Hey folks, I just joined this group. I am mostly a guitar player, but that did not stop me from exploring this wonderful instrument. I live in central Illinois, near Peoria. I have some Eastman mandos (as good as I will ever need), and a Ken Ratcliff economando, which is really cool. Right now, I play mostly easy melodys, and struggle with the chop chords. I really don't know if my fingers will allow it or not (at least the classic Big Mon shapes). Glad to be a part of this. Jim DeSalvio
Welcome, Jim! Joe
Forget the Big Mon stretch chords. I've found a lot of useful 3-note chords on the 2nd,3rd and 4th strings that are good for rhythm work.
I've always liked Jethro Burns approach to chording. Though he could do the 4 finger chop chords he also realized the value of 3 note and 2 note chords. Tim O'Brien, who's a find bluegrass musician, also uses 2 and 3 note chords on a lot of his work. Maybe it's just a folk, Celtic, blues, etc. genre thing. I don't know but I don't live or die by the 4 note chop chord fingerings even if I'm playing bluegrass or with some bluegrass pickers. I just look for the fun in it all.
