Finger Picking Tenor Banjo GDAE

[atbuckner21]

Hey guys! I recently purchased a tenor banjo and am playing in GDAE tuning. I wondered if anyone had a link to roll patterns for this tuning? IF you do and could email them to me, that would be fantastic! abuckner@thebradleyagency.net. Thanks for your time!

[David L]

Hey guys! I recently purchased a tenor banjo and am playing in GDAE tuning. I wondered if anyone had a link to roll patterns for this tuning? IF you do and could email them to me, that would be fantastic! abuckner@thebradleyagency.net. Thanks for your time!

Tenor banjo is traditionally played with a flat pick, so rolls are a moot point. That said, ANY roll pattern can work if you are fretting a chord. Of course, not having a high 5th string will change the character of the rolls which usually incorporate the 5th string. What style of music do you plan to use it for?

[catmandu2]

In addition to above - there is a guy, and possibly others at this point - who do enjoy applying BG-type rolls and elements on 4-string tenor (and ukulele, et al) - I think the name is Pavel (?) - it's been a while - and he has (had?) technical information/instruction gratis on line...

Trad (itm/isles, ot, et al) - typically where we see 'modern' tb deployed - may not be well-served particularly with the BG-type roll figures that tend to induce the wrong rhythmic feel (although some do a FG approach to trad, albeit it does impart a different inflection than with FP approach)... but I found some of the bossa nova-style rhythmic feel effective with FG approach to 4/str. *Iirc Pavel altered tuning - a typical approach in FG - so if it's all 5ths-tuned you want this may not be as helpful to you.

[Mandoplumb]

A roll on a tenor banjo is going to sound different than on a 5. Different not worse, I have heard a few tenors played with trad. rolls and personally I like it. More difficult to keep roll going without that 5th string drone but very doable. After all Reno recorded a couple song that he played a mandolin with fingerpicked rolls, one of which he really should have tuned before recording.

[ampyjoe]

Here's a link to a player that has some interesting stuff on playing a tenor with rolls. He does tune DGDG though.

http://www.mirekpatek.com

Also, it's possible to play rolls without retuning, either by using a flatpick or (I would guess) by using fingerpicks. In this case it's a bit more like using the pick the way Jesse McReynolds invented for the mandolin, though many of the positions will be difficult or impossible due to the stretch. But if you listen to Gerry O'Connor play, you'll hear something like this now and again, both in bluegrassy songs, or even occasionally in Irish music.

[catmandu2]

Ah yes, Patek - not 'Pavel' - my error