Am Chop Chord

[Torpedotom]

What is the fingering for a good Am chop chord or could you just use a closed A?

[FLATROCK HILL]

I use 2235. I am no expert and not even sure if I'm representing the chord correctly in print. (The index finger takes care of the g and d -strings, fretted at the second fret. The middle finger frets the a-string on the third fret and I use my pinkie on the e-string fifth fret.
No open, ringing strings and...it's movable!

I hope this helps. Mostly, I hope I'm not full of it. I'm sure someone will let me know soon enough if I am.

[Torpedotom]

You're correct. As soon as I posted this I checked the chord library and that is one of the examples it showed. The other was a regular closed A with the index finger slid one fret closer to the nut.

[Drew Egerton]

I've found that most of the "chop" comes from the G and D strings, so sometimes I will use 9735. It can be a stretch to get all the notes clean, but again a lot of times I don't really need or care about that C note for rhythm. Will also use 2235 or 2200 in some cases.

[Willie Poole]

I just use the 22 with open A and E strings, sounds ok to me...

Willie

[Phil Goodson]

Or 223x, just muting the E string with my left hand.

[jaycat]

I like the sound of 5-2-0-0. You can mute the open strings a bit to make it more 'choppy.'

[AlanN]

2-2-0-0
2-2-3-0
2-2-3-5
5-2-0-0
5-7-7-8
9-7-3-5
9-7-7-8
9-10-12-12
etc.

Know 'em all, use 'em wisely

[Juststarting]

Can someone recommend a good text book for this? Seems like lot of choices for the chords, but I don't get the rationale.

[Kevin Stueve]

are you looking for a book to tell you which version to use? Or a book to explain why there are so many possible versions? If the latter then any basic music theory book that explains major minor scales and chords should suffice. In fact I think there is a thread in the Newbie social group of this site that discusses the basics of music theory.

[pops1]

Figure out the notes for an Am, it's an A with a flatted third. Once you know the notes of that chord you can play those notes anywhere on the neck and have an Am.

[Juststarting]

Thanks. This makes sense to me.