I’m definitely going to work on this one soon. I really love crosspicking. My first time crosspicking was when Hanna’s Song came out on the site. I have improved a lot with crosspicking since then and I have really enjoyed learning Blessed Assurance.
Discuss the Guitar lesson: Intro to Crosspicking- Forward Roll Study
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Sounds melodious… A bed time song?? Even if I can’t get time to practice enough to come up to a decent speed, I can go to bed listening to this. 
Ben’s perfectionism!
Please try refreshing your page, as well as trying another browser.
For me this happens in Chrome and MSIE. I just close the browser, reopen and log in and all is good good again.
This is the first of Ben’s lessons (that I know of) that methodically goes position by position up the neck for guitar. More of this please @BanjoBen! Would be great to get a Bag O Licks lesson for each position!
Can anyone recommend other lessons on this site that go position by position up the neck for guitar? I might’ve missed one somewhere.
Thanks so much!
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Have worked a lot on this lesson and have got the concepts. Am scratching my head though as to how and when I could encorporate this into my playing. Maybe I’m simple I don’t get it. Thanks.
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Sure, I’ll help! What are a few of your favorite songs to pick?
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Thank you for getting back Ben ! I’m relatively new to bluegrass but have been a practicing musician for many years. I am trying hard to fit in the bluegrass world. I can play these forward rolls and have been practicing them with backing tracks in various keys and tempos in different triad positions. They sound great. What I don’t get is when I would ever use them in bluegrass. Is it behind a singer as backup or as a fill or as part of a lead break. Ps I learned your advanced version of wild wood flower a while back. I can play it relatively clean most of the time. That arrangement stops traffic. Love your site !!!
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Yep, you’d use them in solos and fills, and even a bit in rhythm licks!
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Thanks Ben… Will run with that ball. Have great day !!!
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Ben, cross picking foward roll measure 17 going from pointer finger in first beat to & of second beat along with third beat uses the middle and ring finger. I don’t seem to ever play that without error. There doesn’t seem room to do it perfectly but you seem to. How long will it take, I’m a perfectionist Ha
Post a video and let me see what you’re talking about!
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Today seems better but it seems my ring finger always deadens the open e string when I’m on the 2nd and 4th fret
Here is the one I meant to post, I’m new at posting videos https://photos.app.goo.gl/6CgBsT8G57uWFF8f9
Hi Ed,
That’s looking good! A thing I run into is that when putting fingers on same fret/adjacent strings like you are doing here is that I can easily unintentionally mute a string. In this case where you want to ensure the high E is open, I would cheat both my middle and ring finger towards the D string (it’s ok to touch it). Also, you are already stacking them forward/back so that the middle tucks behind the ring a bit, but you could do that even more if you need room. You can get your fingers a bit more perpendicular to the fingerboard (as opposed to leaning) to help avoiding the muting. One other tip for consistent placement, is I’d be inclined to leave my pointer finger down. Having an “anchor” helps me with consistent placement.
How I would work on all this is that I would play the first 6 notes over and over for a bit (100220) and not worry about sliding up until the placement of the middle and ring where it isn’t muting gets into muscle memory. Then try to relax as much as possible. Then adding the slide to 4 should be easy.
Bonus thought: I use that kind of muting a bunch when playing. Getting used to moving around your fingers to intentionally mute or free adjacent strings is a powerful tool!
Thanks Mike. yup I thought that just practicing 100220 for a while is good. I have been doing that in songs on more difficult measures. I just do them over and over until they are smooth .
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My question is how is cross picking
better than sweep picking
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IMHO, It’s not better, just a different tool. I will say that I find use or crosspicking much more often. Sweep picking is (to my use anyway) good for going in one direction (generally up in pitch). Crosspicking is for covering moves either direction. It’s kind of fundamental. Even if you don’t play a “crosspicking” tune, you are likely going to have to cross strings pretty often.
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