Phill Gibson's Blog

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song

Now let’s try some exercises such as the following, which are simply four-finger equivalents of some well-known three-finger rolls; the forward roll, backward roll, reverse roll and a couple of variations of the alternating thumb roll. (Note: This terminology is referenced from the names of rolls as found in Earl Scruggs’s book). Practice these as being phase I of your studies in 4-finger playing. Just as when you were learning your three-finger rolls as a beginner, practice these literally at least 500 times. 1000 for each roll would be even better!

One thing you’ll quickly notice in doing these exercises is that the ring finger simply cannot be lifted as high above the banjo bridge as other fingers! Perhaps some folks can do this, but I don’t think many people will find it an easy task to get much lift above the bridge with the ring finger. You’ll also soon see why this is important; the ring finger, now a picking finger, comes quite close to the first string, more so than any other finger. You wouldn’t want this finger to get lazy and occasionally hit the first string, especially if you’re not using the ring finger for a bit and it’s just sort of hanging there waiting for another four-finger roll to come along. One solution to this is to use a higher overall hand position. That’s a bit tougher for me, as my right hand position is pretty low to start with.

Because of this inability of the ring finger to get very high, the backward roll (the last one presented on this page) is an especially difficult one to do.

The next phase, which you can do concurrently with the rolls if you like, is to find good fretting positions to match these new roll patterns. At first, this simply means to do the rolls with various chords you already know. Later, though, this means to re-engineer some of you left-hand techniques; slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, for instance. Start with left-hand techniques that go well with alternating thumb patterns, since they are already based on 4 notes, as opposed to three notes as with forward and backward rolls.

Create a new lick or two using this process and try this on one of your slower songs. Keep on working at it and see how it starts to sound once you start getting a moderate amount of speed to it (maybe 5 or 6 notes per second). Do you like the sound of it? If so, I suspect it’s worth pursuing!

Of course, you realize this is going to take some time. Remember how much effort you had to put into learning three-finger style? Well, this is no different – you’ll need to go find your initial enthusiasm once again to do your best at this, just as you did with three-finger. Be persistent. And don’t overkill with it. Remember to keep three-finger Scruggs as the ‘glue’ to bind everything else together and I believe it will be most effective.

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song

For starting starters (apologies to Dr. Seuss), it is best to make use of a little-known fact about how our brains process such things as banjo rolls. Did you know it doesn’t matter to your brain if you switch some of your fingers around when playing banjo rolls? It’s true. Not just any fingers can be switched however. Try this: play any song you already know on the banjo – even one of your more challenging tunes. Instead of using you thumb, index and middle fingers of the right hand to pick, use your thumb, middle and ring fingers. Go ahead and try it now, but slow it way down. Do you see how you didn’t have to think about it any more than you would if using your ‘regular’ picking fingers? You’ll also notice how you had to slow it way down, due to the fact that the ring finger is way behind the learning curve, even if it already knows what string to pick. I must say, that is a weird feeling for someone who already knows how to play the banjo!

So one of the first tasks then, is to get that ring finger more up-to-speed. Always remember to keep a pick on the ring finger when you are practicing this style. As with any new style you learn, set aside some time for this one technique for a while. Try to get to where you can feel a level of confidence in what you are doing before increasing speed. Beginning speed can be a fairly relative thing; what I’m doing as I progress with this style is to start at about 4 to 6 notes per second (roughly 60 to 70 BPM on a metronome). Later exercises and rolls may need to slow down a bit, but for now, this can actually go a little faster due to the fact that your brain already knows what song to pick.

Practice this for several weeks. It’s going to take a little while to get used to it and to get the ring finger feeling more adept at a new role (pun intended) in life.

Intro | Background | Observations | Benefits & Challenges | Getting Started | More Getting Started | Applying it to a Song

Benefits
A new sound. Skillfully playing a four-finger roll can give you a completely new cadence to add to your picking repertoire, just as three-finger playing did in comparison to two-finger playing.

Speed. Not speed just for the sake of speed, but as an extra spice, if you will. Being able to play a really fast breakdown and being able to modify the cadence of your picking is something that will be readily apparent in your playing.

Versatility. With an increased repertoire of rolls at your disposal, you’ll be able to vary your breaks to a much larger extent. Think about going from 2-finger (such as in single-string style) to 3-finger Scruggs style. Now imagine adding another finger and you’ll open up even more avenues to explore with new rolls. Add that to your existing 2 and 3 finger techniques and you’ll have even more!

Challenges
One big challenge I immediately saw upon donning a pick on my right ring finger was that everything I had always taught myself about keeping that ring finger down had to go. “Heresy!” I said. What if I want to play standard stuff with three fingers and just pop a quick 4-finger roll in there occasionally? I could, but I would have to keep that pick on for the whole song, which means I’d better get used to wearing it for any of a variety of picking situations: pull-offs, double pull-offs, Reno-style thumb brushes, up-the neck stuff, etc. Would that be worth it?

Another challenge is simply the newness of it. It really is starting over again, complete with the excruciating slowness of beginning anything for the first time. But I remind myself of the fastest banjo player I had ever seen (at the time). I never knew his name, or the band he was in. He was a banjo player on APT (Alabama Public Television) back in the late 70′s. He could play about 15 notes per second. But what was really inspiring about him was the fact that he had no thumb! Perhaps he had been in an accident, I don’t know – but he had learned to use his index finger to pick down and his middle and ring fingers to pick up. Simply amazing! If he could learn that, then I could learn anything, I have since told myself.

Also, does this mean you won’t be able to play three-finger style anymore, as your fingers will somehow not be able to do both? I don’t think so. I can play both Scruggs style and single string style without each interfering with the other, for instance. And so far, experience has validated this. As I improve with this new technique, I find that I can do it either with or without that 4th pick, keeping the ring finger down on the head when the time comes to do that.

One more challenge I’ll list here is that with four fingers, the number of possible rolls increases tremendously. I’m not sure how many of these are truly practical rolls, but I’m sure there are more variations than you have for 3 fingers.