Do it steadily with a groove, and keep it up for as long as you can stand it, until it’s completely automatic. I recommend putting your guitar in drop D tuning and using your thumb to play low D, high D, low D, high D at a relaxed tempo. The first step to learning how to play it is to practice the alternating bass pattern with your thumb. For those, you need to listen to the recordings. Mostly they get the notes right, but they rarely capture the hip, syncopated rhythms. There are lots of tabs and tutorials for “Freight Train” on the web. In this performance, her voice is rough, but her guitar playing is exquisite. But nothing is better than Elizabeth Cotten herself. I came to Elizabeth Cotten through the Grateful Dead’s recording of “ Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie.” Jerry Garcia also recorded “ Freight Train,” as have about a million other people. This must have required some dedication! But none of it is as important as her sound and her material. She had to learn her own idiosyncratic chord shapes, and she played them by alternating bass with her fingers and playing melody notes with her thumb. She was left-handed, but rather than stringing a guitar in reverse the way lefties usually do, she just played a standard-strung guitar upside down. If you are a guitarist, you might notice that there is something strange about her technique. It reminded me that she is the greatest and that I should write more about her. Dust-to-digital posted this lovely performance of “Washington Blues” by Elizabeth Cotten.
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