I played a recent outdoor gig where the sound engineer placed the drum riser behind a pop-up shade tent and positioned all the amps and monitors out in front of my kit. I also had the distinct honor of playing without any floor or in-ear monitors.

What resulted from this poor stage sound arrangement was audio quality I can only describe as mush, and an inability for me to relate musically to any other musician.

I usually set-up before any other band mate and leave plenty of room on stage for other amplifiers. Unfortunately, a muffled stage sound is more the norm for me than the exception. Let us assume for a moment that you are like most drummers reading this blog: you are the weekend warrior-type musician playing live gigs at smaller indoor and outdoor venues with low pay and free beer (maybe). These types of gigs are not always conducive to running direct feed or line-in with all instruments going through a PA system. You often neither have the time, money, personnel, nor equipment for that integrated of a stage sound investment.

If I am lucky, the sound engineer will mic my kick drum and perhaps the snare at gigs. Because most venues I play at are space limited, guitar and keyboard amps are rarely sent direct through the portable sound system, and thus do not create a nice balanced on-stage sound by using EQ’d monitors in the overall mix. More often than not, I do not even have a monitor of my own. And even if I did, the most I can hear through it is vocals as I don’t need my own drums in the monitor. I need bass and guitar, which is only possible to achieve with a direct line-in amplifier send through the PA system.

So I have decided to take stage sound control into my own hands and ears. There are some simple strategies you can advocate for as a drummer to ensure you enjoy listening to the music you help produce as much as the fellow musicians in front of you.

What I advise is for drummers to encourage your bandmates to not stack their amps directly in front of your kick drum, snare, or floor toms. Be courteous to them as well. Arrive early and do not arrange your drum set in a way where there is no room beside your kit for amps and guitar stands to be comfortably placed. Talk to the sound person before he or she sets-up.

Moreover, try to have the “gig set-up” discussion at your next rehearsal. Express your inner feelings. In fact, use your next practice session as a true dress rehearsal. Set up exactly how you would live with an audience out front. Know how large your upcoming gig’s stage playing area will be. Garages work fine for this test, minus your car and lawnmower, of course – and a very forgiving spouse or roommate.
Another “back wall” stage set-up involves bassists and guitarists tilting their amps up towards the sky or roof and pivoting amps at a 45-degree angle toward center stage and you. That way, you catch some of their playing volume, but not all of it.

Running all instruments through the PA system and mixed into monitors is obviously the best option. With the overall stage volume down, the sound engineer can give you what you want to hear without killing the audience’s ears.

My own experimental solution at the next “monitor-less” gig will involve separately sending all amps and vocals through my laptop’s 8-channel audio interface device and wearing ear buds. That way, I can record the music and hear everyone at the same time.
The key is to take the necessary time before a gig to strategize stage set-up, run a few tunes as sound check, and be willing to readjust the position of certain speakers.

- Tim Kane, a professional writer, editor and drummer for more than 20 years, writes weekly blogs for Dixon Drums.

Photo by Niels Heidenreich

First, I am not ambidextrous and do not play open stick position all the time versus crossed. If right-hand dominant drummers have ever tried to set up their drums in a left-handed drumming position (right to left like Phil Collins), then they understand how the brain finally works – it’s great practice, but also very humbling.

Tour drummers such as Carter Beauford and Billy Cobham come to mind as musicians who are darn close to the freedom and agility of using both hands without a weaker side. That’s pretty impressive stuff to watch. But their expertise does not mean non-ambidextrous drummers can’t experiment with the new found freedoms open playing position provides.

Check out the audio tab attached here open playing position example to this blog of a spur-of-moment raw drum pattern I recently played to warm-up before a band rehearsal. The majority of my snare strikes were with the right hand while I carried most high-hat, crash and higher tom accents pretty much with the weaker left hand.

What I have found is that by playing open position at times during a song or solo, it provides me with a whole new world of off-beat accents and patterns to explore – some actually in reverse of how one would normally play that phrasing in a traditional crossed stick position. Open playing also gives me more “mobile” right-hand expressions on the right side of the drum kit – usually reserved for floor toms and rides.

Instead of playing snare on the normal 2 and 4 beats, open playing stresses the 1 and 3 a lot more in one measure, simply because your right hand is more attuned to accenting 1 and 3 heavy while playing crossed stick position in a standard 4/4 time signature.

By mixing and reserving stick and hand dominance more during songs, new styles and sequences suddenly begin to appear. If you set up a ride or crash ride on your left side, open playing also works great in situations where you desire a steady ride or bell pattern, but want more control and strength in accenting on the toms.

I also have set-up a tom-tom to the left of my snare and high-hat for years and found it has helped my left-side weakness improve.

Please take a listen to the attached track and share your own open playing experiences.

Tim Kane is a professionally-trained drummer with about 30 years performance experience.

Written by Tim Kane

Today, he feels lucky to have a diverse range of experiences to draw from as a working professional drummer.

