Further chopping progress

The last few months have been a period of unprecedented musical chaos and I am still struggling to get back to where I was before the changeover to chopping.

The biggest challenge has been playing the 7523 G3 shape without fouling neighbouring strings, but I finally made a bit of a breakthrough by improving my left-hand position. Thanks to Dennis Caplinger's Bluegrass Mandolin Basics & Beyond DVD I now have my left-hand square-on to the mando's neck with the thumb opposite the first finger and the back of the neck 'not' buried into the purlicue. This 'correct' position seems counter-intuitive for stretching but it works, and I can now use this shape in first position (i.e. as a G chord) as well as higher up the neck.

Apart from a small number of mainly modal/minor songs (which I'll probably keep in a style suitable for Old Time ), I've now sorted out what chord shapes to use, and it's basically a question of getting used to them, i.e. the new shapes, changing between them, making the necessary stretches, and, above all, making them cleanly without fouling.

I've also been experimenting with the even heavier tortoiseshell-style Golden Gate and Dawg picks. They give a nice 'chunky' effect and I shall be using these in the future.