Basic Rolls

• 3 Finger (Scruggs) style
• Basic Frailing (or Clawhammer) style

Printer friendly rolls chart

3 Finger (Scruggs) style

Below are some rolls common to bluegrass music. Don't worry too much about the names as they vary from player to player. There are many variations to these basic rolls as you will discover when learning more tunes.

I've also included the MIDI files so you can hear them. These MIDI files loop the roll 4 times (4 bars). The file sizes are very small — less then 1kb each.

Basic Forward forward.mid	Basic Backward backward.mid
Alternating Thumb alter.mid	Standard Forward standard.mid
Foggy Mountain* foggy.mid	Forward Backward forback.mid
Forward Reverse forrev.mid	Double Backward doubback.mid
Pause Forward pause.mid	Forward Variation forward2.mid
Ragtime ragtime.mid

* The Foggy Mountain Roll is also often played with the fingering I M T M T I M T depending on the rolls that surround it.

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Basic Frailing (or Clawhammer) style

Basic Frailing Pattern frail.mid

P = Pick (pick down with back of index or middle nail).
B = Brush (back of nails brushing down across strings).
T = Thumb (pluck the 5th string with the fleshy edge of thumb).

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