Brooks Robertson’s On Location: Fingerstyle Rolls

One of the most common techniques in Fingerstyle Guitar playing is actually borrowed from banjo players – a technique referred to as “the Banjo Roll”. These rolls use the thumb and fingers on the picking hand to arpeggiate chords, establish grooves, and even for playing melodies.

Filmed in Brooks Robertson’s home studio, this Fingerstyle Rolls edition of the On Location series dives deep and wide into this essential technique used by Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Tommy Emmanuel, Buster B. Jones and so many other of our favorite fingerstyle guitar masters.

”I’ve organized this course into six lesson sets, each of which focuses on a new banjo roll. We’ll start with some simple exercises to build the necessary motor skills. Then we’ll work on more advanced applications of the rolls, and ultimately put each to work in a short performance study with a unique style and flavor. You’ll also have all of TrueFire’s learning tools to work with along the way.”

In the first set, you’ll work on a forward roll to arpeggiate chords and then you’ll play a flowing melody in the key of A minor. Next up, a funky tune in B minor that uses a backward roll with open strings and chromatic notes – what Jerry Reed would call a “swarm”. In the third set, Brooks guides you through an E Blues that utilizes a mixed roll to play a catchy melody with open strings, slides, pull-offs, and arpeggiated chords in the bridge. After Brooks shows you how to pull off an Index and Middle Double-Stop roll, you’ll put it to work in a study called Double-Stop Waltz, which is a relaxed ballad in the key of E Major. Middle & Ring Paired Double Stop Rolls are featured in In the fifth set, After learning the skill, you’ll play through a performance study in D minor that uses a Drop D tuning with a latin inspired sound and groove. And finally, you’ll learn how to combine single-and-two-string forward, backward, and mixed roll techniques into a bright and fun approach to play Waltz in A Major.

Brooks will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar, and let’s ‘roll’ in with Brooks Robertson!