Clean. Maybelle’s guitar playing sounds neither cluttered nor showy. As on songs like “You Are My Flower,” notes from her 1928 Gibson L-5 guitar sound deceptively simple thanks to her precise playing of the notes.

“She showed me the way to play ‘You Are My Flower’ real pretty like,” Scruggs said. “She was the greatest, I thought. She played the tune. You could tell what she was playing.”

She used her thumb to play the melody on the bass and middle strings, while using her index finger to play rhythm. Her innovative style became known as the Carter scratch.

“Gosh, probably the first thing I learned on the guitar was the Carter scratch,” Hillman said. “The first tune I ever learned on the guitar was ‘Wildwood Flower.’ ”

In addition to Scruggs, Maybelle’s guitar playing also influenced such legendary guitarists as Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed and Joe Maphis.

“She was very special,” said Rose Lee Maphis, Maphis’ widow and duet partner.

During the 1960s, the Maphis’ wrote a song in her honor simply titled, “Mother Maybelle.” Joe Maphis included it on an acoustic album that he recorded in much the same style as she innovated.