Creative & Culture

Banjo: Combining Different Types Of Rolls

Patrick Achtelik shows views some basic rules and then he shows you how to apply those rules when playing the banjo. He also shows viewers the exceptions to the rule and how to avoid a clashing sound. Enlarge

Banjo: Combining Different Types Of Rolls

Patrick Achtelik shows views some basic rules and then he shows you how to apply those rules when playing the banjo. He also shows viewers the exceptions to the rule and how to avoid a clashing sound.

Now after I've shown you the main rules that you use in playing the banjo, I'm going to show you different ways of applying these rules to different chords. Because, as I found out as you probably found out too, some rules don't really work with some positions and chords. For example, if I'm using a reverse roll, which sounds very nice in the open position for G and C major.

and C.

I'll move up to D.

Now, for D, that didn't sound bad, but you do get a bit of a clash between this note and the D chord first string. If you want to avoid this, one way of doing it is to use a different roll and I personally like the backward roll on the D chord, which I will play.middle, index, thumb.middle, index, thumb.middle, index. So I'm going to try to show you the same chord progression but using a backward roll on the D chord.