dont be proud if you're not good

I see where your coming from. At my high school the cymbal line is considered beneath everyone else. the people who bomb the audition or just plain suck are on cymbals.

But depending on if your have a good cymbal line it's not something to be not proud of

I tell my students that if they are not proud of their instrument, their not trying hard enough. It's fun to be good. And every instrument can be fun if you practice and get better at it.
I personally love cymbals, I love all percussion. The way my brother and I thought of to make it fun was adding in dirty visuals or improving. Not just screwing around and each doing our own thing. But, he and I and the other cymbal players learned to work together. And we made up some on field-commands so that we could improv together. I don't really suggest that, but we just had fun last year.

If you truly enjoy whatever you're playing and you have confidence then there's no reason not to have some pride. Then again, our school's mantra is: "Pride. Class. Excellence." But it is also very common for the cymbal line to be put under everyone else, or rather they were until I came along. I suppose it just takes someone who's dedicated for everyone else to understand the importance. I am the only person of a 4-man cymbal line that gets respect for their instrument.

Yeah... I get respect too, which is cool... but it's probably cause everybody knew me and I worked with the bassline and pit every week. Lol, that kind of helps with respect a bit. I think anyone who truelly loves their instrument and tries their best should be respected though.

I think a lot of people have hit the nail on the head. You have to take pride and what you do and make your line the best it can be.

I always worked with the cymbal players (I was the pit section leaders) because our section leaders wanted cymbal playerrs, but no one wanted to work with them and then they'd get belittled. So I took them aside and used my (very limited) knowledge of cymbals and visuals and the band ended up loving them.

It's a shame that drumlines usually dump the "less talented" folks onto cymbal lines and pits and then don't even bother to try to work them up.

Well, I'm from the Netherlands and in our band, the cymbal line seems to be considered as a kind of 'lower' instrument, maybe it is because we have only two cymbal players. For next year, there are probably two new players for the cymbal line and my instructor has sort of given me the charge of the line. Reading all you comments is really helping me to find ways to bring my enthusiasm about the cymbals over to the other players in my line. For a non-cymbal player, it might be okay to not be proud to play cymbals, but as a part of the cymbal line you really have to, because it's a great instrument, technically as well as visually.

Trying to explain Cymbals to someone that has not experienced or seen even a half decent cymbal line is like trying to explain the difference between drum corps and marching band to your parents. They just won't get it. And thats ok. It is NEVER ok to not be proud of your part in the drumline. If you do not take pride in what you do, you are not putting energy into the line, you're actually depriving your line of it. So what if your parts are "simple"? So what if some misinformed people think less of you? Pride is what makes the distinction of rather you're part of the line, or just a mer distraction. However, I will only assign 50% of the blame to those of you who feel that it's OK to lack pride in your cymbal line. The other half falls to your instructor(s).

The conventional hierarchy of the drumline (usually by those that are ill informed) is Snare - Tenor - basses - cymbals. But those that are WELL informed know that there is no hierarchy - all sections are vital parts of the whole drumline sound. It just doesn't sound right if any section is left out.

For those that are in the know, Cymbals are actually more complex then ANY other drum. You need precision equal to that of a snare player, you have more tambres/different sounds then a tenor player, and you have splits that are as crazy if not more so then that of bass players. Not to mention that the Cymbals lends itself so much more to the visual and GE score that makes my head hurt to try and find out why not more schools are using them.

I am the arranger/caption head of a junior high indoor drumline, and we compete in a local circuit and all my cymbals (3) are 7th graders. Even they understand the pride of a cymbal player. They look forward to sectionals/rehearsals, and they all look forward to playing cymbals again next year. I took 3 kids who are just starting music just this school year, and built them into cymbal players that people are noticing, wowing over. If I can do that with 7th graders, there is no reason why that can't be done with kids in highschool and beyond.

There is an old adage, you can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. I chose to be part of the solution by instilling pride into every single player in my line, and giving them an end product that they and their peers can be proud of.

The bottom line is this: you are entitled to your opinion, and we to ours. But if you feel that it's OK to lack pride just because you think Cymbals are on the bottom of the drumline totem pole, then you're just a part of the problem that is perpetuating that very idea. Just remember, a snare drum in the hands of an inexperienced player is just pop corn.

Being a cymbal player is not a bad thing. I go to North Shore High School and this year the entire cymbal line were made up of rookies. All five of us play either a brass or woodwind instrument. Its ok yes its simple but be proud that no one can do it like you can. Cymbals for life lol!!!

Im a freshman this year and i marched snare this year. our director put our worst players on cymbals so I had that mindset at the beginning of the year. now that i've watched drumline videos learned more about percussion section as a whole I'm noticing that cymbals are really cool. no matter what anybody else says. i wish i had at least learned to play cymbals well during marching season. cymbals are actually really cool dude. dont think of it as being stuck on cymbals. think of it as an oppurtunity to show what you are worth to the drumline