Published:
2013-03-11
Updated:
2020-03-28
Learning Ukulele with Curt
Alternating Thumb Style, Banjo Rolls on Ukulele
Exploring banjo rolls on ukulele. In bluegrass music, a banjo roll or roll is a repeated accompaniment pattern of eighth notes. Each roll pattern is a right hand fingering pattern, which can be played while holding any chord position.
Author(s): Curt Sheller Publisher: Curt Sheller Publications Code: ULFP117n-CH-14
Main Category: Fingerpicking Main Instrument: Ukulele
Categories: Chords, Fingering, Fingerpicking, Technique, Tuning
2026-08-23
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Number of Pages: 4
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Previous lessons covered a lot of material. With all the patterns starting with the thumb on string four and also suggested exploring the patterns starting with the thumb on string three.
You can also start with the index or middle finger. This is a big part of the technique of rolls, very popular on banjo and styles of music such as bluegrass where the banjo is prominent instrument.
In bluegrass music, a banjo roll or roll is a repeated accompaniment pattern of eighth notes. Each roll pattern is a right hand fingering pattern, which can be played while holding any chord position.
Rolls are a core technique on banjo and can be adapted to ukulele. They sound especially cool on a ukulele in the high G, re-entrant 'C' tuning. The re-entrant tuning is a similar setup to the 5-string banjo's tuning with the lowest string not the lowest note.
Ukulele
For UKulele the adjacent four strings sets are:
Guitar
Called "Travis Picking" on Banjo, the Alternating Thumbstyle techniques from this series of lessons and the Fingerpicking for Ukulele, Alternating Thumb Style can be applied to the guitar as well.
As the ukulele has only one set of four adjacent strings, the Guitar has three sets of four adjacent strings. This means the same principles are directly applicable to the guitar. And can be adapted to the guitar's adjacent string sets.
For Guitar there are four adjacent four strings sets are:
Banjo
Called Scruggs Style
on Banjo the Alternating Thumbstyle techniques from this series of lessons and the Fingerpicking for Ukulele, Alternating Thumb Style can be applied.
For Banjo there are two adjacent four strings sets are:
However with the standard 5-string banjo has a high string five that you'll mostly use the top (towards your toes) strings for the Banjo Rolls all five strings are used.
End of Lesson - Thanks, Hope You Enjoyed It!
Related Lessons, Videos, Lesson Series, Songs, Books & Reference Charts, Resources & Assets, Workshops are below.
Fingerpicking for Ukulele - Alternating Thumb Style, 2nd Edition
Fingerpicking for Ukulele - Alternating Thumb Style, 2nd Edition is an new expanded edition which focuses on the alternating thumb fingerpicking style through a series of graduated lessons-chapters incorporating your index and middle fingers with the alternating thumb.
Alternating Thumb Fingerpicking on Ukulele
This is the common alternating thumb and two finger strumming style utilizing the thumb, index and middle fingers. Commonly called “Travis” picking in the guitar world. This series of lessons explores and adapts this style to ukulele. Travis Picking is a finger-style made famous by Merle Travis and Chet Atkins. This style is commonly played on steel string acoustic guitars.