Arpeggio roll
 

Just now after several years of failure, I'm starting to be able to do the arpeggio roll...first the 3 note roll then the 4. I am not there yet but its starting to happen...still hit or miss with the 4 note roll but feeling optomistic. I know some people can just do this and others have to struggle with it. Any tips to help me on the way with this?

Are you doing the roll with your right or left hand predominantly?

I think of it as a lifting off of my hand from the guitar strings, not as playing the notes. If I think about playing the notes, it slows down into a regular faster arpeggio. For me, the motion is closer to the one I make when I pluck all 4 strings together and lift off than the one I make when I fingerpick the notes individually. I notice this lift off is softer and sweeps a bit to the side where the plucking is stronger and comes straight off, but that's not something I thought about until I saw your question. I also find it easier on some strings than others, but that may just be me. I haven't been playing that long. Good luck!

Right hand only

Great tip..I understand what you are saying...will incorporate that thinking into what I'm doing...thanks.

Not what you mean by "arpeggio roll" or why someone would ask if using left hand or right hand.
However if you mean a fast arpeggio (like you would get in a strum) there are forward and backward ones. With forward ones you can often have all involved the picking digits in contact with the strings and you then pluck each string in succession. Easy to go very fast on this. Backward ones are more difficult (especially in isolation, a little easier in combination with a forward one).
For example:
-------0---------
-----1---1-------
---0-------0-----
-----------------
-3-----------3---
-----------------

I'm pretty spot on with my "forward" roll now (thumb, index, middle, then ring).

No disrespect to SunnyDee but I would say that you definitely need to be able to feel each and every finger motion, rather than seeing it as one large movement. Once I switched to that mindset my rolls became far more consistent, and fit far better into the mix as I can adjust for tempo more easily too.

Really, my advice is do it for 5min a day, and do it slowly enough that you feel like you have complete control over each finger. You can try it fast when bored, but stick to doing it slowly until you're very comfortable and then slowly speed up (always making sure you feel like you have complete control). Oh and also make sure your hand feels very relaxed as you do it.

I'm currently using this method for a "backward" roll too (ring, middle, index, then thumb) and it's going well. Not up to speed yet, but seeing improvement each day.

Oh, no, you're totally right, sOcks. When I was first learning, I did it very slowly, too, to make sure my timing was consistent. Since the OP said he'd been doing it for some years, I assumed he was past that stage and working to complete the execution. I'm a big fan of doing things very slowly when learning, even Bullet Time slow. :)

Slow is king!

Perhaps you are right Sunny. It's just that it shouldn't take poor Don 3yrs to perfect :( Which suggested, at least to me, that there was something fundamentally wrong with the technique he was using (god knows I've had to fix plenty of bad habits).

My bad habit was to think of it as one large motion. I didn't have the precision to pull it off accurately.

Which gets me thinking. You should also practice to a metronome (or at least counting out loud), this helps too. Ending a roll too late or too soon sounds odd.

Good ideas. Don will have to diagnose himself. :)

Timely thread. I'll be starting to learn this technique in Mark Hanson's Solo Fingerstyle course very soon.

Every once in a while during the week I'll spend a few minutes working on banjo rolls, 4th 3rd and 2nd strings then 3rd 2nd and 1st strings. Eventually the speed will increase, but in the meantime my slower arpeggios are much better.

So I'm starting to work on Dedicated to Mississippi John Hurt in Mark Hanson's the Art of Solo Fingerstyle book and I also take Skype lessons from Mark. This song has several bars with 4 finger rolls (thumb-index-middle-ring progression). I started practicing my rolls by just individually plucking the strings and then hoping with practice that I would gain speed. But during my last lesson with Mark last week, this was our hot topic and the advice he offered was kind of similar to Rik Slo but he also suggested that in addition to putting all fingers and thumb on the strings to be played prior to initiating the roll to slightly "pre-load" the strings with light tension. I'm starting out slow and it seems to be moving in a forward direction but a long way to go! Certainly one of the toughest fingerstyle techniques to master I believe.

Arpeggio roll?? Is this what you are talking about?

Watch, listen to what Chet does at around the 1:12 time mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8KBhnebwE

Yes, I would usually start with all fingers in place and with a little finger tension on each string for the fastest and most accurate forward roll. It's like a quick strum tempo wise, though you can roll slower should you wish.