double-stop

present singular third person double-stops · participle present double-stopping · participle past double-stopped · past double-stopped

1. entertainmentto play on two stopped strings of a stringed instrument simultaneously.

   Some Greek musicians have used open tunings on the violin and double-stopped the strings to produce a drone.

   2003, Aline Scott-Maxwell, John Whiteoak, Currency companion to music and dance in Australia, page 69

   2 more examples

   Divisi in the orchestra greatly reduces the need for double-stopping, per se, in this form of string playing.

   1957, Clifford A. Cook, String teaching and some related topics, page 39

   The whole movement gives the soloist an opportunity for hair-raising virtuosity, from rapid arpeggios and spectral harmonics to languid parallel sixths, double-stopped trills and, in the trio, a stratospheric cantabile, again on harmonics.

   2008, Paolo Petrocelli, William Walton and the Violin Concerto in England between 1900 and 1940

plural double-stops

1. entertainmenta chord or combination composed of two notes played on separate strings simultaneously.

   You can play a double-stop on adjacent strings or on nonadjacent strings (by skipping strings).

   2012, Mark Phillips, Jon Chappell, Guitar For Dummies, →ISBN, page 96

   2 more examples

   There has been some question concerning whether the downbeat of m. 19 should be a triple-stop with the open D string as the bottom note or a double-stop with the open A string as the bottom note.

   1999, Joel Lester, Bach's Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, Performance, →ISBN

   If you're a beginner player, you can always choose not to play a double-stop and instead play just the top note.

   2014, Michael John Sanchez, Fiddle For Dummies, →ISBN