How and when to chop

[ptritz]

This explains it all....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbybBUhyNw

[journeybear]

Nice find. Worthy of embedding:



Somehow banjo escaped the videographers' notice. Perhaps this approach had already been used:



"Coming soon: A tutorial on how to play cajon or djembe in a jam session."

I can't wait!

[Wolfmanbob]

I chop mostly when I need a medium texture. If I want a finer texture a use a grater. It all depends on the recipe.

[JeffD]

A good rule of thumb is to listen to the music you are playing. If its not bluegrass, don't chop.

[AlanN]

Django jazz? Western Swing?

[JeffD]

Yea, I think a percussive bluegrass chop sticks out in DJ and WS. Gentle and creative strumming much better.

[AlanN]

And I think a modified chop/sock works fine there.

[Markus]

I am with Alan. If we are talking about chop as that offbeat 2+4 only, then bluegrass is it's only perfect place ... but swing/sock rhythm chording has a lot of the same muting.

In bluegrass all you do is chop ... but if find the bits of the same technique all over my rhythmic backup for jazzy bluesy rock stuff. There are genres and places (most notably other folk music) where it does not fit and would be BAD to force it into but I find myself in a band context sometimes wanting that short sock rhythm.

If I let my chords ring in my rock band, I am right where the guitarist wants to solo out some sustained tones. As he hits that place in the solo, i cannot sustain chords right at the same timbre he wants. On a solo that ends up there I think more of the chop than the guitar strum. I will not 'pop' the chop, more like the worlds slowest and softest chop ... but to me that western swing chordal backup is a form of chop.

Then again, your ear might consider that more like a strum. I don't think anyone here suggests going to an ITM or OT jam and pulling out the Monroe offbeat chop. Ever.

[JeffD]

And I think a modified chop/sock works fine there.

I guess there is a continuum. Not every strum that emphasizes the up beat is a real mando-chop.

If you are doing anything on the down beat its not a mandolin chop, in the orthodox sense. Also if you are not muting the sustain immediately after the strum, its not a real chop.

[AlanN]

I think we're all singing from the same sheet, boys.

I look at Dawg as the guy who kind of modified the chop to fit other things. Maybe Sam too. But Dawg was the guy to take the chop and give it sort of a 'thwacka thwack' vibe. Granted, Dawg music (first LP, Kaleidoscope F-5) was not grass, but it took from grass. There were spots in there which were pure off-beat chop shop, like during Todd's one and only solo, on Dawg's Rag, about 16 bars. And EMD.

Django's other guitarists emphasized the offbeat. Maybe not a hard-core mandolin chop, but close.

[Michael H Geimer]

If we think of the Bluegrass chop as primarily a rhythmic device, it is easy enough to extend that concept beyond the "backbeats" of 2 & 4. Listen to the song being played, and help support its "groove" by using your chop on the right beats. Of course, the right beats will vary from song to song (and that's a good thing).

Liberate the Chop!

[JeffD]

Liberate the Chop!

But why, when there is so much else the mandolin is so very good at.

My opinion, but here is an analogy. Look at the OPs video and recall the violin "chop", which is very popular I must admit. Now imagine someone unfamiliar with the violin, and thinking that rhythmic thing is what the violin is all about. Huh?

[Michael H Geimer]

Now imagine someone unfamiliar with the violin, and thinking that rhythmic thing is what the violin is all about. Huh?

Just wait for Lesson 2: Using a Cajon or Djembe in a Jam. Surely that vid will enlighten us all to new rhythmic opportunities everyone can enjoy.