Chop chord help and making the mandolin quieter?

[Blip]

Hello!

I currently play a cheap stagg m40s A5-style mandolin.

I've been trying to learn chop and a few days ago I finally nailed the A chord. Problem is that chords lower on the neck (like G for example) doesn't get the same kind of choppyness, even though I use the same technique. I have a quite high action, but I can't get it lower. Anyone got any tips, or is it just all about practice?

Also, what are the main chop chord shapes except for the G-shape?



And about the quieter part, my mandolin doesn't have that fancy tone that the more expensive mandolins have, but when strumming open chords on this it overpowers even my guitar. It's much louder. Anything I could do to lower the volume except playing softer?

Thanks.

[mandroid]

IMHO it's about damping the ringing string , like a snare drum that gets hit with one hand
and promptly stopped .

function over perfect form ..

Right or left will do that .. let up fretting pressure or lay your right hand on the bridge.

[AlanN]

Also, what are the main chop chord shapes except for the G-shape?

If you mean 'other than G-shape', then

D = 7-4-5-2 or 7-4-5

C = 5-2-3

These are the usual shapes (at least for bluegrass).

Any chord form can chop. There are dozens.

For the 2nd question, the right hand (holding the pick) controls volume and dynamics. Work on that hand.

[Charley wild]

You want to play quieter? I can see you haven't encountered any banjo players yet!:))

[Coffeecup]

Or fiddles and whistles in a Celtic session. I think I play zen mandolin - if you play a wrong note and nobody hears it, is it still a wrong note?

[Tom Smart]

Anything I could do to lower the volume except playing softer?


Why "except playing softer"? Learn to use the full dynamic range of the instrument--soft when appropriate, loud when necessary. You'll be a better player as a result.

It's definitely possible to play a mandolin way too loud, even (or especially) in a big, rowdy jam. I could introduce you to a couple of people who routinely bash tasteless, tuneless mando riffs over the top of every soloist and singer. If a quieter guitar player begins a solo, one of them will even bellow out: "Play louder." It is not appreciated. He's the one who should be playing softer (and has been told as much many times).

Learn to play at the "right" volume to support the music, even if that occasionally means total silence. I'm coming around to the belief that there are two basic kinds of people who attend jams: Those for whom it's all about themselves, and those for whom it's all about the music.

The former group aren't necessarily bad people--they may just be focused on pulling off the solo they've worked out, or getting in some extra "practice" in a group setting, or simply competing with the other too-loud players. But the ones for whom it's all about the music, not surprisingly, tend to make the best music.

[JeffD]

But the ones for whom it's all about the music, not surprisingly, tend to make the best music.

That is so true, and so important.

[Keith Wallen]

Or fiddles and whistles in a Celtic session. I think I play zen mandolin - if you play a wrong note and nobody hears it, is it still a wrong note?

:)) Love it... No it's not a wrong note. (OT) I had a song show up on YouTube from over the weekend with a way wrong note in it but everyone I have asked didn't get it so I am not telling anyone else about it.