Cymbal choking is a dynamic drumming technique used to abruptly silence the sound of a cymbal. Cymbal Choking is often overlooked by most free drum lessons-based websites and educational products for drummers. With this free drum lesson, Jared Falk fills this void by teaching you how to choke cymbals, and how to use them within drum beats and as song enders.
Cymbal choking can be used for accents – emphasizing particular rhythmic figures or signaling the conclusion of a section of a song – or as a way to match other instruments’ sustain. Cymbal choking was actually the most used technique for playing on cymbals way back in the day. Chick Webb and Baby Dodds were two of the major practitioners of this style. By the time we hit the late 1920s, guys like Gene Krupa and Dave Tough began letting the sound of their cymbals naturally fade out instead of choking them after each stroke – which is actually the way most crash, splash and China cymbals are played today.
There are two different ways of choking a cymbal. With the first one, you choke a cymbal with the opposite hand from the one you strike it with. This works well for cymbals that are within reach of both hands. With the second one, you play and choke a cymbal using the same hand. This is the only way to choke cymbals that are far off to one side of the drum set.
Cymbal choking can be tricky to perform, and should be done carefully so you don’t end up injuring yourself – much like Jared does in the video! You can use this dynamic drumming technique within drum beats, drum fills, and drum solos. So you can actually take all the drum beats and drum fills from this website and use cymbal choking within them.
To start incorporating cymbal choking into drum beats right away, use it instead of hi-hat strokes on the free drum lesson “Beginner Punk Rock Drum Beats“. For drum fill applications, check the free drum lesson “Intermediate Double Bass Drum Fills” and choke some of the crash strokes you’ll find within each pattern. We’ve also put together a fun little video with behind the scenes footage from this lesson’s recording process. So get your favorite drink; sit back and just relax while you watch the video “Cymbal Choking – Behind The Scenes“.
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He literally gave their blood for the drums!
aauhgggg…..
ajajaj! grande jared! saludos desde chile!
ahh it seemed so real i was wondering why it was so important that he kept going! I looked down around 3 mins in the comments and then i realized it was a joke. Hahahahh “a little blood” that was the only reason i continued watching it
Hey you should really put a bandaid on that cut……:-)
Pretty good acting, you had me until the 2nd time Victor told you to keep going. I doubt that even he is THAT hard core. Besides, who wants to watch a lesson filled with blood?
hahaha! your great guys that was just all too funny haha! good job keep up the great work
hahaha! thanks for the laugh way to get in the spirit of things!
Happy Halloween!
Just noticed the bloods on the wrong hand than the hand you hurt. and that when you got back up you had a packet of fake blood in your mouth thats why you couldn’t talk clear. And that you played way to good to be through all that.
You completely had me till the clown. I was thinking poor jared and poor kit then when you fell over and just about knocked the kit cymbals and snare over. That was movie quality cting man. Awesome job.
that was hilarious!!! i was laughing da whole time n den asking myself if this was serious.. i couldnt figure it out, if i shuld b laughing or not. nice prank!
Great Jared,Great…sensacional!!!!!
True metal there with the blood, always play through no matter how bad things get. Rock on
great gag Jared, had me goin there for a min-i leaned into the screen to see how ralistic the fake blood was then the face mask scream came on and i thumped me ‘ead on the back shelf ouch !!
If Steve Vai sold his signature Wirl Ibanez DNA model for 7000 maybe you can sell your drum kit for 22000. Wait, is that blood coming out of your nose, on Halloween. Ah, you spooky…
Hahaha! great vid but you are all going to Hades for the evil clown at the end! I am terrified of clowns 0_o LOL
Nice video dude, I really thought you cut your finger at first! Reminds me of my workplace, you could cut your finger off and they will tell you to keep working! Nice Job!!!
LOL! It’s just missing half a cymbal in your head!
Jared’s like Winston Churchill: He has nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears, along with tons of drumming talent in this case. Appreciate your efforts, dude! Great acting as well…
jared……. YOU SCARED THE BAJEEZUS OUT OF ME!!! but be careful falling around cymbals. i’ve accully cut myself fallinng aroud my drums.
thanks and have a good halloween!
