double-stop

See also: double stop

English

Verb

double-stop (third-person singular simple present double-stops, present participle double-stopping, simple past and past participle double-stopped)

1. (music) to play on two stopped strings of a stringed instrument simultaneously.
   • 1957, Clifford A. Cook, String teaching and some related topics, page 39:

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

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

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

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

     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.

Noun

double-stop (plural double-stops)

1. (music) a chord or combination composed of two notes played on separate strings simultaneously.
   • 1999, Joel Lester, Bach's Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, Performance, →ISBN:

     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.

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

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

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

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