3 fingered chop chords?

[jbonestheviking]

I have been playing mandolin for about 8 months and know basic chords but I was wondering about chop chords as I am wanting to get into playing bluegrass...I have a partial amputation of my left pinky so it's unusable... was wondering what I could use for chop chords and also if the shapes of them can be moved up and down the neck or if they are stationary

[Mandoplumb]

Yes the shapes move up an down and all around the fretboard. With 3 fingers on "4" strings one is not going to be noted the open string should be the E and your hand should mute it, but there are several shapes that do that. For years I used the four finger BG chop chords just like you are supposed to. Then arthur set in and I can no longer stretch across the neck but I can still chop time and I still get a tone not just a slap as so many of today's picker do but Bill never did.

[onassis]

Three fingers are plenty for any chord, chop or not. More often than not these days I use double stops for chopping. But, I prefer a more percussive, less "chord tone"-y chop. YMMV

[MikeZito]

Roland White has a video on YouTube where he talks about the alternate 3-finger chop chords that he uses . . . very helpful if you want to be different, yet still stay in the bluegrass mode.

[Capt. E]

The Complete Jethro Burns Mandolin Book is pretty good. He very often played with only three fingers and the resulting chords. Great results, of course.

[CarlM]

I have the same injury with my pinky and ring finger. Mine are somewhat usable within limits. Working with them over time I have regained significant mobility and feeling in them.

I use mostly 3 fingered chords, usually fingering the lower three strings of the standard four finger chord shapes and leaning my finger to mute the E strings. Also if your fingers are fat, one finger can press down two string courses if they are both stopped on the same fret like an E minor or and E chord with the second fret on the second and third strings. Also for some chord shapes you can wrap the thumb around to fret the G string course.

[Mark Gunter]

As already mentioned, just learn to mute the 1st string (the E course) especially for chords that don't have an E note in the triad. Chop is good on lower strings, so learn to play G, A and B using closed fingerings that cover the three low strings for chopping.

Example shape for G chord, movable for F, A and B:

4-5-5-x

[JeffD]

I use three fingered chop chords all the time, mostly because they are portable across the strings as well as up the neck, but more because I can't be bothered to get the fourth finger into the chord. Not for just a chop. Not a recommended practice i suppose, but when it comes to chopping I am not sure anyone can tell what the heck I am doing, or cares.

[jbonestheviking]

I agree on the Jethro Burns book...this was a tremendous help thank you!

[Mark Miller]

I always played three finger chop chords because of a hand injury that gives me little flexibility in my left hand and makes the big chop chords impossible. But lately, on the advice of Mike Marshall, I’ve been chopping more just on two-finger chords, the two lowest notes of the BG chop chords. It’s a little punchier than the ones I was using. I do still switch it up a bit, but those two-finger ones do make life simple.

[dadsaster]

I always played three finger chop chords because of a hand injury that gives me little flexibility in my left hand and makes the big chop chords impossible. But lately, on the advice of Mike Marshall, I’ve been chopping more just on two-finger chords, the two lowest notes of the BG chop chords. It’s a little punchier than the ones I was using. I do still switch it up a bit, but those two-finger ones do make life simple.

Don Julin has a video about using two-finger chop chords. Go to the 2 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUCHfqMXGCo

[Mark Miller]

I like that Don Julin video. Variety in playing rhythm is wonderful. It's something I'm just starting to explore. Playing backbeat chops is great, it really drives the sound of a band or jam group. But I've been listening a lot lately to how the great mandolinists play rhythm. Sam Bush of course. David Grisman does all sorts of things, including a beautiful chop, even leaving Dawg music out of it and just focusing on when he's playing bluegrass with a bunch of bluegrass musicians, during which he tends to be very attentive to traditional ways of playing a tune (Home is Where the Heart Is is maybe my favorite CD ever, right up there with Bill Monroe's first few years post-Charlie). Monroe's rhythm playing also has a great deal of variety, including open chords, tremolo that follows chordal changes and/or the contours of the melody, and some pretty intricate runs backing the lead. Of course it takes great taste and understanding of the music and of ensemble playing to go beyond the chop without gumming up the works, none of which I pretend to have. But really studying what Monroe, Bush, Grisman etc. do when they're not playing lead can only help with that learning curve, and I suspect many of us tend to overlook that in our awe at the lead breaks they come up with.

[Gelsenbury]

Reading this thread makes me realise that I need to learn three-finger chop chords.

The only thing I don't like much about my mandolin is that it has those wider spaces between frets, which make four-finger shapes quite a stretch. Three fingers may be the way forward.

[Hypoxia]

Reading this thread makes me realise that I need to learn three-finger chop chords.

The only thing I don't like much about my mandolin is that it has those wider spaces between frets, which make four-finger shapes quite a stretch. Three fingers may be the way forward.

Wider spaces between frets? Perhaps you have small hands. I have trouble squishing my fingers together to form chords in higher positions on 13 or 13.5 inch mandolin or soprano 'ukulele necks. I usually tune my mandos GDAD which simplifies much chording. But sometimes I've just gotta twist my fingers into shape.

[Mark Gunter]

Wider spaces between frets? Perhaps you have small hands. I have trouble squishing my fingers together to form chords in higher positions on 13 or 13.5 inch mandolin or soprano 'ukulele necks. I usually tune my mandos GDAD which simplifies much chording. But sometimes I've just gotta twist my fingers into shape.

That's true for me, too. Playing a diminished chord up the neck is a good example. Even a three finger 7 chord like E7 at 7-6-7-0 I find that my index finger sometimes doesn't crowd up into the 6th fret fully when I slide into a chord like that.

But I think maybe Gelsenbury's thinking of the four finger G chord stretch associated with bluegrass chop. The frets seem pretty widely spaced while you're learning that one!

[Gelsenbury]

But I think maybe Gelsenbury's thinking of the four finger G chord stretch associated with bluegrass chop. The frets seem pretty widely spaced while you're learning that one!

That's exactly the one I'm thinking about. I can do it more comfortably on other mandolins, but it's a fair stretch on the one I play the most.

I don't have small hands, but I have narrow fingers. So I don't benefit much from the wider spacing for melody playing, and some chords are hard to reach.

[Phil Goodson]

...
Example shape for G chord, movable for F, A and B:

4-5-5-x

Two other convenient and moveable G chord shapes are 7-5-5-x [no 3rd, so can be used for major or minor]
This is very convenient for F when you're playing in C.

and 4-5-2-x

(The root is on 3rd [D] string in all of these)