Peter Erskine on Cymbals & Solos

Some very insightful wisdom from Peter Erskine here discussing his philosophies on using cymbals in a drum solo context:



I'm always impressed when I hear great drummers who play with a larger arsenal of cymbals in their set up and do so with the utmost musicality, taste and creativity. For the longest time I only used a simple three cymbal approach to my set-up (ride, crash/ride and hi-hats) but have recently been trying expand on that after seeing drummers like Peter Erskine, Terry Clarke, Carl Allen, Lewis Nash and Dafnis Prieto (among many others) who play with larger cymbal set ups so effectively. I really like the expanded colours and sense of orchestration they get from using more cymbals. Of course, this means lugging around more cymbal stands to the gig and it makes my cymbal bag that much more heavier (oh well...) but in the end I think it's worth it. There is a lot to be said for getting many sounds out of a smaller drum kit but sometimes it's nice to explore a larger drum set with multiple sound and cymbal options too.

I also appreciate Erskine's shout out to Shelly Manne in that last clip, a drummer we should all definitely check out...

Here's another excellent shot of Erskine from a recent drum clinic:



Great playing here and, as always, Mr. Erskine is all about the music (and on a nice set of DW drums too!)