Ah, I always thought that there were drum corps type style and traditional type style cymbal playing, but the West-Coast style and East-Coast Style makes it a lot easier. The previous year, we had a cymbal tech who came from Pulse indoor drumline and tried out for SCV [ though she didn't make it, poor her ] And she taught us West-Coast style techniques. Many of the cymbal lines that we competed against and the lines in our district were impressed with how we prepped in time for a crash or a crash-choke, bringing up the cymbals in time and with uniformity. It's a lot of fun and good contribution to the overall visual to the drumline.

I agree with you, stretching is really important before we start to do warmups with the drumline or a run through. Strength is also important, because the type of music we play has the cymbals crashing, sizzling, crash-chokes, etc. for most of the song [This year's field show features the Percussion section, so im stoked for visuals at drum breaks]

Our line does "endurance" type training, which is basically holding the cymbals in different positions such as the crash position, port, iron crosses, etc. for about 10 minutes in each position to the next. Many of the newbies are not as strong for playing cymbals, so we do push ups occasionally, every week increasing the number of counts to 10.

Prepping a crash is pretty difficult for the whole line to do it in sync and with proper sound, especially our line because they're not too familiar with the style yet, though they have improved since the first day of rehersals. Im pretty sure before percussion camp starts, we'll have most of the techniques down and it'll look uniform. Oh and we do play in front of a mirror, it helps greatly. Not only does it help the individual fix his angles, but it also displays how cool the line looks when everything is timed correctly and what he/she needs to fix or get down right.


Thanks for all the great tips, I probably didn't make any sense because I only had about 2 hours of sleep and my right eye just died out on me.

p.s. You play for PDX ? Your show was great, and the cymbal line was frickin' awesome. The visuals you guys did were very cool, and inspired me to stay on the cymbal line for a 3rd year so I could get this line good.

I like how you guys hyped them bandanas, very cool haha Cymbal Lines always Hype the best !!

To fix the problem with the preps, what you need to do is break up your crash into just the first count, which is the bring up. First, just do a tap off or whatever and have them bring them up at the same time, get the feel to where exactly it should go. Do that about 5 times. Then, do that, and then on count one, go to the A positon. Just that much, ONLY that much. Do that till it feels right. Then add the V position. Do that till you are comfotable.

Now for the conact. On count 3 now, your going to go to the "bottom" step, which is when it's still in V, just they're touching now. Keep in mind that with 18 inch cymbals, the right cymbal should be touching one inch up. 19 inch is 1.25, and 20 is 1.5 inches up. This is count three.

Count four is called the "top" step. All you do on this one is smash them together. DO NOT LET THEM RING. Keep them scrushed, kind of like a crunch. The "Bottom Top" steps are the MOST IMPORTANT of all the steps. This is where you learn what makes the difference between a "Poppy" sound, and a nice clean beautiful sounding crash.

The next two counts, 1& 2 of the next measure, are just the A V steps again. I have done this in every cymbal line I've ever been in. We refer to it as the "A V Bottom Top A V Set". We actually learned this before we learned how to crash. And boy o boy, I think we repped this more then the snares repped 8's lol. Talk about a pain. This excercise is great for letting the muscles know exactly where to put each cymbal when.

Ju guys ever do this one at PDX Font?

O, And remember to stretch after. I don't think that has ben discussed yet, and it is actually MORE important to do then stretching before. You get sore from leaving all the lactic acid ln your muscles, not from working out with tight muscles, thats how you hurt your self. To prevent soreness, remember to take an extra 10 minutes after and do some nice stretching.

p.s. Just FYI. "Newbies" was SO last year lol.

You mean Orchestral crashes? We did them a LOT in 07, but in 06 we basically did none (most of the line was made up of kids who were new to plates and couldn't understand the concept of an orchestral crash . . . myself included).

but in 2007, they were in all parts of the show. We didn't do them exactly like yours (I believe you guys did the strict-movement one, where you literally spell out "A" and "V"). We had a much more flowy one, similar to SCV and Spirit 2004. And I think we only prepped with the "V" although I may just be tired and forgetful.

