A roll is a fixed right-hand pattern: which string each finger takes, in what order, eight notes to the bar. It is not a lick, because it has no melody. It is not a chord, because the left hand supplies that. It is the layer in between — and it is the layer no other instrument in this network has, which is why it gets an engine rather than an essay.
The five patterns
Every column below is derived: string numbers and fingers come from the pattern data, and each page's pitch table is computed from the instrument's real open-string tuning plus the voicing under the hand.
| Roll | Strings | Fingers | Strings used |
|---|---|---|---|
| The forward roll | 5-2-1-5-2-1-5-2 | T-I-M-T-I-M-T-I | 3 |
| The backward roll | 1-2-5-1-2-5-1-2 | M-I-T-M-I-T-M-I | 3 |
| The alternating-thumb roll | 3-2-5-1-4-2-5-1 | T-I-T-M-T-I-T-M | 5 |
| The forward-reverse roll | 3-2-1-5-1-2-3-1 | T-I-M-T-M-I-T-M | 4 |
| The Foggy Mountain roll | 1-5-2-5-1-5-2-5 | M-T-I-T-M-T-I-T | 3 |
The finger rule
Three fingers wear picks and each one owns a region of the instrument: the thumb takes strings 5, 4, 3; the index takes string 2; the middle takes string 1. Every pattern on this site is checked against that rule in CI, so a roll that asks the index finger for the drone would fail the build rather than reach the page.
Where to start
Learn the forward roll until it is boring, then the alternating thumb. Those two carry most of the repertoire between them, and the other three make more sense once your hand already knows what even feels like. If you have not decided between the two banjo right hands yet, read the fork first — rolls belong to one of them.