore, Virtual Woodshed, YouTube Scott Fore, Ragtime Annie, first place, RenoFest 2016, YouTube Scott Fore plays the Alabama Jubilee, YouTube
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Other Winfield champions on this site include Adam Wright, Robert Shafer, Allen Shadd, and Roy Curry.