lindensensei
Dec-18-2004, 6:15am
I’ve been taking Chris Thile’s music apart lately and am fairly amazed by all the passive double stops he seems to get. #After listening for hours and playing along (as best I can) I began to realize that he gets these wonderful sustaining notes that become passive double stops by playing up in the second and third positions and using open strings when the opportunity arises.
For example. #In “Hop the Fence” I would do a simple descending triplet to open the tune but got nowhere near the ring and sustain he gets. #I assumed it was the Dudd vs. The Fern. #Not so. #He begins by moving up to the 5th fret on the 1st string and instead of descending to the 2nd fret moves to the 2nd string 9th fret and allows the first to sustain, creating a nice passive double stop. #This proceeds through the entire tune. #
In “Ode” he does the same in the third phrase when he slides up to that 12th fret glide down to the 2nd string (11th fret to 9th fret) but there, instead of hitting the 7th fret, again he goes back to the 1st string open. #Later on, in the bridge he does it a lot by using the 4th-5th slide, drops back to the bottom open string, pops the same at the 9th fret and then hits the string above open while going back to 4th-5th. #This way he gets lots of passive double stops and creates an amazingly full sound.
Whew! #All that to ask this. #Does anyone else do this? #Am I so naïve that I never noticed it before? #Is this a common practice, to use the 2nd and 3rd positions to create these double stop opportunities with open strings?
For example. #In “Hop the Fence” I would do a simple descending triplet to open the tune but got nowhere near the ring and sustain he gets. #I assumed it was the Dudd vs. The Fern. #Not so. #He begins by moving up to the 5th fret on the 1st string and instead of descending to the 2nd fret moves to the 2nd string 9th fret and allows the first to sustain, creating a nice passive double stop. #This proceeds through the entire tune. #
In “Ode” he does the same in the third phrase when he slides up to that 12th fret glide down to the 2nd string (11th fret to 9th fret) but there, instead of hitting the 7th fret, again he goes back to the 1st string open. #Later on, in the bridge he does it a lot by using the 4th-5th slide, drops back to the bottom open string, pops the same at the 9th fret and then hits the string above open while going back to 4th-5th. #This way he gets lots of passive double stops and creates an amazingly full sound.
Whew! #All that to ask this. #Does anyone else do this? #Am I so naïve that I never noticed it before? #Is this a common practice, to use the 2nd and 3rd positions to create these double stop opportunities with open strings?