Thumb Lead Fingerpicking
The easiest way to play rolls on the banjo
Your best stepping stone to play Bluegrass… And a great Old-Time banjo picking style in its own right. When you eventually become a professional player, you will still enjoy playing this style!
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Fingerpicking on the banjo sounds exciting because of all the extra notes you can put in on top of the melody. This sparkling sound is achieved by playing Rolls, which are repeating patterns of pickstrokes played with the Right Hand, if you are a right handed player.
There are many Rolls you can play. Most people can learn to play rolls in a few months. The problem is, how to play a melody at the same time?
Most rolls have a different finger (or Thumb) come up on the beat each time, so you have to play the melody with a combination of different fingers. You often find the finger you want doesn’t necessarily come onto the string you want to play at exactly the right time, so you have to alter the timing of the melody to fit with the roll.
For beginners, it’s much easier to play Thumb Lead style. In this style of playing, the melody is always played with the Thumb, and the Thumb is always on the beat. This makes it much easier for a newcomer to play any song they want, and also jam with other people and so on.
There’s only one roll in the Thumb Lead style – the Square Roll. There are also some really simple tricks like the Pinch you can add in to give variety, always with the Thumb staying on the beat.
Here's some free content to get you started
Cripple Creek 1 - Low Melody
My free Cripple Creek videos have been seen by over a million people. In part one you will learn how to play a simple low melody with the Thumb and add extra notes in with the fingers to start getting the Thumb Lead style.
Cripple Creek 2 - add the Square Roll
Play the Square Roll a few times, add it onto the Low Melody you learnt in part 1, above, and you have the whole chorus!
Cripple Creek features a lot of the basic elements of ThumbLead style, like the Square Roll, the Pinch and playing a melody with fill-in notes.
Check out some of the songs in
the Thumb Lead Program
Thumb Lead — the Easiest Way to Play Any Song on the Banjo
Thumb Lead is a simple banjo style that beginners and seasoned musicians alike can use to master well-known songs with relative ease.
Includes Six Thumb Lead Songs:
- Wildwood Flower
- Bury Me Beneath the Willow
- Dan Tucker
- Old Plank Road
- Pick a Bale ‘o Cotton
- Loretta
That's Six Songs Plus Bonus Thumb Lead Techniques For Just $97. Everything you get within the Thumb Lead package is also inside the Banjo Academy.
When you buy the Thumb Lead Package today, you essentially get one-third of the academy at one-third of the price.
Everyone who purchases today will get the full amount they’ve paid for the Thumb Lead Package discounted if they choose to upgrade to the full academy later.