You snoozed, you loozed.
Discuss the Banjo lesson: Backup Banjo Utility Rolls
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Someone made a toot. Neil got the loot.
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I just had an ‘epiphany’ that its possible that there may be more hidden “easter-egg” finds on the banjobenclark web-site in various forms. Just sayin’… Happy picking All !
Great lesson. Thanks Ben. You hit a grand slam with this one. Love it when you talk about the syncopation! So far this one and the series with Alan Munde on Fretboard Geography are my favorites among the tons of great lessons. Thanks again.
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I discovered this weekend that this works great for Wabash Cannonball. You don’t really stay in C long enough to use the stuff in this lesson, but it works perfectly for the rest of it,
It sounded like this.
Give it a try!
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That is on fire!
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Man, there is something powerful to this lesson. Those backup riffs just seem to growl. I love it!
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That’s awesome Mark and works well. 
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Excellent Mark! I was singing Wabash Cannonball in my head while you played and it fit perfect.
Nice chokes and 16ths.
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Love it! It’s actually a very versatile lick. Our family found it works GREAT on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”. It gave me a chance to slow down, and then bring up to tempo the accending / decending triplet pattern and some of the cool turnaround licks. The blues notes it in just paint the song with a different hue; and , like B.B. implies, adds fire. Keep on Pickin" !
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Oh yeah! I bet that sounds great, Neil!
I don’t know if anyone has noticed yet, but I used this backup in the Joy to the World video I posted yesterday. Worked out really well.
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I love, love, love this lesson. This roll pattern could be a song all by itself in my opinion.
I am going to try to apply it to songs that have long G, C, or D sections. How would I use this pattern for other chords for other keys?
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I could be wrong, but I think the pattern requires playing an open key. So, it either needs to be G, or you’d have to use a capo. Even when playing the C and D chords in this lesson, there are a lot of open strings. I think that’d be tough to translate to X and Y chord shapes.
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I’ve worked this into my bag of tricks. It is awesome for tunes like “Working Man Blues” when the Git player is already doing the standard riff and you don’t want to just play that. This Utility roll with some well placed blues filler licks I can just play for hours!
Ok - now for the question. We play a lot of driving country tunes in D or E… I don’t mind running the capo at the 7th fret so that’s one solution for D.
Some of these licks are transferring over ok but I’m not getting that gritty sound. Any hints or advice? Consider doing a lesson on Banjo Backup Utility Roll in D?
Thanks! Ethan
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Check this out:
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/how-to-play-in-d-banjo
And this:
https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/bag-o-licks-d-lick-endings-banjo-intermediate
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you are correct Archie. I have only worked on the first section key of G,C,and D but when I heard that bend, choke, at the end of the key of D 14th measure, I was sold. This will become part of my warmup routine for awhile.
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Ok, so I’m getting kinda sorta good at the rolls. But lost of times songs have half and quarter measures of chords. What’s the best way to practice to get these into my backup repotoire?
Pick a song that has those faster chord changes, slow it down, and play it over and over. And over. Might consider adding in a pinch rather than a roll for some of this, or perhaps make a partial chord shape and play root note (quarter note) then roll 5 1 as eight notes. Hope this helps a little. You can try a bunch of different stuff and you’ll find what works for you and maybe what doesn’t work so well.
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Often times you shouldn’t worry about chords that are passing that quickly. And if you do, you don’t worry about “making” the chord…just aim for a note that the chord contains. Remember that a roll or lick in the 1 chord sounds fine over just about any chord when it’s happening fast. For instance, if the song is in G and has a quick D chord, just about any G lick will work.
I’ve made a note to create a lesson on this subject…great questions, @ambergkeith
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