Lesson 2 Guitar: Crosspicking Alternating Roll Patterns

by Mickey Cochran

Notes: The roll patterns, in the 4 studies below, demonstrate how effectively the guitar can be played as a solo instrument. When these patterns are applied to chordal studies, you'll find that there's a lot of harmonic support. It's almost patterned after the alternating bass arpeggios of fingerstyle guitar. The Alternating Roll Patterns demonstrated here, can also be used effectively for backing up vocalists and other instrumentalists...especially on slower tempo pieces. The following exercises involve only the right hand, your picking hand, and does not require any fretting whatsoever (notice there are only "0"s indicated on the tablature). This is to ensure that we're focusing on the crosspicking pattern only...once we're comfortable with this pattern, we will then be moving on to applying this very same pattern to chordal studies.

A Note on Picking Direction: Notice the "D" and "U" symbols above the tablature. This represents your pick direction. The "D" stands for Down and the "U" stands for Up. Picking patterns, how you choose to go up or down with your flatpick, is critical to the rhythm of your crosspicking arrangements. Below, you'll find that we're using nothing but down and up patterns.

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