What do the following terms mean

Hello All
I am basically a self taught player, and started off playing organ, consequently I am not familiar with some of the terms mentioned on the site, I would therefore be grateful if someone could enlighten me.
1. Chops (Were I come from it means a thick slice of pork with a section of bone in it)
2. Half Pedalling (I know a piano can have up to 3 pedals, but I always thought that you just pressed them for on, and released them for off.)
3. Rootless chord recognition (Does this mean a C chord without the C or a C chord played in the 1st or 2nd inversion, or is it something else)
Look forward to your replies

Bill,

Hello Abacus.

To answer your questions:

1. Chops is a slang term for good skills.

2. Half pedalling, is basically a way of emulating a real sustain pedal, on a real piano. Since the sustain pedal on a real piano is mechanical, you can hear the effect of it by just pressing it slightly down, and you can hold a note and press it up and down and you can hear it. On a digital piano you can't do this. So they made half pedalling, which is basically two different points in the pedal, triggering two different samples.

3. Rootles Chord Recognition is a jazz thing. For jazz players, who play in ensembles with a bass player, the piano player usually stay away from playing the root note of the chord. For solo players, they often play single roots, then answer with a rootless chord in the left. A rootless chord will have the root, and also in some cases other notes of the chord are omitted. Example: Cmaj9 is usually voiced C E G B D, but one rootless version would be E G B D, or it can be G B D E, or B D E G. A regular arranger would translate those chords into: Em7 or G6. Which will sound wrong. Rootless Chord Recognition, recognises those chords as Cmaj9.

Cheers!

Doc-Z

Hello Doc-Z
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Bill

Bill,

In America to get hit in the chops means to get hit in the mouth. Chops started out as an expression for horn players that needed to gain or keep their embashure, the muscles around their mouth. These muscles need to be in good shape to hit the notes. With practice these muscles get strong and stay in shape. The by product of all this practice is not only great muscles of the embashure but proficiency in playing.

The expression later evolved into meaning good proficiency on any instrument.

Tom

Chops..

In the thirties/forties guitar players setting in with big bands and just playing chords in time was refered to as choping chords.........pose

I thought that was comping?