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What Are Chops? Chops, in the world of Brass Playing, essentially means the embouchure; the lips, the teeth, the musculature.   Someone who is a good player can be said to have a " good set of chops ".   ( This is not to be confused with the usage of the  word "chops" as understood by guitarists,       who use the word to mean the notes they play, riffs, licks etc. ) What Are Duff Chops? "Duff" in Britain is a slang expression that has the meaning of "not very good" and was avidly seized upon    by the creator of The Simpsons as the brand name for Homer's favourite beer.       A brass player's embouchure, relying as it does on the muscles at the front of the face, is particularly prone     to the vaguaries of weather, temperature, humidity, altitude, insufficient practice, overwork, last night's     consumption of whatever and, annoyingly, to many other mysterious and sometimes unquantifiable factors.    "Duff Chops" can be either the chops of a player who is not very good. or has had an accident, but are more    frequently a good player's description of what he or she has been endowed with by fate on a given day.    How many times does a talented brass player say "I've got really duff chops today"?    What they play will usually sound absolutely fine, but to them the effort required to "sound good" will be     greater than usual.   The aims of this web site are                                                  1) To eliminate Duff Chops forever.                                                  2) To promote open discussion of the phenomenon of Duff Chops.                                                  3) To organize international Duff Chops Conferences.                                                    4) To make an old duffer rich.    If you would like to contribute to the site, or have your own ' duff ' email address (e.g. whoever@duffchops.com)  then please email: old.duffer@duffchops.com    * Caveat Scriptor     With Best Wishes to you all,                  Old Duffer        (The older I am, the better I was.)          This site will expand to become the greatest site on the Net.                                               * Caveat Scriptor:     Emails or excerpts thereof emailed to this site may be, if interesting, published .