The Drum Kit Explained: Every Piece and Your First Rock Beat
A drum kit is really a small percussion section folded up so that one person can play it. Instead of three or four musicians each hitting one drum, a single drummer uses two hands and two feet to cover low thuds, sharp cracks and shimmering cymbals all at once. That is what makes drumming look intimidating, and also what makes it so satisfying when the pieces finally lock together.
In this guide we will walk around the kit piece by piece, look briefly at where it came from, and then build the most famous groove in popular music from the ground up. You don't need sticks to start; a table, your knees or a virtual kit will do.
Walking around the kit
A typical beginner setup has five drums and a few cymbals. Here is what each one does, roughly from lowest to highest.
Bass drum (kick)
The big drum lying on its side on the floor, played with a foot pedal, usually by the right foot. It gives the deep "boom" that you feel as much as hear, and it often lines up with the bass guitar to anchor the beat.
Snare drum
The shallow drum between the drummer's knees. Underneath it, a set of tight metal wires (the snares) rattle against the bottom head, which creates its crisp, cutting "crack". In most pop and rock, the snare marks the backbeat that makes you want to clap along.
Hi-hat
Two cymbals mounted face to face on a stand with a pedal. Press the pedal and they close together for a tight "tick"; release it and they open for a looser "tsss". The hi-hat usually keeps the steady stream of time in a groove, and it can also be played with the foot alone.
Toms
Tuned drums without snares. Smaller rack toms sit above the bass drum, and a larger floor tom stands on legs to the drummer's side. They are used mostly for fills, rolling from high to low.
Ride and crash cymbals
The ride is a large, heavier cymbal played with a steady pattern, as an alternative to the hi-hat, giving a ringing "ping". The crash is thinner and explodes with a burst of sound; drummers use it to mark the start of a new section, often together with a kick drum.
How the kit came together
Before the 1900s, a marching band or theatre orchestra would have one player on bass drum, another on snare and perhaps another on cymbals. As small dance bands and early jazz groups grew in popularity around the start of the 20th century, especially in and around New Orleans, there was neither the money nor the stage space for several percussionists.
Drummers began playing several instruments at once, a practice sometimes called "double drumming". The arrival of practical bass drum pedals in the early 1900s freed the hands, and the hi-hat developed during the 1920s from a lower foot-operated pair of cymbals. Early kits often included woodblocks, cowbells and other effects, and this collection of "contraptions" gave rise to the old nickname trap set. Through the swing era and then rock and roll, the kit gradually settled into the familiar layout drummers use today.
Counting in 4/4
Almost all pop and rock music is in 4/4 time: four beats in each bar, with each beat a quarter note. Before you hit anything, practise counting:
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4
Now split each beat in half by adding "and" between the numbers. These in-between points are eighth notes:
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
That gives you eight evenly spaced slots per bar, and the basic rock beat is built entirely on them. Count out loud while you play. It feels silly at first, but it is the quickest way to keep your limbs in the right place.
Build the basic rock beat, one limb at a time
Set a metronome to a slow 60 or 70 beats per minute. Add each layer only when the previous one feels completely relaxed.
Right-handed drummers usually cross the right hand over to the hi-hat and play the snare with the left, but there is no wrong way while you are learning the pattern.
- Hi-hat alone. Play the closed hi-hat on every count: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. Eight even strokes per bar, all the same volume.
- Add the snare. Keep the hi-hat going and add the snare with your other hand on 2 and 4. Those two beats are the backbeat.
- Add the bass drum. With your foot, play the kick on 1 and 3. Now hi-hat, snare and kick are all playing together.
- Check yourself. On 1 and 3 you should hear hi-hat with kick. On 2 and 4, hi-hat with snare. On every "and", hi-hat alone.
- Loop it. Play eight bars without stopping. If you lose your place, keep the hi-hat going and drop the other parts back in on the next 1.
- Vary the kick. Once it is steady, add an extra kick on the "and" of 3. This tiny change gives the beat a lot more drive.
Your first simple fills
A fill is a short break from the groove, usually at the end of a four- or eight-bar phrase, that tells the band and listener "something new is coming". Start small:
The golden rule: the fill must end exactly on time. Landing cleanly on the next downbeat matters far more than how flashy the fill is.
- Snare fill: play three bars of the rock beat, then in bar four replace beats 3 and 4 with four even snare hits (3 and 4 and). Come back in with a crash and kick on the next 1.
- Tom roll: same idea, but play two hits on the high tom and two on the floor tom, moving from high to low.
- Full-bar fill: once that is comfortable, spread eight hits across a whole bar: two on the snare, two on each tom, two on the floor tom.
Practise anywhere
You can try every exercise above on HarmonyHub's online drum kit. X plays the kick, S the snare and H the hi-hat; G, J and D play the toms, Y the crash and U the ride. If you would rather program a groove and listen back, the drum machine has a 16-step grid: put hi-hat on every other step, snare on steps 5 and 13, and kick on steps 1 and 9 to hear the basic rock beat.
Keep the groove
Every piece of the kit has a job: the kick and snare carry the pulse, the hi-hat and ride keep time, and the toms and crash shape the transitions. Learn the parts, count in 4/4, and build the rock beat slowly with a metronome. Steady and simple beats flashy and rushed every time, and once that beat is solid, there are countless songs you can play along with.