Playing By Ear VII

OK, so you have a rough melody worked out and you can play it and tap your foot once for each note, or thereabouts. Now for the sake of this exercise we're going to say that this tune is in 4/4 time (OH NO, TECHNICAL MUSIC TERMS!!!) Don't freak. 4/4 time simply means there are 4 beats to a measure - top number - and quarter notes get 1 beat - bottom number. What this means to you is that the rhythm is going to be felt in groups of 4 beats; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - , 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 etc.

Now how are we going to fit this tune into a roll? And what roll(s) should we use? Well, the tune starts on the 4th string so we know that the thumb will play these notes so we need a roll that starts with the thumb, right? That would be either the Alternate Thumb Roll or the Forward-Reverse roll (you could start the forward roll with the thumb also - TIMTIMTI) So you've got some options. In this case I want to start with the Alternate Thumb Roll.

You've learned it as:

-------0-------0-
---0-------0-----
-0-------0-------
-----------------
-----0-------0---

But you could play it as:

-------0-------0-
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------0---
-----------------
---------0-------

Or:

-------0-------0-
-----------------
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------0---
---------0-------

Since Alternate thumb simply means playing TITM, TITM, or the thumb playing every other note, what strings you play really doesn't matter.

FITTING THE TUNE INTO THE ROLL

In 4/4 time - for the sake of this exercise - we're going to play 2 notes to the beat. So where you tapped your foot for every melody note we're going to play 2 banjo notes and we're going to count them 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &, 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & etc. playing one banjo note for each number and each &:

-------0-------0-
-----------------
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------0---
---------0-------
-1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Now take a minute and get used to playing this pattern. Play it until you feel comfortable with it.

Now if we super-impose the melody of the first measure, which was played on the first, second and fourth beats, over this pattern we come up with:

-------0-------0-
-----------------
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------2---
---------0-------

Now, what would the second measure look like using the same Alternate Thumb pattern? Remember Aternate Thumb means Thumb, Index, Thumb, Middle. Regardless of what strings you hit.