Hey folks.  I posted something last Sunday,- thinking ” well, I had better post something because it has been a week….” and I posted some half- constured, incomplete detritus.  You may have thought ” troutsongs has completely lost his marbles.”

Troutsongs was too tired from giving his best performances during parent-teacher conferences, and was perhaps under the influence of sleep catch-up. ( sleep ketchup? sounds like a good name for a band!)

Now, I hope to salvage this detritus into real, useful mind-compost, so you can grow your own, useful ideas, which in turn can blossom into more arcane metaphors.

I was thinking about what a musician needs to know: in the vernacular, playing ability often called “chops”.

ie.” That young bass player sure has solid chops!”

But what kind of chops?

how many kinds of chops( there are?)( are there) ?
I remember a rant by one of my heros, Rahsaan ROland Kirk.. discussing ‘hip chops”

Poem ” what kind of chops?”

 

pop chops.     eclectic chops… solo chops

combo chops

Mutton chops!
waltz chops.   (i  can write a waltz. maybe nothing else!) (w)riting chops .

..listening chops ….spatial chops.. silence chops.

When Brian Roessler pulls one  arco note,

from the bottom of his large wooden tree/bass,

it chops.

rhythmic chops..

What are your chops?

Desdamona Rox

has speakin’ chops!

bob Ock

fixes clocks

guitar man with Ock chops

perfect time

what are your chops?
synescalatoria ! Carei Thomas has laughing chops!

scalar chops… lyrical chops…

When Donald Washington  and Sean Egan do clarinets at once

with trombonist Steve Sandberg… it is harmony chops – living , pulsing chordal chops….

 

“out” or “in ” chops..

What

are your

chops?

but could it be the most important chops
are those
of
how we live?