Bill introduces two essential banjo rolls in this lesson—the forward-reverse roll and the alternating thumb roll—and shows you how to integrate them into the melody line of a song or tune. Bill suggests focusing on that right-hand picking pattern independent of the actual strings that you will be striking, which will give you more flexibility in the long run. In addition to learning two essential rolls in this lesson, you’ll learn to apply them to a couple of bluegrass classics: “Worried Man Blues” using the forward-reverse roll, and “I’ll Fly Away” using the alternating thumb roll. In this video, Bill introduces the forward-reverse roll and shows you a couple of variations on how to apply it to different string patterns. He begins by dissecting the pattern for the forward-reverse roll, which is thumb, index, middle, thumb, middle, index, thumb, middle (t i m t m i t m).
