Physical Chops

Professional musicians use the term “chops” as a general word describing their physical and/or musical abilities. It’s a good, all purpose word, so you’ll see it throughout this section.  Physical chops are similar to conditioning and strength building exercises athletes use to prepare themselves for their sport. For musicians, they include such things as tone quality, dynamic range, pitch range, flexibility, articulation speed, stick techniques, etc. Basically, any of the physical things necessary for you to play the music you want or need to play. Some skills are specific to each instrument (altissimo saxophone) or instrument family (multiple tongue technique on brass instruments) and still others, which apply to all musicians (controlled dynamic range). Since deadlines are sometimes out of your control, you must be prepared to adjust your focus accordingly. For the deadlines in your control, remember that your physical skills will develop at different rates and your priorities will likely change over time. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to occasionally change your focus areas, to help keep things interesting for you. Plus, this will ensure you are devoting time to developing all of the skills necessary to advance on your instrument.  When working on your skills, look for places in your assigned or chosen music, which directly use the skill you are developing. If you are working on arpeggios, find instances in your music where arpeggios are used to help make the connection between the exercise and the application. Too often, we practice the skills and the parts, but fail to see the connection between the two. The whole idea is to use these skills as a means for expressing musical ideas.

excerpt from “Music Practice Coach,” lanceladuke.com