Getting Familiar with the Instrument

Get familiar with the basic drum kit. Each kit is different, using different kinds of drums that make up a set. There are different brands, sizes, sticks used, and different tunings among other slighter modifications that will affect the overall sound of each instrument. Still, many drum kits employ basically the same fundamental pieces. Most basic kits include:

• A bass drum, which makes the low-pitched booming sound when struck by a weighted mallet operated by a foot pedal.
• A snare drum, usually located to the non-dominant side of the drummer and played with the drummer’s non-dominant stick. The snare is a tight, bright drum with a band of rattling metal beads under the drum head. Typically, the snare is known for its crisp “click” sound followed by the “resonating shuffle” of the beads.
• There are many types of tom-tom drums, but the most common three are the Floor Tom (the deepest of the three), the Mid-Tom (the medium of the three), and the High-Tom (the most high-pitched of the three). A very basic kit may only have the floor tom, while others may have many. They’re tuned differently to create an array of different deeper noises for fills.