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Jan 18, 2025 - 8:26:33 AM
67 posts since 12/27/2023

Hi all, I am primarily a two finger player and decided to pick up 3 finger too. Unfortunately, I am having a hell of a time trying to shake the two finger habits. It feels so wrong using my index for anything but the first string, and I have to actively like think about it every time there’s a note not on the fifth or fourth string not to use my thumb. And using my middle is just a whole new beast completely. Any advice to make the switch a bit more manageable?

Jan 18, 2025 - 8:35:27 AM
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6376 posts since 3/6/2006

This might be the one time I would recommend practicing rolls.

Jan 18, 2025 - 9:34:19 AM
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banjo bill-e

Tuvalu

14092 posts since 2/22/2007

If you can manage to play your two finger songs with thumb and middle it will soon feel useful and that will free up your index for other duties. That *might make the transition easier, but you will still have to drill rolls.

* I don't play Bluegrass but heard that tip from someone here who had made the switch. 

Edited by - banjo bill-e on 01/18/2025 09:37:58

Jan 18, 2025 - 5:00:06 PM
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chuckv97

Canada

73566 posts since 10/5/2013

The forward-backward roll , repeat 1000x a la Earl Scruggs
(strings 3,2,1,5,1,2,3,1)

Jan 19, 2025 - 9:50:33 AM
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1115 posts since 3/23/2006

Jackie Phelps played 2-finger banjo for Bill Monroe in 1954 I believe. He was great as you can hear on Roanoke https://youtu.be/hKl8OVa0fDg

Jan 19, 2025 - 10:13:11 AM
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Players Union Member

Eric A

USA

1951 posts since 10/15/2019

Well, screw it. I've been playing two finger index lead for a while. And I can hit 1st to 4th with index finger and dont feel like I am somehow disadvantaged.

Jan 19, 2025 - 10:15:58 AM
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Eric A

USA

1951 posts since 10/15/2019

I can't hit a clear note with my thumb to save my life. So we all have to do what we all have to do.

Jan 19, 2025 - 10:29:12 AM
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16101 posts since 6/2/2008

What Laurence said. It takes practice. And if drilling rolls is what it takes to get your index finger off the first string then that's what it takes.

Are you taking lessons of any sort? Watching online videos or using an instructional book?

It will be ironic if you get into single-string style down the road, which uses thumb and index on the first string. But for straight-ahead bluegrass picking, the use of index on first is rare.

As to your comment: "I have to actively like think about it every time there’s a note not on the fifth or fourth string not to use my thumb" . . .

Put that idea out of your head. Scruggs/bluegrass three-finger style regularly uses thumb on the second and third strings.  The Foggy Mountain Breakdown roll is just one example of thumb on second string. If a melody note happens on second string followed by a note on first string, it is common in Scruggs style (and was Earl's preference) to pick that note with the thumb -- as long as the thumb was free. The pattern Chuck described above uses thumb on third. So does the T-I-T-M "square roll" used throughout the B part of Cripple Creek.

Index is used extensively on third and second strings and sometimes on fourth.

Middle is used on second string extensively by modern players. By "modern" I mean Alan Munde and later, which means for decades. A pattern such as 4-3-2 is often referred to as an "inside roll."

Thumb and index have a lot freedom -- and necessity -- in three-finger. The only absolutes that serve most players are only thumb on fifth and only middle on first. These will probably serve you, too, for now.

Jan 19, 2025 - 12:02:44 PM
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210 posts since 12/15/2005

Jan 20, 2025 - 6:19:14 AM
Players Union Member

Eric A

USA

1951 posts since 10/15/2019

quote:
Originally posted by Eric A

I can't hit a clear note with my thumb to save my life. So we all have to do what we all have to do.


Of course I'm talking no picks here.   I mostly play in my living room, so I only put picks on if I'm in a mood to rattle the windows.

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