Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Learning Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Next, we're going to learn Foggy Mountain Breakdown. This is an important song to learn because there's a right-hand pattern in it that gets used a lot. It goes like this:

"And that little roll, that rhythm pattern right there, works for hundreds of things or more, maybe, I don't know, many, many things."

Understanding the Pattern

Here's how this pattern works:

• Just like the tag, it can have a space in it.
• We'll learn it first without the space.

Basic Pattern

The basic pattern goes like this:

• Index
• Middle
• Thumb
• Middle
• Then fifth string

And it runs right into itself.

It would be possible to play all four of the first notes with just the two fingers, but you want to bring that thumb down there.

"Notice that it repeats right onto itself."

You could play both the first and the second strings with the thumb if you wanted, but not on the second time. This is because it comes out of that forward roll and your thumb has just hit a note.

Finger Usage

You don't want to hit two quick notes in a row with the same finger.

• Our fastest notes are 16th notes or eighth notes, depending on how you're writing your music.
• You're never going to want to do that except in very specific circumstances.

So, you have to start the second roll with the index.

"That's one of the things about the banjo style that we're doing here is all these rolls are designed to not repeat a finger and not repeat a string."

There is a special technique of playing on single strings which we may get into a little later.

Practice with Space

This is our basic pattern, and we can play that pattern with a space.

• We still use our thumb after the space.
• Don't just play the two fingers.

So that was done both ways in this tune.

Hammer-Ons

There's a hammer-on with that. That's the basic lick right there.

"Try and notice your left hand fingers changing pressure from one finger to the next. If you just lock the one finger down, it will get you in trouble."

I'm not going to bother playing the simple melody to this song because this is a banjo tune and basically the whole song is the melody.

Playing the Whole Song

Here's the whole song. Now I'll do a slow version.

You'll notice that with that initial line, the third time through the pattern, it's still the same roll. However, the index has changed to the third string instead of the second string.

It's still a Fog Mountain Roll, and I call it a Foggy Mountain Roll.

You can play the whole thing with the third string. It's a very versatile roll, and you can use it for a lot of different things.