Chip began playing drums when he was 12 years old and was gigging in the northern New Jersey metro area by the time he was 15.  He studied orchestral and marching percussion with Dr. Alyn J. Heim, drum set with NY metro jazz great Carl Wolf, and later studied jazz performance with Anita Thomas. In addition to playing with a variety of bands, he played in the pit orchestras for musical theater productions in high school and college. After taking a hiatus, he began playing again in 2014 on the Northern Virginia jazz circuit.