Re: Chop - hold/release or just mute?
+1 for what John Ritchhart said! Sometimes I'll use several percussive techniques over the course of a single song (or even a single measure) depending on the tune and what other players are doing. The classic - 3 or 4 finger, closed chord, hit and release is the basic chop. Played in a more muted mode - like the 'hovering' mentioned in by the OP, makes a nice thwack. Mix 'em up - chime in with a classic chop on the 2 beat - a dry thwack on the 4. If the fiddle player is taking their solo way up the neck - move on up with them and chop chords higher up the neck. When the singer comes around to the 'soft verse' in the song, lighten up and only chop on 2 courses.
The guys I play with work a variety of music, rock, folk, old-time and bluegrass. Listening to drummers in the non-BG really has helped me move from a strict 2-4 beat to whatever serves the song. Try chopping the Beatles 'Ticket to Ride' for fun. I've got a little thing I call my 'John Bonham Chop' that really is left field, but when the song calls for something different, it really grooves.
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” -- Aldo Leopold
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