1 CYMBALS Strength Conditioning: Cymbal Line Workout Routine As a cymbal player, expect to be pushed to your limits. Expect to hold your cymbals up for long periods of time. The following is the main workout routine used by the SCV cymbal line. It has proven to be an extremely effective way of building strength if done correctly. You might not be able to start with the same number of push-ups or holding times listed below, and that s okay! Be sure to start at your level and build your way up from there. You will need a stopwatch or timer so that you can time yourself. 1. Drop down to the push-up position with your arms spread wide apart. Do 20 to 30 push-ups, keeping your body straight and doing every push-up at a moderate pace. Do not try to get through these push-ups as fast as you can! 2. Immediately after finishing your push-ups, get up and put your cymbals on -- with no time for rest! Go to Flat position and hold your cymbals there for 1 to 2 minutes. 3. Rest for no more then 3 minutes 4. Repeat Step 1, but this time do the push-ups with your elbows to your side. 5. Repeat Step 2, but this time hold your cymbals at Port position. 6. Rest for no more then 3 minutes. 7. Repeat Step 1, but now put your hands close together in front of you, making a diamond shape. 8. Repeat Step 2, but now hold your cymbals at Tap position. 9. Rest for no more then 3 minutes. 10. Do as many push-ups as you can! (doesn t matter which kind ) 11. Get up immediately after the push-ups and hold your cymbals at Port as long as you can. It s a good idea to time yourself every time to see how long you can hold them up and how you re progressing over time. The purpose of this exercise is to give you the opportunity to constantly push yourself to the limit. As time goes by and you begin to see your strength and endurance increase, you should increase the number of push-ups and the amount of time you spend holding your cymbals up in different positions.
2 Introduction to marching cymbals: Contrary to some schools of thought, percussion technique does not have to be forced or hard. Just as it s possible to over-blow a wind instrument, it s also possible to overplay percussion instruments, distorting the sound quality. We take a very relaxed, real-world approach to playing cymbals which is applicable to many areas of percussion, not just marching. Essentially you should find a GROOVE in everything you play so it FLOWS. Not just groovy music but even more abstract, sparse music has checkpoints that allow you to find some form of pocket if you approach it the right way. Strive to stay completely relaxed from the neck, through the shoulders and arms, all the way down to the fingers. It is very easy to see and hear when a player is not relaxed. Tension affects sound quality and disrupts the flow of the music. Although chops are a necessity at the levels we strive for, sound quality is key. Having said that, the cymbal techniques that we will use this season will require you to use quite a bit of muscle. The cymbals themselves carry a decent amount of weight and if you are somewhat lacking in upper-body strength, you will find most of these techniques to be quite physically challenging. Proper conditioning is essential to your ability to play the cymbals correctly. THE GARFIELD GRIP: Potentially one of the most important concepts to grasp onto is the grip. We use a technique known as the Garfield Grip. It allows for enhanced control of the cymbals and essentially allows for the cymbals to be extensions of your hands. Follow the step-by-step instructions below to set your hands in the straps. The strap will fell tight when you do this, but never force your hand into an awkward position. If you are having trouble getting your hands into the straps, simply adjust the strap for more room. Conversely, if there appears to be too much room in the strap, simply take some of the slack out.
3 THE POSITIONS: In the cymbal line, we operate out of five basic positions illustrated as follows: 1) SET POSITION This is the position that the group arrives at when starting or finishing an exercise or piece of music. There are other instances in which this position is used, but these are the most common. Notice the elbows are slightly bent and the wrist is as straight as possible, following the path of the forearm. This helps keep the cymbals parallel to each other, and perpendicular to the floor, which is the look we want. The shoulders and other upper-body muscles are relaxed, but also engaged. 2) RELAXED POSITION This is the position the line stands in while waiting for something, such as instructions, when the group wants to maintain a uniform look. The cymbals are positioned flat against the lower body, right over left, with the edge of the right cymbal tucked under the pad of the left. Feet are shoulder-width apart in this position. 3) FLAT POSITION This is the position that we work most out of. From this position, we can take care of most all the necessary cymbal techniques that we use, such as flat crashes, crash chokes, orchestral crashes, sizzles, sizz/sucks, and hi hat chokes. 4) PORT POSITION This is a secondary position that we also use. This position is achieved by raising the cymbals straight out in front of you so that your hands are even with your eyes. From here, we can play port crashes, eval crashes, sizzles, sizz/suck, taps, dings, and zings. 5) CHOKE POSITION This position is achieved by hugging both cymbals into the sides of your abdominals as shown. You will use this position when performing crash chokes and clicks.
