Chords for Jerry Reed's Banjo Roll Techniques

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ What I'd like to share with you now, instead of a song,
really is a technique that I picked up
learning a bunch of Jerry Reid tunes.
When I was listening to Jerry play,
I'd always hear him doing this banjo sort of roll thing. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ [E] _ I later found out, boy, you can do a lot of stuff with that
by just doing chord shapes up the neck.
For instance, Jerry, when playing Cannonball Rag,
Chet would be doing something like [D] this. _
_ [G] _ _ _ [D] _ _ [Em] And Jerry'd come up here and do [G#] that little banjo [D] roll. _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ Then he'd go back [E] to Cannonball.
What I'm going to do is show you a simple way to learn this technique.
You can use it virtually in any key, any chord that you want to play,
and have a lot of fun with it.
What I'm going to do is play a simple song, I Saw the Light.
Let me just run through it one time. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
[E] Okay, no frills, no fancy licks here. _
What I'm going to do now is show you how [G] the lead is going to sound
without [E] the roll, just the thumb notes. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [G#m] _ _ [A] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
Pretty complicated, huh?
_ _ Watch what happens when you put a little bit of a roll with that. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ Okay, [G#] now it sounds a whole lot flashier than just the simple notes.
Here's a good way to practice [E] that.
I tell a lot of people to practice [G#] doing scales using a double stop.
[G#] For instance, like it would be a single note.
[F#] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [E] _
_ _ We'd put a roll with that.
Here's what the roll looks like.
If we take a real close look at the right hand, _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ real slow. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Okay, now doing it with chords,
_ _ I'm going to go _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ and put in just a roll on it. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Okay, now I'm going to change it a little bit.
I'm actually going to come down here.
[D] Come down a set of [G#m] strings _ [C] instead of here.
[F#] _ _ [G#m] _ Same thing. _
[G#] _ [B] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [F#] _ _
_ [E] _ Now listen to it. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Okay, with a little more speed. _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ All right, now that's the same technique as I'm using to play this,
but you see my fingers are doing very little. _ _
_ _ _ _ And put the roll. _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to split the screen,
and that way you can watch the left hand and the right hand work together.
_ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [A] Okay, now [E] here's those notes. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
[C#] _ _ _ _ [A#] _ _ _ _
[E] _ Oh, this is complicated. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[E] _ Okay, now adding the roll. _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C#m] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Even slower. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [C#m] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Or Jerry, come down.
[G#] _ _ _ _ _ Here's a nice little lick.
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
[E] _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Here's the scale. _ _
_ _ _ _ Notice how I keep my fingers on [E] the first and second string.
Only my thumb is moving _ _ _ _ _ to play the notes.
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ Okay, now I'm going to drag my first finger of the right hand.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _