Re: Help with rhythm
Originally Posted by
John Bertotti
... leads me to ask or want to verify, the bold arrow is the chop? What is the upstroke, a light chord or a chop? How do you chop a down stroke and up stroke so quickly...
Lots of good information above, but I think some definition is needed for perspective:
- The ukelele chart shows a series of "strums", as normally used on uke. None of them are specifically a "chop". (I trust that "strum" itself, per its most common usage, doesn't need further definition.)
- A "chop" is a specialized form of strum, highly abbreviated, and mostly played on the off-beat in bluegrass music. It replaces the hi-hat of a traditional drum set.
- A proper BG chop is normally played on a downstroke, because it is mostly expressed by the lower strings of the mandolin.
- The TERM "chop" is, again, mostly in bluegrass, and would not be known to most ukelele players or other musicians.
- The effect of a chop does show up in places o/t bluegrass, mostly often played on guitar or even piano; not so much on ukulele.
Aside: Some will laugh either with me or at me, but John Lennon's rhythm on "She's A Woman" is, to me, an extreme form of rock "chop". His "mallet-on-steel" tone is also the earliest example I can recall of anything being called "heavy metal", back before heavy metal became a thing meaning "bathed in distortion".
Hope this helps!
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
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