Read Tim’s full bio

Besides the incredible speed and technique, notice anything different? Derek swaps his second and third tom, so that from left to right, the rack toms are: Highest, Lowest, Middle.
Whether you’re a beginning or an experienced drummer, there’s little doubt that one of your favorite things to do is hang out with other drummers and talk about drums. Listening famous drummers, playing your favorite fills for each other, talking about the latest gear… sound familiar?
It’s common, too, for drummers to talk about their setups. When other drummers play your kit, they may comment that your cymbals are too far away, or your toms aren’t in the right place, etc. You’ll be tempted, especially if they’re more experienced than you, to change your setup and angles based on their recommendations.
The trouble is, when it comes to setups and angles, everyone’s different. By all means, try out what’s recommended to you, but keep in mind that what works for someone 5’3” won’t work for someone who’s 6’3”, and vice versa. Similarly, there’s a lot of value in having a unique setup, especially if it works for you. Your more experienced colleague may not have the need for an extra hi-hat, or for the floor tom to be angled towards the snare.

Any teacher worth his or her salt will help you find a setup that works well for you and your body type. If you’re playing a 5-piece, the ‘typical’ setup is a good starting point, but when it comes to angles, and specific placement of the drums, the goal is to feel comfortable behind your kit, be able to move around freely, and to play with good technique.
Once you have a good feel for your kit and your setup, start experimenting. Change the order of your toms, add extra drums and cymbals, put your snare drum to your right…get creative! Over time, you’ll naturally come to a setup that allows you to best express yourself musically.

The point is: do what works for you. It’s not important that your setup look like the next guys’. In fact, it probably shouldn’t. After all: you’re you.

Footnote – This setup might be going too far:

How do you set up your kit? Are typical 5-piece setups the most common because they’re the BEST way? Any tips on coming up with the perfect setup for you?

Written by: Scott Honsberger

Scott is a drumming and music junkie, originally from Toronto and now living in Halifax, NS, Canada. He loves funk, jazz, jam bands, drum corps, rock climbing, and his iPhone.

Bellson pioneered the use of the double kick drum which is so prevalent in rock music today, especially with the heavy metal crowd.

Go to any heavy metal or hard rock concert and you’ll see drummers from Alex Van Halen to Jason Bittner with elaborate double-kick drum sets and the chops to play them. Early Van Halen music is rife with great double- and even triple-kick drum technique.

But many great drummers still prefer the single kick, if for no other reason than convenience. Or maybe just to show off their drumming prowess.

One of the techniques that made Led Zeppelin drummer, the late John Bonham, so influential was his ability to play quads (a four-note linear hand/foot combination), using only a single kick drum pedal. Check out the song “Moby Dick” sometime from the film “The Song Remains the Same” to see Bonham in action. It’s inspirational.

The type of wood used for kick drums varies almost as much as the drummers themselves. Birch, maple and mahogany are probably the most popular, but there is also poplar, ash, basswood, and rosewood, along with fiberglass. While maple provides a warmer sound, it also sounds good across a wide spectrum of frequencies and is probably the most popular wood.

Kick drums come in many sizes, ranging mostly in the 20- to 26-inch by 18-to 20-inch range. The bigger drums have a bigger, boomier sound and are mainly used for rock while the smaller drums tend to be used for jazz.

Whether or not to use two kick drums or a double kick drum pedal (two single pedals connected by an extension rod) with a single kick drum is a matter of personal preference. Many drummers like the convenience of only having to pack, carry and set up one drum instead of two.

The types of drum heads to use are also a matter of personal preference. I don’t like having huge pillows or blankets stuffed inside my drum (like I did in high school) because it tends to interfere with the natural sound of the drum. Instead, I use drum heads with built-in muffling. If you’re using two kick drums, most drum experts advise using the same heads on both kick drums and tuning them the same to get an even sound.

One method of tuning is to have the batter side of the head tuned one or two notes higher than the resonant side, which will be tuned as low as possible in order to get a punchier sound.

I prefer a hole in my resonant or front head, no bigger than seven inches, to create a punchier sound and also allow a close-up microphone technique. For jazz, many drummers prefer not to have a hole and mic the head from either the front or the back near the kick drum pedal.

As far as beaters go (the part of the drum pedal that hits the drum head) many come with a combination of wood, felt and rubber that can be switched to fit your sound preference. Wood is going to be heavy on the slap while the felt side will be punchier.

There really is no right or wrong set-up. Whether you go with the double or single kick drum, or even four kick drums, the only limit is your own imagination.

Written by Toby Tate

Toby Tate is a performing musician, songwriter and studio engineer from northeastern North Carolina. Currently a freelance writer, Toby was a reporter and graphic designer for The Daily Advance newspaper for five years and has had stories and articles published in regional and national magazines and on the Internet. His first novel, DIABLERO, a supernatural thriller, will be released worldwide in October by Nightbird Publishing.

As drummers, we all take the snare drum for granted. It’s just another drum, right? Nothing special. But the snare is usually the first drum any drummer learns to play on. In fact, it could be argued that the snare drum is the key piece in your kit, providing the backbeat or the locomotion of the rhythm.

