Double Stop Question(s)

[Daijoki]

This is the year I'm going to study music (vs. just play). Most double stops are already tabbed into the music I learn, but I want to start adding my own.

In studying the G scale and G arpeggios, I am starting to see how to find the G double stops. My question is this:

• Are they always 1 & 3 or can they be 3 & 5 and 1 & 5?
• If you use all three, why might you choose one over the other (I understand "voicing" is likely involved, but I'm looking for something more concrete).
• If you use double stops across chords, might you choose to stick to, say, 3 & 5 in a particular melody line rather than mixing and matching (so that there is a somewhat "organized" sound)?

Thanks for any tips!

Scott

[AlanN]

Double stops work best when the melody is present on one of the strings. Can be 1-3, 3-5, 3-b5, etc. Play Maiden's Prayer in all double stops, with the melody in mind, you'll get the feel. Jimmy Gaudreau is a master at this.

[pickloser]

You might get some use from this.

[Fretbear]

One really cool aspect of double-stops is how they are fully multi-functional.
For instance X-7-3-X (A + C) can function equally well as either an F major double-stop (3 + 5) or an A minor double-stop (1 + b3)

[Tom C]

I've been experimenting with playing double stops with the 9th and flatted 7th.
"In the Pines" makes good use of this on the second time the word "pines" is sung.

[SincereCorgi]

I think a double-stop is, by definition, just any two strings stopped, so the scale degrees don't really enter into it.

I took a great workshop with Matt Flinner and he had a bunch of exercises based around double-stops. They mostly boiled down to imagining the G chord (or whichever) as a giant arpeggio and then playing the two tones systematically up from bottom to top (G, B then B, D then D, G and upward, etc). That basic concept was expanded out into different chord and keys- you start to get the patterns and stretches into your muscle memory.

One thing I found interesting is that he was moving his hand all over the fretboard to get them and didn't feel bound to obey any 'rules' of staying in first position.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Quote :- " he was moving his hand all over the fretboard to get them ". That's a good thing to do. It gives a varying texture to the music if you do this. Simply playing in the first position can make things sound a bit 'samey' if done all the time. I like to play a G (or whichever) double stop in one position & then quickly go to a double stop in a higher or lower position for the same note for a nice effect. It needs a bit of practice to do it really smoothly,but that's what practice is for isn't it ?,
Ivan

[Fretbear]

I think a double-stop is, by definition, just any two strings stopped, so the scale degrees don't really enter into it.

The relative scale degrees of the key in question does have to enter into it, as the doublestop's function and usage will be determined according to certain rules of theory and harmony and the key it is being used in.

[SincereCorgi]

The relative scale degrees of the key in question does have to enter into it, as the doublestop's function and usage will be determined according to certain rules of theory and harmony and the key it is being used in.

I was just giving a general definition of the term 'double-stop' to point out that it doesn't have to be just a third or a fifth. Did you think I was saying that double-stops make it magically okay to play any two random notes together and that it would all work itself out?

[mandroid]

A harmony of 2 voices , in this case, notes on your mandolin . Consonant or Dissonant , you choose.

Dissonant is Ok too, really, It creates a musical tension in transition to a consonant harmony.