Things You'll Need:
- Ride cymbal
- Cymbal stand
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Step 1
The ride cymbal is typically mounted on 1 of 3 types of stands. The first is a straight cymbal stand, with a tripod base and telescoping tube assembly, ending with the cymbal mount. This standard stand is simple to use. However, it has a limited range of adjustment and placement of ride cymbal.
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Step 2
The second type of stand is a boom cymbal stand, which has an angled boom arm, ending with the cymbal mount. This stand allows the ride cymbal to be placed closer to the player, while allowing the tripod foot print to be further away from the drumset.
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Step 3
The third type of stand is a bass drum mounted cymbal stand. It is less common nowadays and is more associated with jazz and big band playing. This stand does not have a tripod base. Rather, it attaches directly to the bass drum, with the tube straight up to the cymbal mount. This allows the drummer to have less hardware around the drum set (and less hardware to carry), as well as positioning the ride cymbal very close to the drummer on his right side. It does, however, extremely limit the range of placement of the ride cymbal.
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Step 4
The height and angle of the ride cymbal will not only affect the comfort and playability, but the sound to the drummer and the audience. For example, mounting a ride cymbal very low and flat will decrease some of the ride cymbal's projection to the audience, because the sound is reflected into the drums themselves. However, this placement can often be very comfortable for drummers because it requires the least amount of wide arm movement. On the other end of the spectrum, mounting a ride cymbal much higher and angled toward the drummer will provide greater projection to the audience. This of course will be less comfortable to play for long periods of time because it requires the arms to be raised up.
