Does anyone else get bruises or as I like to call them "battle wounds" while they play cymbals. When I finished an 8 hour rehearsal then a performance, I had alot a lot of little battle wounds all over my arms. Am I doing something wrong?

ALL of the people who play cymbals at my school get bruises or even like red gashes where the cymbals had pinched them. They just try to find ways around it. they try holding the cymbals out a little bit. but then they get really tired. I dont play cymbals so I cant really give any good suggestions but I CAN tell you its normal.

i constantly pinched my poor little tummy when i was doing slide chokes and crashes at my side..

its best to play away from the body but sometimes we would have to muffle them in a hurry and id pinch myself



being a girl.. it hurts more to miss the "pit" of your shoulder when doing a crash choke and hit the center of your chest


along with the pinches on my stomach.. i got some on my arms

You have 6 hours to edit your post. THIS MEANS ADDING OR SUBTRACTING CONTENT


oh yeah.. and my favorite.. clipping my chin and bleeding pretty bad


all of these things have stopped happening (except the stomach pinching) as i got use to my cymbals

Vertical hinge chokes can get you pretty good too.

I'm (hopefully) going to play cymbals next marching season. To get used to them, I've started playing during pep band. After only one game, I had 5 little red marks from being pinched on my left arm. There was a sixth that was from being pinched in the same place multiple times...It was about the size of a quarter. I also four bruises on my right arm. I guess I'm weird, because having all of those made me really excited to play next season.

you have to be a masochist to play cymbals the right way. bruises, scrapes and bleeding from choke positions isn't too uncommon (usually the armpit-pectorial area) and is usually infact, expected from crash chokes. Pinches, however should be able to be prevented with a little more experience in placing the hi-hat and choke positions.

Kevin_Fu is right. You have to be a complete nut to play cymbals, or what was it "masocism". Big words aren'tmy strong point. Anyways, lets just say if your not getting bruises or cuts or red marks, your playing wrong. And your hands should swell massively.

Huh...dunno how you guys play them but Surf has been going for 3 months now and the most I've gotten are a few hi-hat cuts and shoulder bruises...wait...yeah masochism...WOO!

Man, for our style, the pinches are pretty common, but you stop getting them with more experience. Another thing we have to deal with is blisters between our index and middle fingers. Twirling a pair of 20s for 8 hour practices ain't too fun if you have soft hands. Some people wear gloves, but guys like me like it raw (lol). I've developed some pretty thick skin on my fingers, heh.

Im not a guy but I play mine "raw" as well

my hands got tough on top of my hands between my thumbs and index fingers

You still have up to 6 hours to edit your posts if you want to add, correct, or delete something. This has become a very bad habit.

pinches on the arms can be avoided by pulling them away from your body.. but if youre playing fast and rough you still get pinches

bruises on the "pecs" or near the shoulders is something you just have to tollerate because it almost cant be helped

ever since my freshman year, my muscles (near my arm pits) and shoulders have become stronger and i hardly ever bruise there