Hilarious! You had me going. I was thinking, “Is this guy an idiot? Why doesn’t he go bandage his finger.” The acting was awesome. Nicely underplayed. You’ve got to post this wide on Youtube. You’ll get a million hits, easily.
That was funny, good Halloween prank. In the beginning I thought it was real.
Hahaha …best video yet man!
Victor, you slave driver, show must go on, huh? Jeez, wanna manage a band?…call me! 😉
Rock on Jared!
Man you had me feeling so bad for you…I couldnt bevieve you were still going at it…….Best prank in a long time.
Regards
Doc
everywhere is bleeding and you are continuing playing ghost notes hahahaha 😀
Your talents go way beyond drumming. The acting was worthy of an Academy Award.
Great Halloween prank… a minute into it, I knew it was a prank…. No way you could bleed from the mouth from a cymbal cut…and from watching you playing and talking all this time I knew you couldn’t be that big of a whimp and get sick from a cymbal cut on your finger. LOL.. Great job and thanks to you and all the guys there for a great Halloween prank on us all.. Keep up the great work guys.. love this channel and the awesome job you guys do ..
Killer Drummer by the way Jared…. wish I knew what you have forgotten.
That was funny! Happy Halloween.
that looked so real !!!!!! scared me a little. then when you started bleeding from your nose i knew it was fake.
wickeeeeeeeeeeeed good one hahahaha keep on rockn
I’m a lifeguard, so when I saw all the blood from the nose i said to my self, ” Its a prank, he would have internal bleeding if there was that much blood.”
What a way to show Halloween than drumming with blood, Amazing job, Jared!
You almost had me! by the time you started bleeding by the nose and mouth I realized this was a PRANK! jajajajajaj buena broma!
Praise the Lord! that was totally rad. Just like Jesus who first had to shed his blood before being exalted and a greater good being realized; Jared, you pushed forth and shed your blood for our stinky drum playing and even when it was paining you to go on your blood shed so when we could come out of it better players.
God bless you and Happy Halloween.
P.S. your website rocks!!! (although if you discussed the great Bill Stevenson’s drumming it would be way cooler)
Praise the Lord, I also watch his videos here to help me play drums for my praise team.
lets add a third christian drummer to this list. well played prank on the audience 🙂
hahaha…”at the end of the song…that’s what…that’s what people really like…” hahahaha…wicked. Best lesson yet!
Hey Jared,
Awesome =D best drumlesson ever 😛
(I’m glad my drumteacher doesn’t pull such tricks on me :P)
Ha! I rushed down to comment after hearing Victor tell you to keep going. I thought, is this guys SERIOUS?!?!? Way to go, Happy Halloween.
Too funny. As being a rookie who has shed blood on my drums (snare rim), I thought it was real!
you really had me goin on the first phew minutes…very funny. when the clown came up,i got a bit scared,but twas cool he he. keep it up Jared!!
awesome video jared,all you needed was dave atkinson to join you and it would have been a bloody session lol.
happy halloween!!
Great job dude, that was seriously funny, even if you ended up getting what was going on about halfway through. Keep it up, always entertaining (and genreally informative)
I thought that playing drums is bad, very bad! Oh! It was a joke! Ouffff! I’m Italian, I prefer the mystery of the drum than Halloween! Good holiday but … remember you are a Christian!
Happy Helloween Jared! 😀
…………………………………………..ahaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. :< nice man
The first minute and a half totally had me fooled… Even being a medic i honestly thought you cut yourself on the symbol as the blood looked real… Totally amazing and well worth the watch… Well done guys….. God bless…
That was good. I was really worried for you and thought Victor was an a_ _ for making you keep going. Great halloween prank!
You’re crazy!!! Always good!!
You had me going at first! Awesome Jared.
NICE!!!! Love it. Funny and educational. Keep up the goodness
Jared, Jared, Jared;
Man, Rock ‘N’ Roll Is A Viscous Game. The Show Must Go On. ROFL!!! Seriously man, that was totally awesome. What on earth did you use as blood because it totally looked real. I didn’t know that you were a great actor as well as a great drummer Jared, seriously. We’ll see you on the Big Screens soon in movies and films. That was great, totally made my morning. Good Job guys, take care and God Bless.