And, thanks Dannerz. Yeah, I marched PDX for a season and a half. I had to leave the plateline after our first show of the season due to a bad back injury I suffered before the season. I moved to the Pit afterwards, and played chimes/acted. I was one of three fat dudes in a Toga.

PDX won't be coming back this season. Instead, they've joined forces with Stryke. We're keeping the name Stryke, and I'll still be marching Plates(unless of course I fail at auditions. Haha.).

And yeah, our Bandanas were effin' sweet. If you didn't know which one I was (I'm not that hard to miss), just look for the big pony-tailed dude with the lime-green bandana and glasses.

What? Lol no, I ment stated above, for vertical crashes. And since when has SCV been flowy? They ARE west coast, they're more rigid and tight then a new born christian mother. http://www.vicfirth.com/features/scv_pasic06.html prime example. East coast is the one that flows, http://youtube.com/watch?v=IU2xm-gBNbA Bluecoats 2001 is probably the best example for east coast. Now take a complete hybrid of both cymbal lines, and you gots what Penn State and Crossmen do. Of course crossmen with their own signature crash of course. Hope this helps .

i think that a great cymbal line happens when people actually want to play cymbals.
a lot of times i see cymbal lines where the members say 'im just here cause im a freshman' or 'i really wanted to play snare but im not good enough yet so i play these now'
they are usually the cymbal lines with the easy books and the tame visuals.
if you can show them that cymbals can be just as challenging as any other instrument, they might be persuaded to practice and respect their instruments.
the moment that all the members of any section want to be doing what they are doing, and put in plenty of effort, they start kicking butt.

Okay. I'd like to chime in here. What makes a great cymbal line? There are a lot of things. The first and most important thing is that the line sounds good to fit the rest of the group. Second, looking the same. From prep to crash to release, everything must look as close as possible. Details! It's not about flashy visuals. If you can't crash well and look good together, visuals mean nothing. Cymbal players are percussionists first. Their job is to complement the battery.

West Coast vs. East Coast doesn't matter. That's a style preference. One is not better than the other. The most important thing is to get a great sounding crash at the right dynamic level at the correct time in the music. I also like a cymbal line that sets a great example for the rest of the group (band or corps). They should show up early to rehearsals, have everything prepared and ready to go, and be humble and professional. That is a great cymbal line.

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you all know that our cymbal line is getting great, we all have good chemistry and so far got a lot of the basics down. As we move on to our 7th rehersal, we're advancing on towards music and drill for our upcoming season.

All your wonderful tips helped out a great deal, and I made sure to contribute all of that into our line this year. We still have a lot to do and a lot to accomplish, but so far its a great start.

Thanks All !!

p.s. We just picked up 5 pairs of the American Drum straps, and they work great !! Thanks to Mr. Kozol for his fabtastic product

Dannerz,

Glad you like the straps. A suggestion that might help your hands. Lace them up inside out and then flip them over after they are tied. The straps will then conform better to the shape of your hand and not rub so much.

Good luck!

Go to you tube and search Dowling Catholic Drumline. Check that cymbal line out. Stronger than a garlic malt!

don't do iron crosses for extended periods of time per rep it's bad for your muscles.

Anybody that weight lifts or has done any sort of weight training will tell you keeping your arm in one position with weight builds no muscle at all and is actually very bad for your body. Also if while you're doing iron cross you do it too long this will also be bad for your body as you can easily set your back or arms basically training you body to learn technique that is incorrect.

It is important to rest between reps, or you'll be destroying your technique.

Also if you do like doing iron crosses or would like to continue to (take a look at SCV - they don't do them) take it down the amount of time you hold in each position - no more than 8 counts per position at about 120 - and just rep that more times.

The more your arms move the better for your body, but I strongly advise against iron cross.