Bill Monroe’s driving rhythm mandolin style provides the percussive bark in bluegrass and other acoustic music styles. Combining closed-form “chop” chords (aka “Monroe chords”) with a strong right-hand attack that emphasizes the backbeat, chopping is an essential skill for any mandolinist. In this month’s weekly exercises, Ethan starts with the mechanics of basic off-beat chopping and then explores more elaborate techniques that will help transform you into a mandolin rhythm machine. In this first video, Ethan introduces the movable chop-chord shapes you’ll use through the series. Then he shows you how to coordinate right-hand picking and muting with changes in left-hand tension to create the propulsive punch of the basic bluegrass chop.
