This month Bill introduces two new rolls. The first is called the “lick roll,” because it’s used to play one of the most common fill-in licks in bluegrass. After working on the roll itself, you’ll work it into the melody of “Worried Many Blues” for some variations on what you learned in the earlier forward-reverse roll lesson. The second roll is commonly called the “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” roll, so-called because—you guessed it—it’s the essential roll Earl Scruggs played on the quintessential bluegrass banjo tune “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” It’s a little more complicated than some of the rolls you’ve already learned, and it isn’t limited to the title song: It can be used in lots of songs, too. In this lesson you’ll learn to apply it to “Way Downtown,” a Doc Watson and Stanley Brothers favorite. In this video, Bill walks you through the lick roll with some variations and fill-in applications. The order of fingers for the lick roll is thumb, middle, thumb, index, middle, index, thumb, middle (t m t i m i t m).
