How many people actually play this style?

[Austin]

I'm curious. How many people even know about it? It seems rare to find someone who does.

[Ethan Schwartz]

What I mean is that playing technique cannot be separated from musical context. Same like knowledge of how to use a specific farming implement doesn't make sense when removed from the larger context of farming. Anecdotes of "so-and-so learned down-picking from observing a black banjoist" leave out that the technique was observed in the context of a tune, which has a far more specific history.