With songs that are being sung as well as play, and you don't want to step on the vocal melody, do you play double stop chords or three or dour string arpeggios? Or do you just take a break?
All the above...as well as harmonizing a nice counter-melody:
Well, that pretty much sums it up. Love that.
yes ... the answer is: work it out.
i pick and sing some too, so i sort of understand what a human voice can do compared to what a fiddle voice can do. Or maybe another way of looking at it: I know what my voice can do compared to Ella Fitzgerald's voice. So i try to play as i imagine Ella would sing. Of course, with my limitations, it comes out completely different. Now you know my trick. I except donations. It's ever so cool not to play too. Less is more, etc. etc. Much of musicanship is confidence. To bring out the tiger, if you have the goods. But at the same time not to show up, or show off. You don't have to be Paganini to turn out great stuff, just love it. I look at Tim O'Brien, he looks like he love tunes like old dear freinds or new born babies.
I do the chunk when not playing melody. Or I'll play long double-stoppy things. Or I'll try to make up a harmony (and fail). It's all contextual, really.