How to Adjust Cymbal Height on a Drum Set

Video Transcript

"SHAUN SCHAEFER: Hi, I'm Shaun Schaefer on behalf of Expert Village. And today, we're going to learn how to set up a drum kit. So all the drums are set up, we got the cymbals on their stands, but we need to do some adjusting. This is unplayable at this moment. First off, we're going to do the hi-hat. We set up the hi-hat stand right. It feels good, but now we just need to tighten the clutch. I'm going to press down the pedal, tighten the clutch. Now, we've got it open. This crash cymbal here is completely off. It's not even facing me. We want to keep the cymbal stand at the bottom the same, because of the whole tipping factor. So what we're going to do is we're just going to move this part up here. So we're going to loosen and just twist. And that looks like it's a pretty good angle, and it feels good with the relationship of the hi-hat. Now, let's move to the right cymbal. And this other cymbal that's an absolute mess, completely unplayable for me. Now, for you, that might be okay. But for me, I can't handle it. So the first thing we're going to do is raise the ride cymbal up. I'm going to do that by going underneath and loosening this, and make sure you hold on to the cymbal because it will fall. I'm going to do it right there and tighten. And then the angle looks a little off, so I'm going to go ahead and do that right there. That looks really good. That looks really good, actually. The final thing, we want to adjust this cymbal. This is pretty bad as well, so let's go ahead. We're going to go and twist. Make sure--there you go. Now, a key note for me, I know by looking at my cymbals this way, I never want the edge of this cymbal to be over the bell. This is called the bell. So I never want this edge to be over the bell of the ride cymbal. That looks like a good spot but now the angle looks a little off, so I'm going to do what I did to the ride cymbal. I'll take this. I'm going to loosen it, and I'm going to twist like that. Now, the other thing I noticed about the cymbal is it appeared to be a little low, so I'm going to go ahead and raise that the same way I raised the ride cymbal. So that feels about right. So now, the key thing is get back behind the drum kit, and let's see where we're at. Okay. So let's maybe do a ghost run. Everything feels good. I don't have to reach too far for anything. Actually, I'm going to move this whole cymbal stand in, so all--both of these cymbals are going to move in a little bit. Now, that's a lot better. So this feels really good. So I think the cymbals are in line. So let's see what the next step is."