Chopping

What it is

Chopping is a percussive bow technique in which the bow strikes the strings near the frog to produce a short, rhythmic, largely pitchless sound. It functions as a drum part rather than a melodic one. More of this kind of thing is in the bowing section.

It is a modern technique, developed in American fiddle and bluegrass playing in the second half of the twentieth century, and it has since spread into jazz, folk, pop and crossover string playing.

It is not part of the classical technical vocabulary. A classically trained player will not have encountered it in standard repertoire, and it appears in no traditional etude collection.

What it sounds like

The chop produces a short, dry, percussive attack with a scratchy quality and very little sustain. Pitch is present but suppressed and is not the point. Use the free chromatic tuner to check yourself on this.

In an ensemble it occupies the role a snare drum would. A fiddler chopping behind a soloist is providing the backbeat.

Variations produce different colours. A harder chop is more aggressive, a lighter one more brushed. Players develop personal vocabularies of chop sounds much as a drummer develops sounds on a snare.

How it is produced

The bow is used near the frog, where the stick is heaviest.

The bow is dropped onto the strings with the hair at an angle, catching them with a controlled scratch rather than a clean stroke. The motion is largely vertical and comes from the wrist and forearm.

Crucially, the bow does not draw a normal stroke. It catches, produces the percussive attack, and releases. Any horizontal motion is incidental.

The left hand often mutes the strings lightly, damping the pitch further and making the sound more percussive. Some players use the left hand to vary the chop's colour from note to note.

Variations

The basic chop. A single downward catch producing one percussive hit.

The double chop. Two hits from one motion, using a rebound.

Chop with pitch. A partially damped chop where a pitch is audible, used to imply harmony while still functioning rhythmically.

Reverse chop. An upward motion producing a different attack, used to vary the pattern.

Players combine these into rhythmic patterns exactly as a drummer would, and the vocabulary continues to develop.

What goes wrong

Too much force. Beginners hit hard, which produces noise rather than a defined chop and is hard on the instrument and the bow.

No definition. The chop needs a clean start. A vague catch produces a scrape rather than a percussive hit.

Poor rhythm. Because the technique is entirely rhythmic, timing errors are far more exposed than in melodic playing. A chop slightly late is obviously wrong in a way a slightly late melody note is not.

Bow wear. Chopping is hard on bow hair and many players who chop regularly use a dedicated bow.

Classical habits. Players from a classical background often approach the chop as a bow stroke and try to draw it. It is a strike, not a stroke, and unlearning that instinct takes time.

Where you meet it

Bluegrass, old-time and American fiddle traditions, where it originated and where it is most developed.

Jazz and crossover string playing, contemporary folk, and increasingly in pop and film contexts where a string player is asked to provide rhythm.

It appears in modern string ensemble writing by composers working outside the classical tradition, and in arrangements for string quartets playing popular repertoire.

It does not appear in classical repertoire, and a classically trained player encountering a chart that asks for it will usually need to learn it from scratch.

How it is taught

We start with the sound rather than the motion, because students need to know what they are aiming for and it is unlike anything in classical technique.

Then the catch, at the frog, without any horizontal motion, until a clean percussive attack is reliable.

Then rhythm, usually against a metronome or a recording, because the technique exists to serve rhythm and practising it without a pulse misses the point.

Then patterns, then variations.

Students who come to chopping from a classical background often find it liberating, because it uses the instrument in a way their training never suggested was possible.

Chopping and the instrument

Chopping is harder on equipment than classical technique. Bow hair wears faster, and the strings take more punishment than they would from normal bowing.

Players who chop regularly often use a dedicated bow, and some use different strings than they would for classical playing.

This is worth knowing before a classically trained student starts practising chops daily on a good setup.

Learning it from a classical background

The main obstacle is instinct. Years of training say the bow draws a stroke. Chopping requires the bow to strike and release without drawing.

Students typically spend the first sessions producing something between a chop and a bow stroke, which sounds like neither. The breakthrough comes when they stop trying to make a sound and start trying to make a hit.

Listening is essential. The technique is aural and stylistic rather than notated, and a student who has not listened to players who chop well has no target to aim at.

Questions about bow technique like Chopping are the kind that get answered quickly in person. Private and group violin lessons in Buford, Duluth, Sandy Springs and Brookhaven: call 470-789-2422 or book a no-commitment evaluation lesson.