4 THE FLAM: The flam is a basic concept of our cymbal technique that is adopted from the worldrenown cymbal section of the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps. This flam is something that will occur in some fashion on every single cymbal crash that is played. The picture to the left illustrates the point of contact that we would want to shoot for in order to achieve this flam with an orchestra crash from flat position. In this case, you re aiming for the first contact to be made by the right side edge of the right cymbal about 3 inches inside the right edge of the left cymbal. Ideally, once this contact has been made, the crashing of the cymbals themselves happens immediately after, in the same way that an accent note of a flam played on the snare drum immediately follows the grace note. This technique allows you to achieve maximum volume with both cymbals, while exerting only a moderate amount of force. THE ORCHESTRAL CRASH: This type of crash can be played at either flat or port position. If played at port position, it is called an Eval. Beginning from flat position, move the right edges of the cymbals away from each other first, then using a wave motion bring those edges back toward each other, aiming to hit a flam as pictured above. When the cymbals make contact, be sure to straighten your fingers so that the sound of the cymbals is dampened as little as possible. Finally, immediately following the crash, perform the same wave motion again, keeping the fingers straight while the cymbals vibrate, and return to flat position.
5 THE FLAT CRASH: This is probably the most frequently used of the crashes. This crash uses three very sharp and distinct movements: 1) The Prep 2) The Crash 3) The Release. For the prep, you do two things: 1) with the right arm, pull the cymbal all the way back past your shoulder in one sharp and crisp movement. At the same time, slightly cock your left wrist upward, giving yourself a flam target on the left cymbal. For the crash, you will explode your right arm forward, aiming to contact the left cymbal about 3 inches away from the far edge with the right cymbal. This will ensure you get a quality flam and therefore, a quality crash. You will continue to thrust the cymbal forward until your right arm is completely straight, while straightening your fingers at contact. For the release, quickly bring the cymbals back to flat position, while keeping the fingers straight to preserve the vibration of the cymbals. THE SIZZ/SUCK The sizz/suck can be played in either port (above) or flat position. The Sizzle is performed by carefully crashing the cymbals and holding them close to one another in a way that allows them to vibrate against each other for several seconds. You will want to straighten your fingers to achieve maximum resonance. The suck is performed by forcefully sliding the right cymbal downward into the left until you create a vacuum pocket with the two cymbals that quickly eliminates all sound. You can aid this by clamping down on the cymbals with your fingers.
6 DINGS: Dings are played by hitting the top portion of the underside of the left cymbal bell with the edge of the right cymbal. It is very important that you contact the correct part of the bell to achieve the desired sound. Again, try to straighten your fingers to avoid dampening either cymbal. CLICKS: Clicks are performed from choke position by simply tapping the underside of the right cymbal onto the edge of the left. The result is a muted click sound. ZINGS: Zings start by contacting the cymbals at the same point that you do with dings, only instead you will drag the edge of the right cymbal along the underside of the left cymbal, trying to dig into every groove along the way. The result is a very shimmering sound effect. TAPS: Taps are performed in a modified port position where you tilt the tops of both cymbals toward each other and tap the underside of the right cymbal onto the edge of the left to simulate the sound of a stick hitting the cymbal. TAP CHOKES: Tap chokes are a more aggressive version of the tap where you execute a forceful tap and then immediately bringing the cymbals to choke position, dampening all sound. The far edges of the cymbal are typically used with these.
7 CRASH CHOKES: Crash chokes are usually a flat crash that ends at choke position immediately after the cymbals are crashed. This is one of the most aggressive cymbal techniques when done properly. HI HAT CHOKES: Performed in flat position, hi hat chokes are performed by opening and closing the cymbals together with the edges lined up so that the sound produced resembles that of a hi hat on a drum set. Over the years, cymbals have developed a common stereotype of being one of the easiest instruments to play in the marching ensemble. This is a TERRIBLE STEREOTPYE. The truth is just the opposite. You can clearly see that, like any other percussion instrument, cymbals have an almost endless amount of intricacies. This combined with the sheer physical demand makes cymbals a very difficult instrument to truly master. There are indeed many more techniques than the ones contained in this portion of the handbook, but all of those contained should serve as a basic foundation for any potential cymbal player to grow upon. SPECIAL CYMBAL NOTATION: Cymbal Technique Packet Version 1.0