"Keith"-Picking: Adapting the Principles of Melodic Bluegrass to Clawhammer. Bluegrass great Bill Keith is associated with a style of 3-finger banjo playing in which adjacent melody notes are played “across the strings” rather than up and down on the same string (in other words, when running up and down a scale the same string is never played twice in a row). The mechanics of drop- and double-thumbing also makes Keith-picking effective in clawhammer; these mechanics can be readily harnessed to play scales, complicated phrases, or even entire melodies in clawhammer style. Keith-Picking in clawhammer offers a readily available way to play upwardly moving phrases and adds a resonant ambiance to any musical passage.