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 Home > Learning Center > Drums

Drums

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Drums are one of the most pervasive instruments in music, and also one of the most versatile. Sure, a drum plays far fewer notes than a piano, but a drum is infinitely adaptable.

The concept of a beat is central to all music, and the instrument a person thinks of first and foremost for a beat is the drum. The typical drum has two main components a body and a head.

Both the body and head are responsible for the sound that is produced. The size of the body will affect what pitch a drum is capable of producing. For instance, no matter what type of head you put on a bongo, it will never make the deep boom of a base drum. It simply lacks the volume necessary to make that pitch. Another thing that alters the pitch of the drum is wood type. A maple drum with at 10 inch diameter will produce a different pitch than a birch drum of the same size, which will in turn be different from a mahogany body. Drum bodies are also known as shells in some circles.

By way of analogy, if the drum body is the drum’s vocal chords, then the drum head is the tongue. The head is a layer of hide or plastic that is stretched across the open end of a drum. It is the portion of the drum that is struck to create sound, either with a drummer’s hands, or with drum sticks. The type of head, along with the modifications made to the head, are what create the unique sound of each drum. For instance, toms or tom toms as they were once known; are made with a simple shell (or body) around which the head is stretched.

Tom toms are drums that hearken back to American Indian and ancient Asian cultures. The original drums had no adjustable rims; instead the head of the drum was attached to the body with tacks or a leather binding. The head itself was made of animal intestine on the original tom toms. In the twentieth century the tom-tom saw a rise in popularity concurrent with the jazz movement. Since that time it has become a staple in the modern drum kit, as well as becoming the most prolific type of drum in the kit. A typical five drum kit contains three different toms, a snare drum, and a bass drum.

Snare drums are an example of a modification to the drum head. A snare is a string that is tied across a drum head. Modern snare drums usually have a series of strings across the outside of the lower head. They can also have a series of snares on the inner face of the upper drum head.

The snares alter the sound by cutting the reverberations short. The sound of a snare drum is very distinct, most marching drums are snares.

The final kind of common drum is the bass drum. The bass drum is the largest drum in a set. For stage bands, the bass drum is the one that features a logo and is usually directly in front of the drummer. For marching bands, the bass drum is the one strapped vertically to the drummer via a body harness, rather than being played horizontally and attached via a shoulder strap. The bass drum is also used in orchestra, with a massive 36 inch drum diameter as the preferred orchestral size. The drums for stage bands and marching ensembles are smaller, centering in the 20 inch range.

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