Nearest equivalent to banjo roll

[mobi]

What is the nearest banjo roll equivalent in mandolin?

I can't play banjo and I want to replicate the roll sound in mandolin as much as possible.

Is there any written description of how to achieve this?

I meant if I see staff notation for rolls, what would I see there.....

[Tobin]

Cross-picking is probably the closest mandolin-specific technique to replicate banjo rolls. It's not an exact duplicate, of course, but it can have the same sort of gallop feel to it.

[Ky Slim]

Found these banjo exercises with staff notation. I agree with Tobin about crosspicking. If you finger these as regular mandolin patterns all in first position it will be the correct notes of a banjo roll but it won't have the feeling..

For example, the "Forward Roll Study #4" is notes BDGBDGBD. Try fingering these notes as x-8-5-3 and picking DDU DDU DU . It's pretty tough to do but I'd never admit that to a banjo player.

[Mandoplumb]

Cross-picking is probably the closest mandolin-specific technique to replicate banjo rolls. It's not an exact duplicate, of course, but it can have the same sort of gallop feel to it.

I don't play a banjo not even on TV but my dad was one of the best banjo players I've heard so I've been around good banjo playing all my life so far. First a roll is not a gallop, a gallop goes thru the series then starts again. A roll has a equal time between the last note in the series and the first note in the next. There are many different banjo rolls but a good player don't think " a forward roll now a in and out now a backward roll" etc. Maybe he did when learning but there comes a time that his right hand must be free to alter as needed. The same needs to be true crossing picking a guitar or mandolin. The basic roll, the starting point is a 3note forward ( Geroge Shuffler) or backward ( Mc Renolds ). To "master" that think of the first measures in Glen Miller's In The Mood that is a roll get it in your head. After mastering that you must learn when to vary the roll to make it fit the melody and work on bringing it up to speed although a roll is harder at too slow a speed. D is the easier chord on a mandolin to cross pick because you can note all the melody on D and A string and drone the E. That's the way I cross pick not like Jesse more like my dad on his banjo.

[Tobin]

I don't play a banjo not even on TV but my dad was one of the best banjo players I've heard so I've been around good banjo playing all my life so far. First a roll is not a gallop, a gallop goes thru the series then starts again.

Gallop probably wasn't the best word to use, I agree. But the distinctive sound of a three-finger banjo roll, whatever you want to call it, with notes in groups of three which have to resolve back to a 2/4 or 4/4 timing structure, is very difficult to replicate on the mandolin since we only have one pick. Cross-picking comes pretty close, when it can be taken advantage of properly.

[Tom C]

I believe Backwards roll = DUU DUU DU
starting from G string: GAD GAD DG

[Mandoplumb]

I believe a backwards roll would be equiv to DUU DUU DU

Yes it would and a forward roll would be DDU but what I don't understand is every time I see it written the third time is just DU. A banjo breaks the roll when necessary and so do I. If it is two series of three or six. I've mocked the banjo roll for years and I don't follow the pattern DUUDUUDU. Any way the notes must be spaced equally what ever pattern you use to sound like a roll, just trying to hold an eight note pattern seems difficult to me.

[farmerjones]

It's fitting 3 or 5 notes within 4/4 time. I think they call it syncopation. But again, I do a lot more hands-on, than analysis, too.

[Tom C]

DUU DUU DU Not sure where the confusion is. You got 8 notes. It cant get more square than that.

[Mandoplumb]

The confusion is why just 2notes on the third set. Yes it makes it 8 notes but why does the pattern have to break at the measure. The break may before the end of the measure ( DUU DU DUU ), or in certain cases it may carry into the next measure before breaking the pattern. To do a smooth roll you can't try to think one measure at a time, that's the way to develop a " gallop " each note must receive the same timing as the last and the next. Yes music is divided into measure, I understand that, but in learning to cross pick or do a "roll" you must think of the whole. In my ex. of In The Mood the song would break after the downstroke of the 4th series but if you stopped there and started over, you would be playing a song not doing a roll. A banjo player keeps the roll going, varying the pattern as needed. All this is hard to put into words without an instrument to show what I'm saying, but, trying to think in measures is a handicap in learning a roll. To answer the question about the confusion with a question " what happens after the DUU DUU DU? Does one go back to the beginning, if that is your thinking you are very likely to develop a gallop instead of a roll. Just my experience and opinion.