Chords for Sheldon Online Academy: Béla Fleck-Single String Technique

So I thought it might be fun to talk about this technique we use on the banjo,
which we call single string technique.
And normally we think about the banjo doing [G] rolls like this. _
_ And we get the impression of going really, really fast
by alternating the three fingers on the right hand.
So I can go_
I couldn't move any one finger this fast,
but by alternating all three I could go as fast as I want. _ _
No finger is moving faster than that, right?
So that's a technique in itself that is what Scruggs [N] style is all about.
But there's a guy named Don Reno who started another style on the banjo
called single string.
And of course people argue about who actually started it,
but he certainly was a great one who did an awful lot with it
and probably started it.
And he figured out that on a banjo you could break the rule
that you never hit the same string twice,
that [G] Scruggs generally kept to,
and hit the same string with the thumb and the index in a row. _ _ _ _
_ _ And basically you're turning your thumb and index finger into a flat pick
with this technique.
So you could do things like, if you're playing along with a roll,
_ and you bring in the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
thumb_
Not what we think about when we think about the banjo [Gm] roll. _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
And all I'm doing there is going back and forth with my thumb and index.
Down strokes are always the thumb.
Index is always up.
So a good way to practice this might be to start with the open strings.
So say you take the middle string, the G string,
and go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
And then do the second [B] string.
_ _ _ And then [D] the first string. _ _
_ And then start doing them [G] consecutively. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ So that, by going across all the strings, you get used to being in time
and you get used to switching from string to string,
which is one of the trickiest things [Bb] about the thumb-index single string style
because it's one thing to stay on one string [G] and go up and down,
but if you're going all the way from any string to any string,
that's a lot harder.
So another cool technique to work on that would be to, say,
do just three notes on each string,
which will mean you'll go thumb, index, middle_
No, thumb, index, thumb.
[Ab] The next string you'll start index, thumb, index.
[G] So it'll be like this.
So _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ by coming up with some techniques like that,
you start out by learning how to get your right hand together.
_ After that, [D] now you have to learn how to get the left hand in.
So one [G] suggestion I might make is to do a similar kind of thing
and do, for instance, four notes on each string, a nice even number.
_ _ And then go to the next string.
_ _ _ _ Try _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ any note you want. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Then the next obvious thing to do is to do three notes.
_ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ [Bb] _ _ [G] _
_ _ Well, then I went into triplets, but that's for the next lesson.
I think that's maybe enough for right now.
If it was me and I was learning that for the first time,
my head would be exploding.
So get a towel off your head and learn this music.
[Eb] Good luck. _