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gophish
Aug-30-2005, 11:57pm
Hey yall, ive been reading here for a while, ive been a member of The Rhombus for a while and saw someone mention this place...its great...Ive been playing mandolin for about a year and completey self taught ( 4 years of guitar instruction help) and what exactly is a chop....i need help

Coy Wylie
Aug-31-2005, 12:22am
The "chop" is a four finger closed chord in Bluegrass played on the off beat (2&4 beats). It is a rythmic stacato sound made by fingering the chord and releasing pressure as the pick strikes the strings. You can hear it in almost any good BG recording. It is the "snare drum" effect in BG music.

grandmainger
Aug-31-2005, 2:42am
Have a look at the Bluegrass lessons here on the cafe (http://www.mandolincafe.com/bluegrass.html). Scroll down to "The Big Three!"
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

PS: Welcome to the Cafe!

AlanN
Aug-31-2005, 7:05am
The 'chop' (7523) is the 4-fingered behemoth that everyone knows and loves <g>, but do know that you can 'chop' any chord shape, as its the sound and placement of the move that drives the thing. I like to use 2245 (A) and 245 (D) as other shapes to chop. Also chop minor is good: 957 or 991012 (E minor); Major 7: 2244 or 264 (A maj7), etc.

Chop away, there's loads of 'em http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

mando bandage
Aug-31-2005, 7:21am
If you want a good practice tune for various forms of chop chords, there's a tab/chord version of "Camarillo Brillo" by Zappa out there that can tolerate 4 or 5 different chop chord forms. Work through those changes at temp and you'll be a rhythm king.

R

kvk
Aug-31-2005, 8:04am
A cut of pork or lamb about 1/2-1" thick taken from the loin/back area including a portion of the vertebrae and/or rib bones.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Jack Roberts
Aug-31-2005, 3:46pm
If you want a good practice tune for various forms of chop chords, there's a tab/chord version of "Camarillo Brillo" by Zappa out there that can tolerate 4 or 5 different chop chord forms. Work through those changes at temp and you'll be a rhythm king.

R
Speaking from Camarillo myself, let me say this about that. The bluegrass chop cannot be made well with any mandolin, even if the technique is right. I thought it was a technique problem because I could never quite get the zhroop sound of a good chop (also called a "woof" or a "bark"), until I bought a good quality f-holed carved top mandolin.

angrymandolinist
Sep-01-2005, 10:37am
Since your question has already been answered quite well, I'll just chime in and say "nice sig." http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

fredfrank
Sep-14-2005, 10:31pm
You know, it's kinda funny, I gave a fellow a lesson tonight, and he wanted to know how to do the chop chord. It was really hard for me to explain it in words how to get the sound I was making.

I think the best way I could describe it was: the time between when your pick hits the strings and when your left hand relaxes and mutes the strings determines how the well the chop sounds. You can increase or decrease that split second to allow more or less chord sound through.

He was having a difficult time doing it, and so we traded mandolins for a minute. I couldn't even get a decent chop out of his 350 dollar pac rim mando, while he had no trouble with my Gibson. It would seem that there is a certain amount of chop built into each mandolin. Some, more than others!

KevinM
Oct-03-2005, 5:20pm
I think it's more of a momentary squeeze as the pick hits and then let off the squeeze. Put on a "chop" song" and then just hold your hand without the mandolin and squeeze-unsqueeze-squeeze-unsqueeze to get the feel of it.

BlueMountain
Oct-03-2005, 7:46pm
You can play "chop" chords on any mandolin (play them 1,000 times and you'll have them down), but it's true that a lot of mandolins don't have "that sound" when they are played. Some are too resonant, too crystaline and rich and complex in tone, too pure. There's a bit of dirtiness and brashness and buzz to a good "chop" or "bark." You can get a nice f-style Rover RM-75, solid wood, carved and graduated, for $300. It doesn't have the depth of a great mandolin, but it has a thoroughly authoritative bark. In other words, a lot of bark for the buck.

250sc
Oct-04-2005, 3:30pm
Be carefull not to blame you instrument for failure to be able to play a chop chord. Maybe some mandos can't do it but I haven't found one yet. (I agree some are better than others but you should be able to do it with practice.)