What You Need to Set Up a Drum Set

Series Summary

The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism. The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. Different sized drums and cymbals are arranged into kits, where a drummer can pick from a variety of sounds to lead or accompany a particular song. Kit sizes vary from the simple to the outrageous.

In this free video clip series not only will you learn all about the different hardware, drum and cymbal options you have as a drummer but you will also learn how to set it all up and put it together as one large kit. Our expert, Shaun Schaefer, will take you through every piece of the drum set and explain every detail as we get you ready to rock!

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. Hi, I'm Shaun Schaefer and I'm a drummer. I've been playing the drums professionally for about 14 years. I've taught lessons and I've toured all around the world playing hundreds and hundreds of shows for hundreds of thousands of people from everywhere in the United States to Japan and South Korea, even playing for our troops who are serving in Afghanistan. Currently, I'm the drummer for the internationally-known pop rock band Blessid Union of Souls. My craft has brought me a lot of attention, mostly undeservedly so, including some awards, meeting a lot of people, not to mention the incredible perks of being in a touring rock band. A lot of people and luck have gotten me to where I am. But the first thing you need to know is how to set up a drum kit. So let's take a look at what we need to set up a drum kit. First off, what you need are the drums themselves. Without the drums, there's no drum kit. So right here, this is my floor tom. Right above that, sitting on top of that is the snare drum. And right on top of that, that is my rack tom. Now over here, that's our kick drum. So this is our trap box. It's what we like to call this contraption here. And this houses all of the cymbal stands and the stands that are going to hold the drums. Let's take off the lid and see what we have. You can see here we have my seat, my sticks and then the rest of the stands just kind of piled on top of each other. Now over, behind that, we have my kick drum pedal and the hi-hat stand. Those won't fit in this case and I'm too cheap to buy a case for them, so they just kind of ride solo without a case. So what we have here, these are my cymbals. And I have them in this protective road case here to protect them when I'm travelling from gig to gig. Remove this, and here you can see--here's one cymbal, and then they just kind of stack on top of each other. So this is the last, final piece you need to set up the drum kit. So now that we know what we need to set up a drum kit, let's get started. First off, with the kick drum."