One, two, three, four [Demonstration]

Hi, I worked with the LessonsWithTroy.com and today’s lesson is going to be focused around our right hand and we’re going to learn the tune Long Journey Home and basically this tune is going to be a study in the forward banjo roll. And what the forward banjo roll is its real simple. It’s just a forward roll like this would normally be a forward roll. And what we’re doing is we’re going to do this, one-two, one-two-three, one-two-three. So that’s thumb-index, thumb-index-middle, thumb-index-middle. And that’s the basis for this whole tune.

And what we’re going to do is we’re going to take the melody and basically play it with our thumb and over the top of the melody we’re going to be doing the rolls. So what you really want to do is to bring that melody out with your thumb and not play too loud with your index and middle finger.

Okay, that being said, let’s go ahead and I’ll show you that first phrase and we’ll really focus on the right hand here but I’ll show you also close ups of the left hand exactly what I’m doing. So print out your tabs centered on the stand in front of you and we’ll get going.

Let’s break this song down and here are the first two measures slowly [Demonstration]. Once again, that forward roll in the right hand is what we’re focusing on one-two, one-two-three, one-two-three. So it starts off with that roll actually. So the first four eighth notes there just open fourth string, open third, and do it with that forward roll [Demonstration]. And then you put your bar here on your fourth string second fret and then do another forward roll.

Like I said every single thing other than the last lick of this tune is just going to be focusing on this forward roll. And that’s the measure one. Just open first and among my fourth, third and first string, and put your bar down there on your second fret fourth string. And move your bar up to the fifth fret and do that same forward roll. So you run fifth fret here with my bar in my fourth string and play an open third string and open first string. And doing that cluttered, one-two, one-two-three, one-two-three. That’s what measure two sounds like. So measure one and measure two put together sounds like this slowly [Demonstration]. Make it quicker [Demonstration].

Then you move up here to your third string fourth fret and that measure is number two in there. So that’s still the same forward roll but now we’re doing it on my third string, second string and first string. So that whole measure sounds like this slowly, four, open second string and then do your forward roll. And then move it down to your second fret and do another forward roll. That’s measure three.

So, all three measures put together, measures one, two and three sounds like this slowly [Demonstration]. So again, slowly measures one, two and three [Demonstration]. One more time [Demonstration]. And then on measure four, it’s all open so you don’t have to bar anything [Demonstration]. That’s all on your third, second and first string to that forward roll which is one-two, one-two-three, one-two-three. That’s measure four [Demonstration].

Okay, so measures one, two, three and four put together sound like this [Demonstration]. Now, I'm going to try to play it all four measures and really try to bring out that thumb. So I’m going to try to quiet down my index and middle finger and bring out the thumb [Demonstration]. Once again, two, three, four [Demonstration]. All of that quicker measures one through four [Demonstration]. Once again [Demonstration].

Now this is a real song steady kind of banjo rolls, I really suggest playing along the band on the box of that program with metronome and metronome work great. Think for it, when I was playing the metronome said 112. So you’re going to set it slow maybe 75 or something and just play through each little phrase that you get and try to turn on the metronome and really look at that right hand and with the metronome.

Let’s go ahead and learn the next phrase of the tune.