The snare drum began life rather inconspicuously—as a marching instrument for military bands, strapped on to its player and sporting an animal skin for a drum head. Eventually the snare became the core of the “trap” set or drum kit.

Snare drums can be made of birch, mahogany, maple, plywood, fiberglass, or even stainless steel and usually employ plastic or Mylar drum heads. Usually about 14 inches in diameter and six to eight inches deep, the snare drum is sometimes called “the steering wheel” because, well, it kind of looks like a steering wheel and because it “drives” the kit. Sitting on a stand, it is the central focus, directly in front of the player (in most cases) and surrounded by the other drums and cymbals. The kick drum, hi-hat and ride cymbal are also part of what propels musical rhythm, but the snare drum is usually the focal point of any drum kit.

Snare drums are used in everything from classical music to big band, jazz, country and rock. Think about some of the great drummers of the past—Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, John Bonham—and consider the role the snare drum played in their music. From amazing drum rolls to loud rim shots, the snare always seems to cut through the mix.

There are even bands like the rockabilly trio Stray Cats, whose drummer Slim Jim Phantom uses only two drums—a snare and a kick drum.

The snare drum is typically the most played drum in the kit. Its versatility allows the player to create many different sounds. Loosen the chain (snare) on the bottom (resonant) head, and you instantly have a completely different sound, like that of a timbale. The head can be loosened for a deeper sound or tightened for a higher pitched sound.

Triplets played with brushes a la Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” can create the effect of a train running down the tracks, while a single stroke hammering every fourth note accentuates the driving rhythms of drummer Charlie Watts that brought The Rolling Stones from London clubs to worldwide fame.

Watch an instructional video and most any drum teacher will begin by explaining the purpose of the snare drum and its place in the drum kit. But after a few hundred years of change and evolution, the snare drum has definitely earned its place in the history of drum playing.

References:

Drum Solo.cc: Buying a Snare Drum: The Center of our Universe by Greg Gaylord

Percussion Clinic.com: Snare Drum

Written by Toby Tate

Toby Tate is a performing musician, songwriter and studio engineer from northeastern North Carolina. Currently a freelance writer, Toby was a reporter and graphic designer for The Daily Advance newspaper for five years and has had stories and articles published in regional and national magazines and on the Internet. His first novel, DIABLERO, a supernatural thriller, will be released worldwide in October by Nightbird Publishing.

That being said, why then, did I need to purchase that 1970′s 3-ply Ludwig kit, that was beat to hell, and take the time and money to restore it? Aside from the fact that this kit sounds fantastic, what made me “have to have it“? I do not take this kit to very many gigs, I think I had to have this because it was like having a piece of my childhood. When I was a kid I always wanted a Ludwig kit, if you had Ludwig drums then you must be a good drummer, and at the very least you were the coolest kid on the block. As if that is not enough, I also “had to have” a 1961 Slingerland kit. This particular kit is in mint condition and just needs a quick polish on its chrome parts. This one I bought mainly because I felt it was collectible and honestly, the deal fell into my lap, and I could not refuse it. This brings up another point, With eBay, Craigslist, and if you’re like me and go to the many flea markets and tag sales in your area, there are tons of drums available for cheap money. So how many drums are too many?

In addition to these vintage sets, my main gear consists of a Demon series set in Urban Camo finish, Outlaw series kit in Black Burst. I also utilize a rack of snare drums, (this is a whole other conversation/blog) which includes my “go to” snare drum – a 6×13 Dixon Rosewood snare drum.

I am a drum geek – and while I may not be the best player, simply said, I just love to play drums and talk about drums with other drummers. I especially love hearing about what other drummers are using and why. There is a sense of pride when drummers talk about their drums.

So, again I ask how many drums are too many?

(photo by Flickr user victorchapa)

Here’s my take on the subject: There are drummers like Phil Collins, who used to set his drums up in a “left-handed” fashion, completely opposite of a “right-handed” set up. Then there are drummers like Simon Phillips, Carter Beauford, and Mike Bordin, who play with an “open-handed style”. We also have a lot of drummers that are left-handed, meaning they write with their left hand, but play on a “right-handed” set up.

Can we just say that a drummer is a “lefty” if he leads with his or her left hand, and that’s the end of the discussion? The same can be true for a “right-handed” player My personal take on this subject is that, a drummer is a drummer, no matter how he or she sets up their drum set. Left or right, who’s to say what’s right or wrong.

My top Three drummers who play on a left – handed set up are:

• Ian Paice
• Phil Collins
• Rod Morgenstein

My top Three drummers who play open – handed are:

• Simon Phillips
• Carter Beauford
• Mike Bordin

So I invite you to give us your opinion here in the comments, and tell us who your favorite “left-handed” drummers are. The first 20 to leave a comment will get a Dixon Drums T-shirt. Be sure to leave your e-mail address so we can contact you about your mailing address.