Why is it called a 'double stop'?

[AM866]

Just curious

[jazztele]

It's not silly, it's a diad.


Seriously though, I'd like to know too...Organ terminology? Just like "Pulling out all the stops?"

[boneyguy]

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it but there's no specific mention of where the term double stop came from. But there is a clue.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_stop

They say the double stop was "invented" (?!!)(that seems like a weird choice of word) in 1627 by an Italian guy. So maybe the term is translated from Italian. Nowadays we use the term "fret" to describe a string being pushed down against a fret (to 'fret' a string) but maybe they used the word "stop" to indicate the same thing. And when you think about it "stopping" the string is a very accurate description of what's happening. You are literally stopping the string from vibrating past the point where you have "stopped" it.

My 2 cents.

[Mike Bruce]

Fiddle players can only get 2 strings at the most at one time with the bow, that's how it's been described to me.

[Mjark]

Originally Posted by boneyguy

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it but there's no specific mention of where the term double stop came from. But there is a clue.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_stop

They say the double stop was "invented" (?!!)(that seems like a weird choice of word) in 1627 by an Italian guy. So maybe the term is translated from Italian. Nowadays we use the term "fret" to describe a string being pushed down against a fret (to 'fret' a string) but maybe they used the word "stop" to indicate the same thing. And when you think about it "stopping" the string is a very accurate description of what's happening. You are literally stopping the string from vibrating past the point where you have "stopped" it.

My 2 cents.

Makes sense with the consideration that two is all you can get while bowing a violin.

[telex76]

Another example of Wikipedia being full of crap.
Hey guys let's make an encyclopedia, but instead of using experts let's let any moron post that wants.
It's just playing 2 strings at the same time. They can be "power chords", 3rds, 6ths, octaves. Both strings may be fretted, open, or one opened and one fretted.
Cornell Dupree was a master and he called it two stopping.

[jbmando]

Originally Posted by telex76

Another example of Wikipedia being full of crap.
Hey guys let's make an encyclopedia, but instead of using experts let's let any moron posts that wants.
It's just playing 2 strings at the same time.

Not quite, t. They both have to be fretted. Open strings aren't considered part of a double stop. Wikipedia has it pretty right. Fretting = stopping, and two at a time is a double stop.

[jazztele]

Yuck...more "guitar-centric" vocabulary...

[grinchmonkey]

I believe it came from violin and other stringed instruments of that variety before guitar, as previously mentioned. Also as said, fretting or stopping 2 strings is basically how it was explained to me, not sure if open strings "technically" fit into that, but if it sounds cool, more power to you.

[BigDaddyLH]

Can you fret a string if your neck doesn't have frets?

[Jonny_Quest]

[gtroates]

There are many terms and written cues which guitarists have taken from the bowed stringed instruments which have been around longer than guitars or lutes for that matter. Double stop, up and down pick directions originated as bowing directions, pizzicato is plucking a normally bowed string, etc. It only made sense to incorporate already used and well known string orchestra terms on the newer instrument which was included in the strings family as opposed to using brass, reed, or percussion terms.

Double stops on a string instrument being invented by a specific person is a stretch. Violin, Viola, Cello, and string Bass are examples of instruments with arched wood bridges so that playing one string at a time with a bow is possible. To play two at a time is also possible and quite easy, anyone who practices a bowed instrument can and does practice double stop harmonized melodies as warmup like scales in thirds. Just like a guitar can be strummed to create six string chords, a bowed string player plays all of their strings by changing the angle of the bow as they drag it across the strings which when done creates a chord which rings across all the strings. Bach wrote many violin works with four string chords featured on one instrument. I can imagine someone inventing the name for the term, but to pinpoint the first to play double stops is probably the one who made the first bowed stringed instrument with an arched bridge, so they could fine tune the curvature, that's a longer time ago than the 1600's.

[sacizob]

It was called double string and it just evolved to double stop.

[Mjark]

A nut stops the string. Frets aren't germane to the discussion either.

[Hoopermazing]

Originally Posted by jazztele

Yuck...more "guitar-centric" vocabulary...

Isn't this violin-centric?

[boneyguy]

Originally Posted by telex76

Another example of Wikipedia being full of crap.
Hey guys let's make an encyclopedia, but instead of using experts let's let any moron post that wants.
It's just playing 2 strings at the same time. They can be "power chords", 3rds, 6ths, octaves. Both strings may be fretted, open, or one opened and one fretted.
Cornell Dupree was a master and he called it two stopping.

I'm sorry but what are you going on about!!?? The original question was not asking for an explanation of what a double stop is but where the term came from originally.

Originally Posted by Mjark

A nut stops the string. Frets aren't germane to the discussion either.

And what are you going on about!!?? (I'm sorry, I guess I'm in a mood today)

How in the Sam Hill are frets not relevant and how does a fret not stop the string if it's being pressed down onto it? If the fret didn't 'stop' the string then the pitch would not change, according to my thinking. Frets have essentially the exact same function as the nut does. So you gonna haff to 'splain this to me.

[gtroates]

Since I played for a long time as a violinist it always sounds weird to hear guitarists refer to all simultaneously played pairs of notes with the term double stops, since violinists and the like can't bow non-adjacent strings at the same time (we can pluck them of course). I also like the term diads as it is generic to any two note combination. Double stop soloing like Chuck Berry has done is correct within the original term because he used adjacent strings to play them.

I really don't get this particular about it in conversation, I know what people mean by the context they use the term in and language changes through common usage all the time.

[jbmando]

Originally Posted by boneyguy

I'm sorry but what are you going on about!!?? The original question was not asking for an explanation of what a double stop is but where the term came from originally.





And what are you going on about!!?? (I'm sorry, I guess I'm in a mood today)

How in the Sam Hill are frets not relevant and how does a fret not stop the string if it's being pressed down onto it? If the fret didn't 'stop' the string then the pitch would not change, according to my thinking. Frets have essentially the exact same function as the nut does. So you gonna haff to 'splain this to me.

I think it was directed at me. I stick to my story. I don't think it's a double stop unless you finger it. You are "stopping" it with your hand. An open string is not stopped for the purposes of this definition, IMO. It's just a diad (dyad?) if a string is open.

I get wikipedia and all that, but this is what the article says and I agree:

In performing a double stop, two separate strings are depressed ("stopped") by the fingers, and bowed or plucked simultaneously (without a string change).

[Mjark]

My only point is this is a term that applies to most stringed instruments, those with necks at least. A string is stopped whether there are frets or not just by finger pressure on the fingerboard. No big deal...

[jbmando]

Well,this is a guitar forum. I figured we'd all know we were talking about guitars, which have frets. My point is that open strings don't count as being stopped.