Snare Drum Materials

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.

The modern approach to drumming 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 you will learn how to play a snare drum with several different styles of beats including the rim shot, rim click and rim hit. It's a completely different sound and style for each hit but our expert Joel Siegel will share techniques for creating the best stick sounds as you add fills. He offers tips and advice and walks you through some great informational steps to becoming a more advanced and original drummer.

Video Transcript

"JOEL SIEGEL: Alright. So, we've covered grip. We've covered the different types of stroke. The next thing that I want to talk is the approach to the drum head. The drum, firstly, the construction is pretty simple. You have your shell. Usually they're wooden; sometimes they're fiberglass or synthetic material. And then you have your skin or your head. This is a thin pliable material. It started out being natural material. And now, they're--typically, you're going to get synthetic materials to make up your head. They come in either coated like this one or clear, if you can see on the bottom of the drum, that's a clear head. We'll get into the difference of the sounds of those a little later on."