House of Drumming.com

There's some great players that do this, sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a visual thing.

I have lots of friends who do this,
It's because they sit above the cymbals, and at that 'upward' angle, from the players perspective it's about normal. If they were set up angled down or even flat, a downwards swing would mean you were slapping them with the shank of the stick as opposed to glancing the edge with the shoulder.

Check out the video of Chris Coleman - I agree, that dude is just incredible - he's not hitting the metals directly on their edge, but as you or I would. It's just he's sat above them. Look at his eye line...

MP

Agree with Mark P. - I tried a slight angle away from me on the crash cymbals just because they're set up kind of low and I'm sitting a little high above them.
Seems like a lot of 'gospel' guys do this, although other notable players who have been tilting cymbals away are Will Kennedy and Oscar Seaton.

I wonder if it's anything like the principle of how guys, like Keith Carlock, are tilting their snares, and sometimes floor toms, away from them?

Makes sense - thanks guys. I'll give it a shot - suppose I should have done that in the first place. Hard to visualize as working as you suggest, but definitely seems possible.

Back in the '70s we were all doing that Eric Gravatt thing. I picked it up from Ed Soph. We'd rationalize it by saying the cymbals cut through better or it makes it easier to play fast tempos and all that. The real reason...it looked cool