In the previous posts, I talked about the fundamentals of a drum set and cymbals. What is needed to play the drums. These additional instruments I add here are exactly that, add-ons to the basic set. They all produce different sounds to be used in making music. These additional instruments give a drummer a larger palette, if you will. Concert toms are like rack toms, except they only have a batter head. The bottom of the drum is open. One reason a bottom head is installed on a drum is to cause the air inside the drum to vibrate back and form between the two heads to create resonance, or boom. Concert toms, because they lack the bottom resonance head, have an altogether different sound than double headed rack toms. Their attack is faster and they lack resonance. Marching toms are also concert toms, but their drumheads are over stretched […]
Continue readingAnatomy of the Drums – Part 3: Cymbals
Cymbals are metal curved disks that produce a unique sound when struck with a mallet, stick or even another cymbal. There are numerous metals used, but various alloys of bronze and brass tend to be the most commonly used. While there are numerous cymbal manufacturers, only four dominate the market: Zildjian, Sabian, Paiste and Meinl. All sound good to me, but I prefer Zildjian and like least Paiste. But that’s me. Cymbals have been around for thousands of years, at least 2800 years and probably even longer. They seem to have originated in what is today the Middle East area. One of the oldest cymbal makers, Zildjian originated in the 1600’s in the Ottoman Empire. Cymbals then soon started to work their way into the European music of the day. By the 1750’s, they were being regularly used in orchestras and in the military. Early drum sets included cymbals, usually […]
Continue readingAnatomy of the Drum Kit – Part 2: Drum Anatomy
A drum consists of a shell, a vent, a badge, lugs, tension rods, hoops, drum heads and mounting hardware. Most all drums have these items. Some drums also have legs. Snare drums also have snares, a butt plate and a throw off. Got all that? Everything that comes into contact with the drum head will affect how a drum sounds. That means that there are potentially thousands of variables when it comes to how a drum sounds. Understanding how to properly tune drums also helps a great deal. But because of all this, one should be able to get even a POS drum kit to sound good. Cymbals are another matter, but more on that one at a later date. Drum shells come in different standard sizes. Tom-tom sizes are 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 18 inch diameters. Snare drums are typically 13 or 14 inch […]
Continue readingAnatomy of the Drums – Part 1: Parts of the Drum Kit
This small 4 piece drum set is the basic drum kit. Anything else is just an add-on. But to supply a rhythm for a song, this is the minimum of what it takes. Although Slim Jim Phantom could argue one only needs the bass, snare and ride cymbal. He might win that argument. I have played large drum kits (11+ piece with double bass) most of my drumming life, but I learned on this size. And when gigging, a kit this size is preferable. The chrome drum is the snare drum. The large drum sitting on the ground is the bass drum, or kick drum. A bass drum pedal is needed to give sound to this drum. The snare and bass drums are the core drums used to create rhythms. These two drums are the drums used the most, even if there is a hundred other drums. The snare and […]
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