Copyright ©2003-2009 http://www.NickHemingway.com
Felts Firstly make sure your felts and protective tubing are in good condition. It's always a good idea to carry spare felts and protective tubing and most stick bags or cymbal bags have compartments for holding just such things. If your cymbals are touching the metal of the stand at any point, that increases the chance of your cymbal cracking from the bell out towards the outside edge, because of the increased stress placed on the cymbal that is not being absorbed by the protective pipe or felts. Tension Do not over tighten your cymbal wing nuts, your cymbal should be free to move on the felt, this help absorb some of the impact. And reduces the stress placed on the cymbal. The cymbal should be balanced so that there is free travel allowing you to push down gently with your finger without meeting hard resistance almost as if it is sitting on a very thick piece of packing foam or suspended by elastic. If your cymbal is rigid it will greatly increase the chance of the cymbal cracking or warping, usually but not exclusively, from the outside edge inwards. Positioning Have your cymbals slightly tilted towards you and within easy reach so that you do not have to lean in any direction to play them. An easy test is to lift both feet from the floor and balance yourself on your drum stool with your back straight. You should now be able to play the bell of each cymbal both with the shoulder and the bead of the stick without leaning or crouching. The benefits of having your cymbals set up correctly like this are countless; you will have less fatigue while playing long sets, you have a much better chance of a clean tone every time, because chances are once you get used to it you will know you are in easy reach of any cymbal, no matter where you are on the kit, and most importantly for this lesson, a reduced chance of damaging your cymbals. The way a cymbal can get damaged because of position relative to the musician is quite simple; if you are leaning when you strike the cymbal your body weight becomes a factor and increases the impact pressure. Another factor that is very important, if your arm is extended at full reach you have no choice but to play from the shoulder joint rather than the wrist and to a lesser degree your elbow. This gives you less control, more impact pressure and much less speed. (Just try playing an imaginary cymbal in the air close to you and then at full reach of your arm, you should quickly see the difference in speed and control) Try not to be tempted to position your cymbals too low over the kit (1 - 4 inches), not only does it make it harder to dampen a cymbal during playing, when you come to mic your kit up ether on stage or in the studio nether is a particularly good time to find out you have to change all your cymbal positions to allow access for all the mic's without them being hit by the cymbals during play. One last and fairly obvious point on cymbal position, don't let any cymbal come into contact with another cymbal or drum hardware when being played, it should be able to move freely though it's total movement range without coming into contact with another object. Stick Control This is by far the most important part of this lesson, with all the tips above you will greatly reduce the chances of cracking or warping a cymbal, but without proper stick control you will still be shopping for replacement cymbals more than is necessary… Firstly play from the wrist using your fingers to make the stick move and strike the cymbal, make sure you are holding the stick at a proper balance point resting the shaft of the stick between your thumb and finger No.1 (the finger nearest the thumb) your finger and thumb slightly touching and the stick resting in the crook they create. Fingers 2 3 & 4 can now be brought up towards the palm causing the stick to strike the cymbal. When you use the bead of the stick on the top of the cymbal or the bell of the cymbal you can do this almost vertically as you would strike a tom. When you are using the wash of a cymbal (hitting it on the edge with the shoulder of the stick) approach the cymbal from the side rather than the top, in a fluid ark running parallel with the edge of the cymbal, for multiple hit's the path of the stick should form a oval shape in the air, above the cymbal stiking the cymbal with glancing blows instead of a direct smash. Using the shoulder of the stick on the bell to produce the bright ping, is done using a mixture of the two techniques, just go for something that feels natural between the two here. In any case, you are much more likely to break a stick than a cymbal when going for the ping. |
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