Drum Kit Setup Guide

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. Modern drummers, including the likes of Buddy Rich, Billy Cobham, Neal Peart, Dave Weckl, and Jimmy Chamberlain, have helped drummers develop their playing skills by inspiring new beat and rhythm patterns, new combinations of sound upon sound. The modern approach to drumming, then, is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song.

In this free instructional video series, learn how to play the drums, both as an absolute beginner, and as a drummer who is looking to improve their skills. Our expert is a two-time winner of the Guitar Center Drum Off and will show you how to work on your chops. Drum clinic lessons include how to set up your new kit, basic stick grip tips and techniques, using the kick drum and hi-hat pedals, playing rock and jazz patterns, and using dynamics to make your playing more interesting.

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Frank, today we’re going to look at how to set up the drum set. On a standard five piece drum set, you’re going to put the toms—these two rack toms and the floor tom—or however many toms you’re going to use, around you. But it’s all about setting up the foundation first, and the main instruments in the drum set are going to be one, two, three, four instruments. The bass drum, the biggest drum on the drum set usually—and played by a foot pedal—is going to be drum number one. That goes just comfortably; first thing is sit down comfortably, and where you normally sit, that’s where you set your drum set around you. You don’t want to set up the drum set and then awkwardly get situated to play it; it’s all about conservation of motion, so what you want to be able to do is sit down comfortably in an empty space and say you know what this is where I want to put things, because this is where my foot is going to be or this is where my leg is going to be. Start with just the bass drum; put the bass drum in front of your right leg where you’re just naturally sitting, and then you put your hi-hat to the left, naturally sitting, the stand that is the hi-hat. Then you take your snare drum and put that in the middle; those are the three main instruments, add the ride cymbal and that’s your fourth. Hi-hat to your left, base drum in the middle, snare drum between your legs and the ride cymbal on the right. As far as the heights of the height adjustable drums—snare drum—and then the height adjustable cymbals—the ride and the hi-hat—that really depends on you. The snare drum, it even can tilt here and there unlike the hi-hat, but similar to the right cymbal, and the angle in which you put these instruments that’s up to you too. Well talk a little bit more about how to use a stick and what the stick’s for, and when you have instruments at certain angles what that’ll do for you and what that can do to you. But for now know that I prefer a very level snare drum, really level, about up as high as my belt buckle and the ride cymbal is higher. In the 80’s, it was really popular to have your ride cymbal just right there, and they weren’t playing down on it, they were playing out against it. Some players do that today, but the evolution of the drum set it’s just changed so much the history is pretty rich. But as far as the setup, surprisingly these four instruments haven’t changed very much. Those other instruments like crashes, the toms… those get setup around this, but never be limited to the setups that you see, be as creative as you can and make it work for you."