TECHNIQUE

How to play a chop groove

Mix up chops, ghost notes and melody notes to create a rhythmic groove with tonal variation

CASEY DRIESSEN American fiddle player, co-author of The Chop Notation Project and international contemporary violin workshop leader

• BORN Asheville, NC, US

• STUDIED WITH Matt Glaser

• TEACHES Students of all ages, privately and at workshops online and internationally

Chop grooves are a fantastic way for string players to give each other rhythmic support when they are playing non-scripted, non-classical styles of music such as folk, rock or jazz. Classical players who have come to my workshops have also taken these techniques to use in their string quartets or trio arrangements. To begin with, many people struggle to switch between the different types of vertical and horizontal bow stroke in a groove, so in this article I show how to build up each movement gradually until you can alternate between them quickly and automatically. Developing these techniques can help anyone to improve their bow control, rhythm and sense of time, and will enhance any string player’s skills and musicianship.

EXERCISES

Over the past two years, I have worked with violinist Oriol Saña to create The Chop Notation Project (see page 76), a notation system to help players, teachers and composers communicate up-to-date chopping techniques clearly in writing. In this article, I use this system to illustrate how to use these four types of note when playing a groove:

ARTHUR DRIESSEN

Standard pitch Play this regular bowed note at the heel with a short, crisp articulation, in the first 10cm of the bow at the frog.

Hard chop This is a percussive, vertical bowing. Lightly mute the strings with your fingers, then drop the full weight of the bow on to the A and D strings at the frog, for a crunchy, crisp sound. The motion is perpendicular to the floor, not to the instrument. Finish the chop by lifting the bow rhythmically back off the string:

• Keep the bow parallel to the ground, at a slight angle to your instrument, so that the hair catches and pulls the string the tiniest amount on impact

• Keep your fingers flexible. You don’t need to hit the string hard. You just have to hit the right spot

• Lift the bow at the same angle, to catch the string and create a similar, quieter sound

Soft chop This is the same as a hard chop, only gentler. Use less bow weight for a softer sound, and find a different tone by using a different sounding point (see below).

Sounding points Practise chopping midway between the bridge and the fingerboard, closer to you, and further away, to vary your tone (figure 1). ‘Further away’ means closer to the fingerboard for a violinist or violist, but closer to the bridge for a cellist or bassist. ‘Closer’ means nearer to the bridge for a violinist or violist, and to the fingerboard for a cellist or bassist. The distance between sounding points can be smaller at faster tempos.

• Practise alternating chops in all three positions

• The smaller the movements you can make, the better. You will get less tired if you work from the wrist and the fingers, with your right arm balanced and level with the bow

FIGURE 1 Learn to chop at all of the three sounding points shown below. Note that the direction of movement with the hand is more important than the position of the bow relative to the instrument, and that, on a cello or double bass, the bow should be placed close to the fingerboard in image 2, and close to the bridge in image 3

Ghost note This is an unmuted chop with a more open sound and different tone. Play pitches in the left hand and chop with the right.

• You won’t hear the pitch on the down stroke of the chop, but you should hear it ring slightly as you lift the bow away again

• Play in strict time, with a crisp beginning followed by a ring. Remember to keep the bow action vertical

HOW TO BUILD UP A CHOP GROOVE

Now you can put these isolated movements together into a groove. This can be a lot to think about at once, so it is important to build up slowly. In exercise 1, begin by working through the building blocks of a two-position groove that uses only the middle ( ) and away ( ) sounding points. Play all sounds within 10cm of the frog, and always keep the rhythm steady and tight.

• The ghost notes here are on a D–G string double-stop, so you may prefer also to chop on the D and G strings. Personally I prefer to chop on the A and D strings, with a slight rotation of the bow

• Keep the standard pitches as short and articulate quavers (e), even for longer notes and slurs, but let the strings ring for the whole note value. For d), play the final C sharp only with the left hand

Work on every bar in isolation, until you can play it rhythmically in tempo, then practise multiple bars in different combinations. Finally, bring everything together in exercise 2. Build this up bar by bar, as you would when working on any challenging passage.

The next step is to incorporate the closer sounding point ( ), in a three-position groove. Practise the building blocks in exercise 3 as you did in the first exercise, no more than 10cm from the frog, before moving on to exercise 4.

EXERCISE 1 Work on these building blocks of the two-position groove in exercise 2, practising each segment in isolation at h= 65–95

EXERCISE 2 Once you have practised and perfected all the bowing patterns in exercise 1, work on this two-position groove. Visit bit.ly/3pgr3u9 for audio

EXERCISE 3 As in exercise 1, practise these three-position groove building blocks at around h= 65–95, until you are able to move fluidly between bowings

EXERCISE 4 Once you can play the patterns in exercise 3 confidently and rhythmically, put them into practice in this three-position groove. Visit bit.ly/3pgr3u9 for audio

REPERTOIRE

I encourage you mix and match the groove patterns in this article, to create longer grooves of your own. You could also use them to play along with any music that you like, and experiment to find out how to fit them into different beats and chords. These techniques will allow you to participate in many different types of musical situation, by opening up new possibilities on your stringed instrument and enabling you to play in new melodic and rhythmic roles.

IN YOUR PRACTICE

When you use these chopping techniques, you are entering into the realm of a rhythm-section player, where your role is to provide rhythmic support either to your own melodic material, or to a larger group. To do that well, you will have to play consistently and confidently, without being held up by technique. Always practise with a metronome, to remove any chance for error, set on all four beats in a 4/4 at q= 60 to begin with, then on the ‘backbeats’ of two and four. This will give a more lively, groovy feel, to help strengthen your internal sense of time. I also recommend practising scales and melodies in the 10cm of bow by the frog, to improve your fluency and ability to play these techniques in that area.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

Sometimes I teach chop grooves one on one, but I also work in small groups and larger workshops of up to 25 people. In bigger groups, I love it when everybody hits the string to play a chop at the same time – it sounds so cool!

Teaching these techniques is an especially great way to engage younger musicians, by helping them to be more creative and inspired, especially if it’s something they feel they shouldn’t be doing. Some people worry that chopping will damage the instrument or bow, or that they’ll break bow hairs and strings, but I think this must be a chopping conspiracy theory. I play this way all the time, and those things have never happened to me.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

FURTHER MATERIALS

For resources relating to The Chop Notation Project, including a free PDF download and instruction videos, see www.worldofchop.com. Visit the ‘music’ tab to hear these techniques in action in my album The Singularity.

Chopping was invented by American fiddler Richard Greene (1942–) who taught string players including Darol Anger. Watch Anger perform Dexteriors with the Turtle Island String Quartet at bit.ly/3ltOn5o

NEXT MONTH Hsin-Yun Huang gives tips for playing viola when you have small hands