Do you generally use double stops only when playing bluegrass? I don't play bluegrass and the practice pieces I've been given I've never heard of. I went through some of my own music and double stops seem to be few and far between.
Do you generally use double stops only when playing bluegrass? I don't play bluegrass and the practice pieces I've been given I've never heard of. I went through some of my own music and double stops seem to be few and far between.
I use them all the time to accompany songs (a nice contrast with guitars playing full chords), and as harmonies in solos, and I don't play much bluegrass.
D.H.
OK. So without the sheet music (or tab), you just have to figure out good notes to accompany the melody notes, which will primarily (or always?) come from other notes in the chord? For example, if playing a tune in A major, and the melody note is A, the accompanying note will be C# or E?
I use double stops all the time, where a harmony may be needed. Its very mandolinny, but I don't think of it as exclusively bluegrassy.
Hammer-ons and slides are more bluegrassy, IMO, and can have the effect in other music (old time for example) of advertising that one also plays bluegrass. Chop chords are, IMO, exclusively bluegrass.
Sherry, there is a book that I use a lot, Anthology of Mandolin Music by Bud Orr. It has a large number of musical pieces from all over the world: from classical to neapolitan songs, early country, bluegrass, fiddle tunes, blues, gospel, ragtime music, spanish...but the most important thing is that almost all the arrangements are solos based on double stops ... a great source to learn, plus it also brings a number of exercises.
I use them often. The more I play through a song, and become comfortable and fluid with it, the more opportunities I find to use double stops to fill out the sound.
If you know the chord progression (or the bass line) you could use those as a clue for the double stops to use.
Most often, for the music i assume you are playing, you will want to use a chord tone, either the 3rd or 5th. Sometimes the 6th can sound very good too, even when the chord is not a 6 chord. If the chord is a 7 chord, then that note becomes another option, etc...Ultimately, your ear will be the arbiter, but double stops are great on mandolin, a feature.
The best way to learn music, and that's what you're doing, is with a teacher. That's my opinion. It's a much more efficient way to learn.
it's an excellent deal for an excellent book ... plus his double stop solo arrangements are a good start if you want to delve into mandolin chord melodies later...
ahh and a tip: if you don't know the piece of music, look for it on YouTube or on the internet and you will surely find it, it will serve as a guide for the score.
In the case of Budd Orr's book, almost all the pieces that I don't know I have found on the internet ... and well, if you don't find any of that book or another, you can always come here for help ...
I found the entire guide to be very useful. If you skim it she lets you know what parts you might want to skip if you want to get right to the nitty gritty.it gave me a good understand of where to find double stops. Sharon’s Peghead Nation course on the fretboard was also vey, very useful. She has you concentrate on incorporating two easy double stops into your melody line.
I know you study with a violin teacher. Double stops should be part of your lessons although it is more a question what level you are at. Beginning violin students work on single string playing and will work on perfecting their intonation. Eventually they will get to double stops. One book that classical players use is Josephine Trott’s Melodious Double Stops. It is a collection of etudes concentrating on double stops. I am sure there are other similar books in the library of violin pedagogy.
Jim
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Some time back I asked my teacher about double stops and she wasn't keen on teaching me at that time. Now I'm working on Wolfahrt studies and second position. Maybe I'll bring up the subject at my next lesson.
I just started double stops from a mandolin teacher, but feel working on my jam skills is more important with him right now.
On a violin double stops are more difficult since you must intonate two notes but on a mandolin it is not much of an issue. Ask your violin teacher again and ask her why not if she balks. She may have a very good reason. I don’t know what jam skills are unless you are needing to play breaks in a bluegrass jam.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
I was wondering why a friend who is a trained violinist simply refused to play double stops on the old-time songs she likes to play and the bluegrass songs, so I asked a professional orchestra player and teacher about it. He said that playing double stops is considered an advanced technique in classical violin training, usually taught after someone has been playing at a high level for a while. She was never taught, and she wants to be a violinist, not a fiddler - while playing songs that require fiddle.
On the mandolin, many double stops begin to show up naturally as soon as you get your three finger chords working - they are part of the chords. With a little tremolo practice, you will have a basic way to play those double stops and sound really good in a jam.
IMO, basic double stopping on violin (2 notes - 3 continously at once is near impossible) isn't all that advanced and doesn't require a better ear than basic single note tuning, but doing even basic double stopping 'in tune' to a modern professional classical violinist's satisfaction is not always easy If you listen to some great old-time, Western Swing, blues or even jazz fiddlers from the 1950s and back, their double stopping is perfect for their type of music, but it's often different from what a modern classical musician would regard as 100% 'in tune'. That's no criticism of their skills, it's just another way of hearing - but the classical world hasn't always understood that, and parts of it had a cult of 'perfection' which IMO was a bit tyrannical. I think that's easing off now as classical players get to know more about other kinds of music. That cult of perfection may be why some amateur classical musicians will shy away from trying certain things that folk fiddlers just wade into with a 'what the hell' attitude - I think they get self conscious if they feel it's less than perfect.
My violinist teacher gave me double stop exercises today! They're all in first position, which is where I want to start.
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