Lately I have been liking the sound of after hitting my crash's to grab them right after with my hand for the purpose of muteing them quickly.I especially like doing this for parts of the song where I want or need to hit the crash 4-5 times in a row.Anyone else like to do this and have you gotten this down to the point where you can play a fill hit the cymbal and mute it like a split second after while going right back into the fill or beat?

I choke my cymbals fairly often, especially the splash.  I get fastest results choking with the hand that didn't hit the cymbal.  I'm considerably less adept at striking anc choking with the same hand, but I'm working on it.

I don't want to sound like a jerk or anything, but....

Sometimes I think people make WAY too much of things.

Just hit it, and then choke it.

Not every little nuance and muscle twitch can be (or maybe even should be) graphed out and filmed and put on DVD for us all to run out and buy because we think that it will make us so much better as players and musicians.

I know this sounds like being a real @$$, but sometimes too much is too much for ME.

Thanks for letting me rant a bit.

Continue on with your day.

Just be careful. I love choking cymbals, either one-handed or with the opposite hand, but either way, you run the risk of catching a cymbal edge under the thumbnail.

OUCH.

I've done that a bunch. So make sure you look carefully, otherwise you'll get a lovely bloodblister, or even an open gash.

I've done this before—I think it's a safe assumption to qualify this as its own sound rather than that of a traditional choke.

It's also something I'm mildly afraid of, since placing such force with the stick in order to get a rather alternative sound is bound to lead towards undue stress on the cymbal.

I've also heard this technique called 'hushing' the cymbal. This term seems to be used mainly by friends from Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and other points south. Is this a cultural thing? Kind of like Hush Puppies except with brass? I'm in Oregon, so I don't know. Side note: Hush Puppies with a little red-eyed gravy are fantastic! And yes, I know what's in red-eyed gravy.

Yep--I've noticed myself using it at the end of a song when it ends real fast. The bass player calls it my Jefferson Starship ending. When you cover ZZ Top's La Grange, there's a set of stops out of the solo(s) that come back to the head that are best hushed.

I've caught some nice bruises on my hand from trying to crash/choke with one hand. I've also knocked the stick out of my hand trying to make it a one-handed move. That's not so much of a problem as I have a bunch more in the stick bag. The bass player who usually stands next to that cymbal hates to have Gadd Signature Series sticks coming his way, though.

Hehehe!

He know's he has it good with me as his drummer!

don't look at me in that tone of voice!  

just so you know, i don't do this often, because i don't crash often enough to need to mute anything.  when i do it i'm usually going for this exact sound.  from my description you can't tell, but when done correctly it does not put excessive stress on the cymbal.