Chopping Bored

[Adare_Steve]

I've been trying to get the mystical 'chop' sound on my mandolin.

Part of the problem is that I don't have any sound samples to compare my own chop with - so if anyone knows where I can hear it done properly, I'd welcome the info.

But, what I'm really wondering is will I only get a full chop sound when using 3 or 4 finger chords? #A lot of the chords I use are 2 or even one fingered (I use a GDAD tuning - that I got comfortable with on my bouzouki).

Do I need full chords for a full chop? And, if anyone can describe the correct fingering action for the chop, I'd be delighted to hear about it.

Steve

[Keith Wallen]

Ah the chop..... My dad made me chop for 15 years before he would let me take a break or at least it seemed like it. Its really personal pref and there are a lot of way's to do it so you will probably want to learn a few different types for different situations. You don't have to use four fingers all the time because you can get a great snapy chop out of the two finger chords but my pref for most of the time is four fingers. Even when I am making a three finger chord I drop my pinkie down to mute the E string by sometimes just laying it on the string and sometimes on an actual note that matches the chord even though its not being used as a closed position. As far as the timing goes I usually hold the chord in a closed position until I am half way through the chop with my right hand. So between the D and A strings I loosen the grip of the chord to mute the strings as you follow through with the chop. Your chord sound comes from the top two strings and the bottom two give you that percusion. It takes a lot of practice to get it to sound exactly the way you want it. Hope this helps and is clear.... kind of hard to describe in a letter. Maybe others will chime in because there is more than one way.

Good luck,

[GBG]

You can play a chop chord with 4,3, or even 2 strings as long as you don't hit any open(unmuted) strings.

[Pen]

I've done 2,3 &4 fingured chops and prefer the sound of the 4 fingured chop. I call the 2 & 3 fingure chops a "cheater" chop. When I've used them - I often have a problem accidently hitting that open string(s). Then have to mute them with my picking hand (bad idea).

Although a pain - I've been forcing myself to use all 4 fingures and have been happy with the sound of the chop. This has improved my playing and hand strength overall as well.