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Speaking to the website Bluegrass Situation in 2017, he explained: “Since I always liked fiddle tunes and the mandolin is tuned like a fiddle — and I was good with a flat pick from guitar — I got completely wrapped up playing fiddle tunes with the mandolin.”

Most notable was Mr. McReynolds’s widely imitated cross-picking technique, which employed a flat pick to approximate the three-finger banjo roll of the bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs.

I started playing with a flat pick like everyone else, and an older kid turned me on to Chet Atkins when I was working at a music store.

Mitchell’s advice to the fledging guitarist included telling him to switch from the thumb pick commonly used by country bluesmen to a flat pick favored by many jazz guitarists.

Then I began to learn the Jimmie Rodgers licks on the guitar, then all at once I began to figure out, ‘Hey, I could play that Carter stuff a lot better with a flat pick.’