Re: Strum, chop, mute?
If you aren't doing so, you should play chop chords rather than a muted strum. Same space isn't so much the problem as the fact that you could get the same effect by whacking a table with a flyswatter. The "bluegrass snare drum" that is the mandolin should include the sound of the chord. This will add "music" to what you are doing. The mandolin's role when accompanying is 2 and 4, so if you are chopping on 2 and 4 you are doing what you're supposed to do. If the issue is that you don't know the chords, learn them before your next jam session. Maybe your banjo guy just wants to hear the chop chord and not just a thwack.
"I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is."~John Mellencamp
"Theory only seems like rocket science when you don't know it. Once you understand it, it's more like plumbing!"~John McGann
"IT'S T-R-E-M-O-L-O, dangit!!"~Me
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