Many beginner banjo rolls are new banjo players’ first experience doing anything with their dominant hand. Most courses and teachers will focus on chords and simple strumming patterns, which I understand and can get behind.
That being said, to make the banjo sound like most people expect a banjo to sound, you must learn banjo rolls. This picking pattern is unique to the banjo and leads to the fast, wide range of notes a banjo is able to quickly produce.
While there are a TON of different rolls you can learn, we’ve picked out six to begin with before expanding to other versions!
What is a Banjo Roll?
A banjo roll is a pattern of eight notes picked out repeatedly with the thumb, index finger, and middle finger on the player’s dominant hand. A roll combined with the different chords creates a stream of chords and single notes that weave together to create the banjo’s distinctive sound.
If you’ve ever heard the term “3 finger banjo” this is what they are referring to. You will always be using a combination of your thumb, middle, and index finger in different orders and on different strings.
The more advanced you get the more you can combine different roles and customize patterns to suit the sound you want. For beginners, we want you to stick to a few simple rolls to get your fingers used to the movement!
When you are learning roll patterns, I also want you to set a metronome to a very slow beat per minute. Pluck strings in time with the metronome. Slow the metronome down until you are able to do this and only speed up when you aren’t missing any notes in a pattern!
Easy Beginner Banjo Rolls
On to the beginner banjo rolls! We are going to look at six different patterns in this article. This is more than enough for a new banjo player but by no means a complete list of your options!
Pick a roll or two to practice, and stick with those until they start to really show some improvement before picking up any of the others.
One quick note, when we talk about string numbers on roll patterns. The fifth string is the short g string, closest to the player. The first string is furthest from the player and is the D string!
The Forward Roll
This is the roll I recommend beginners start with, it is the most simple as your fingers work down the strings in a pattern that makes fairly good sense and isn’t too difficult to remember!
To use the forward roll pattern pluck the strings in this order:
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
As you get more advanced you can actually change the strings that your index and middle play, as long as the index stays one string above the middle. In this example, we used the 2nd and 1st strings, but it could just as easily be played 3rd and 2nd.
The Backwards Roll
The backward roll, often called the reverse, uses the same pattern as the forward roll except you switch the order that your middle and index fingers pluck their strings:
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
In the forward roll it is index then middle, the reverse roll goes middle then index finger. Many times the forward roll will create an uplifting and fun sound while the reverse roll is almost melancholy.
The Forward-Reverse Roll
The Forward-Reverse roll is the first time we’ll get our thumb in action moving to different strings. We recommend that you get good with the first two rolls before you start trying to add the extra complexity of moving your thumb!
- Pluck the 3rd string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 3rd string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
When I play a Forward-Reverse roll I will hover my thumb over the fourth string and move it down to pluck the third and up to play the fifth.
This pattern is also a great one for beginners because even though your thumb just plays two notes differently the sound is shockingly different. The octave of the root note in this pattern is a full octave lower than in the forward.
The Alternating Thumb Roll (Mixed Roll)
You can call this roll more than a few things. The mixed roll, the alternating thumb roll, or even the thumb-in-and-out roll. This pattern is the first we cover that hits on all five strings, and is the 2nd reason I recommended hovering your thumb over the fourth string on the previous roll!
- Pluck the 3rd string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 4th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
This might be the single most popular banjo roll that we’ve covered, and learning this will open up a wide number of bluegrass hits for you to play! Some of the best easy banjo songs, including both “Cripple Creek” and “I’ll Fly Away” used the mixed roll.
Middle-Leading Roll
While the last two patterns required you to learn to move your thumb around to pluck different strings, the Middle-Leading roll goes back to only using three strings in the pattern.
The difference here is that your middle finger will play every other note, and your thumb and index rotate around in the order in which they are played.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 5th string with your thumb.
Sonny Osborne made this roll famous and you might hear it referred to as the “Osborne Roll”. This is a personal favorite of mine as it brings a very distinctive sound to the instrument. People know you’re playing the banjo, but often are trying to figure out how!
Index-Leading Roll
Just like the middle-roll, the index-roll you’ll be plucking all the odd beats on the same string, this time with the index finger rather than the middle.
Because you won’t be moving much, both the middle-leading and index-leading can be sped up a lot if you get good at them!
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 3rd string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 3rd string with your thumb.
- Pluck the 2nd string with your index finger.
- Pluck the 1st string with your middle finger.
This tends to be a fairly high-sounding roll since the bass notes and drone string are completely left out of the pattern.
What is the Most Common Banjo Roll?
The “lick” roll is one that is often used in choruses and fill-in spots during songs, making it the most common roll overall. It is also a nice one to learn after the basic rolls are done since it’s the mix of two of them, the forward roll and the forward-reverse rolls.
If you play the first four notes of the forward roll, the T-M-T-I, and combine that with the last four of the forward-reverse: M-I-T-M, you get the “lick” roll. So the full eight-note pattern is T-M-T-I-M-I-T-M.
The Final Note
Beginner banjo rolls are a great means to get started on learning to play the banjo, but they are not the end of your journey! These rolls just crack the tip of the iceberg and you can really get complicated in your roll patterns as you get better!
As a beginner though, stick with a few roll patterns, learn your chords and easy banjo songs, and more importantly than anything, have fun!
A ukulele player pretty much from birth, Edward has gone on to play banjo, lead guitar, and bass for a number of bands and solo projects! Edward loves talking, teaching and writing about music!