Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Wayward Thumb

#1

So, lately my thumb has decided that it simply will NOT cooperate on those alternating thumb rolls (3-2-5-1 4-2-5-1). It’s like a batter’s slump, or writer’s block. It won’t move to the strings, it tenses up, flies off in a “Lord only knows what” direction, and misses strings with reckless abandon. Has anybody else experienced this? Oddly, it seems to happen only on the alternating thumb roll.

Advice, please? (Katie Lou says to maybe consider more flexibility at the knuckle.)

I had been thinking that maybe it’s just because my thumb is so short, but then I saw Willow Osborne playing the banjo - I think she’s just a little itty bitty thang, and she didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all. (Plus, it hadn’t been an issue before, so why now?)

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#2

My advice would be, learn to relax the arm and picking hand and play the roll dead slow for a few days. The alternating thumb roll is perhaps the slowest roll in your toolbox and there is a tendency for us all to want to play it way too fast before were are ready. This is where the tension creeps in. Practice the roll slowly, in time speed will come on it’s own.

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#3

If you are a early beginner this may not help at all but when I get stuck on something now I try playing to the rhythm track to that lesson I start it at the lowest speed and play up to where I fail then start it over and I do this until I get it right. I have learned several issues out like this for me it gets my mind off of the problem and make my brain think on other things, like keeping time and gives me enough momentum to hit the note I’m after, I did this learning mandolin rhythm with all the big chord changes. Hope this helps if not it will just further cement how nuts I am.:wink:

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#4

Wayward Thumb… that would be a great title for a bluegrass song about a hitchhiking banjo picker! Just sayin’.

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#5

Yep. I’m on board with this suggestion. At least it works for me. For example, make the alternating pattern a part of your warm-up using a metronome (or track) and once you play perfectly at that tempo, gradually speed-up. Also I might add, I applaud you on recognizing a bad finger-habit (thumb actually in this case). It’s best to fix those early as they are extraordinarily difficult to remove later on.

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#6

Some advice would be to isolate the thumb and play only it in the roll, keeping the other notes silent. Then, slowly begin adding in one note at a time to the thumbs and see where you’re getting tripped up.

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