From the course: Mandolin Lessons: 1 Fundamentals

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Bluegrass chop chords, part 1

Bluegrass chop chords, part 1

From the course: Mandolin Lessons: 1 Fundamentals

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Bluegrass chop chords, part 1

“

- Okay, let's start doing some bluegrass chop chords. Now, the mandolin in a bluegrass band functions like a snare drum in rock and roll or in country music. It's often playing rhythm, you'll spend most of your time playing rhythm, in fact. You just have a break maybe once in each song. So, a good part of your role in a bluegrass band is playing rhythm, and so it's something to work on, and there's a lot it, actually. My favorite mandolin players all have incredible rhythm, and the chop is a big part of it, whether you're talking about David Grisman, or Sam Bush, or Ronnie McCoury, any of the greats. The way they play their backbeats, and how it propels the group, is really the heart and soul of their mandolin playing. So, we've taught you the open G chord, where everything is ringing. The open D and the open C, and it's almost more of a folk way of playing the mandolin, or an old-timey way of playing the mandolin. One of the things that Bill Monroe invented when he started playing…

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