Cripple Creek - Rolling Backup

Rolling backup is a critical skill for a Bluegrass banjo player. It is great to play behind a fiddle solo and on any driving bluegrass tune behind a singer. More important than all the fancy licks is steady timing. That's why this basic arrangement uses only one Scruggs style roll - the alternating thumb roll. Notice the pattern in each measure - 3 rolls, followed by a thumb note and a pinch. The single note and a the pinch are 1/8th notes. They ring twice as long as the 1/16th note rolls. Make sure that you do not play them as fast as the rolls. Listen to the Tunefox player before practicing with your instrument at each session. This will help you hear and memorizing the correct timing.

Also, notice that in measures 1, 2, and 4, the chord change occurs on beat three. Make sure the chord fingers are curled above the fretboard before you actually play each chord. When you release, try not to uncurl your fingers. In measure 3 we're just rolling on a G chord using your open strings so you can just focus on your pick hand movements

There's a lot licks here that demonstrate using some different rolls, and Scruggs style fret hand embellishments to get those classic backup sounds.