The Piedmont blues (also known as Piedmont fingerstyle) is a type of blues music, characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb bassline pattern supports a melody using the treble strings. The result is comparable in sound to ragtime or stride piano styles. The Piedmont blues originated in an area including and extending beyond the Piedmont plateau of the eastern United States, which stretches from about Richmond, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia. Piedmont blues musicians come from this area and also from Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida. Piedmont blues was popular in the early 20th century.