To be 100% honest, I know nothing about cymbals! The problem is that (honestly) neither does anyone else on our drumline! Now when the rest of the drumline is doing 8 on a hand and stuff...what do the cymbals do?

Cymbal Warmups

Here is a thread i started a while back check it out it will help.But really until your cymbal line starts getting music,visuals,etc start building up your chops and control/technique over the cymbals. You will definately want to go over the basics such as chokes,crashes,slide chokes sizzles,etc just to get started.

So when you guys start your music and everything you wont have to worry about so much the physical part of playing just playing,timing and looking good hah.

The only problem is that I don't know any of that stuff. And, I don't want to blow sunshine up my butt, but I am the only real percussion teacher in our school. The only experience I have with cymbals is concert stuff with only basic crashing. I did do a parade once but it was just simple crashing while marching, nothing fancy.

www.cymbaltechnique101.com

Buy the book and the DVD, it'll be a big help for you and your students.

Practice in front of a mirror.

What to do while the battery warms up: first and foremost, stretch the arms and upper torso. Bicep stretch, tricep, shoulders, pectorals, forearms, wrists, fingers. Everything.

Search online for basic arm and upper body stretches.

Practice the positions, the technique, any visuals.

If you guys are at band camp or pre-season rehearsals, work out. Push-ups, ab work, strength builders using the cymbals (in the book/DVD).

A couple things to keep in mind when dealing with students new to cymbals: they should never lean back when holding the cymbals. force them to stay as straight as possible. keep reminding them that with all the pain, strength will come. soreness is definitely expected. decent cymbal lines are usually made up of masochistic people who can take pain and use it to power them through the movements. they all started out weak, but with consistent exercise and ignorance of normal muscle pain, they eventually got to the point where they can hold 20" Medium-Heavy/Heavy plates up for twelve minutes with no problem.

I "played" cymbals for a whole year with my college marching band before I got my first copy of Cymbal Technique 101, and I can definitely say that working through that book changed my whole attitude and approach to how I played. I really understood the intricacies and little details that going into becoming a solid player. Now if anyone asks me anything about playing, I give them the advice they seek AND refer them to Eddie's book.

Also, Font's absolutely right in recommending practicing in front of a mirror. Without doing this, you'll never really know what you look like when you're playing. And the best way to build uniformity in technique across a cymbal line is by practicing technique together in front of a mirror.

And the pain never goes away. You just gotta learn to love it.

id say a good warm up for cymbals music wise is take your basic bass split for 8's (the 8th note one) and play it (assuming you have 5 cymbals) with crashes one rep, then chokes, sucks, buzzes, and you could try the occasional 16th note slide choke
but i wouldnt recomend thet for your beginner cymbal line...it might be alittle much

Thanks for all the info. And FYI, I am not the actual instructor. I am just one of the students, but we don't have a formal drum instructor. That's where I come in!

sweet same with us most of the time cuz our plate tech is in another state so one of our kids teaches and we do pretty good