We got my son a drum set for his birthday a couple months ago, and I’m wondering how to correctly set it up, and tune it. I’ve just been going by gut feel so far, but I’m not a drummer.
We bought this drum set, based on the reviews (each color is reviewed separately, so there are more reviews under other colors) that it was well-constructed, and that with new drum heads and cymbals, it would be a pretty good set. My son is 12, and I liked the idea that we could get him a set that was good enough now, and upgrade it if he keeps up with it.
We’re generally very happy with the set. It looks and sounds good, and he has been playing it pretty regularly. He does this completely on his own (in school, he plays the saxophone). His only training has been playing Rock Band (I think he did all the drum lessons in Green Day Rock Band).
What’s the correct arrangement of the pieces? Starting from the far left, we have the high-hat, the snare drum, the base drum with two toms mounted on it (small tom on left), then the stand-alone cymbal, and the floor tom. Is that a typical order?
One problem we’re having is that hitting the small tom causes the snare to rattle sympathetically. They’re right next to each other. I’d guess I need to tune the small tom and snare to different frequencies, but how do I know how tight to make the drum heads? I’ve got them to what feels reasonable, but I really don’t know. Are there standard frequencies to tune them to?
For the high-hat, how do you set how far apart the cymbals are when the pedal is not pressed? Watching a drummer in a small venue, it seems the cymbal is hit with the two cymbals either apart or together. Do drummers ever sound the high hat just using their foot? Also, normally the rims are together, right? I’ve seen them with the two cymbals upside down, so they touch in the middle instead. Is that worth trying, or just silly?
Any other advice?
Advanced question (for extra credit :))
I saw Rise Against last night, and their drummer had a setup I’ve never seen before. In front of the bass drum was another drum, mounted on its own stand sideways, so its drum head was parallel to the bass drum head. It was about the size of a snare, and may have been a snare, but I don’t really know. This is the best picture I could find. You can see the drum to the left of the microphone hole. Has anyone ever seen this setup before? What is its purpose?
All I can tell you about is the high hat. Yes, some drummers do just hit the pedal for some sounds. It’s a nice way to keep the beat going when your hands are busy, and another hit of the bass drum wouldn’t sound right. Flipping the cymbals over is nothing you need to try. Almost no one uses that. You don’t have nearly as much control over the sound that way. You just have touching and open that way, rather than closed, touching, and open.
The only other thing I can touch on is that it sounds like you have the drums in the right order. All I can suggest for tuning is to google “tuning drum sets” and pick the one you like. I’m pretty sure it’s all based on the drums, and there is no standard pitch.
Then again, I’m not a drummer. I can hold a very basic back beat. I can only really drum on my keyboard.
There are drummers here. I’m sure you will hear from some today. In the meantime, your set is arranged in what I think is the standard sequence, and there is a lot of info on tuning and other things here.
Do you have those rings on the snare drum head? The ones that reduce vibrations? Or, if this the rattling from there snare, I assume that there is some “inside baseball” drum trick about stuffing a bit o’ something in the right spot to dampen the vibrations when not in use…
I will ask a drummer buddy of mine about your other stuff…
I’m a new drummer that has been taking lessons for 9 months. I’ll answer as best as I know so far. More knowledgeable drummers can come in and correct as needed.
This is a standard set-up for a righty. The actual spacing should be moved to what is comfortable. The snare, bass, and toms should for a sort of ‘square’. The drummer should be able to reach everything without stretching. Correct posture is for the drummer to sit up straight on the throne and reach each piece comfortably.
This is a common issue. I don’t think it is that they have sympathetic frequencies. It is simply the vibrations of the toms travelling to the snare. If you disengage the snare, the buzz will go away. (The snare has a lever to engage and disengage the snare wires). The snare wires can also be adjusted to get the appropriate snare snap.
There are a bunch of ways of dampening the buzz. You’ll see drummers with duck tape on the snare head. They also sell some gel blobs that you can use instead of duck tape. I suspect there are a bunch of other solutions as well. The idea is to minimize the buzz, but there will always be some.
Regarding tuning, I don’t have an answer for that. It is a question I’ve been meaning to pose to the Dope myself. It seems that tuning is mostly to taste with some optional guidelines about how far apart to tune the toms and how far apart to tune the top and bottom heads. I’ll leave the tuning to someone else, but I don’t think you can eliminate the snare buzz through tuning.
I think the most common ways to play the high hat are: 1. Completely closed, the foot holds the high-hat closed and the hand plays the top one to get a clink sound. 2. Mostly closed, but sometimes open. Most hits are on the closed high-hat, but periodic hits are on the open high-hat. Common open high-hat hits are on 2 and 4 (the snare hits). Or on every 4th to get a disco sound. Many songs just have an occasional open hit, either the same beat each measure or just to taste. 3. Playing the ride, but closing the high-hat on 2 and 4 (or every 4th). This gives a click to help keep the band in-sync.
When open, the distance between the cymbals is based on taste. An easy way for the drummer to set this distance is to a. Loosen the clamp and let the top cymbal drop. b. Use your foot to close the pedal. Pick the position you want the cymbals to be fully closed. c. Tighten the clamp and release your foot. Now the high-hat spacing is set to what you want. It is an easy way and only requires one hand to set.
There is also a little nut underneath the bottom cymbal that is used to offset the cymbal rims slightly when closed.
As far as reversing the cymbals. You can try it, but it is not standard. If I were just learning, I would want a standard set-up as much as possible. It helps when moving from kit to kit. If your son takes lessons, he might have to play on a kit at the drum shop.
There is a Tommy Igoe video that takes a new drummer through the process of putting a kit together (hoops, heads, everything). It also has a few basic lessons. It might be worth getting a video like this for your son. Although now that I have my kit set-up, I don’t go back to it much.
Consider lessons. I decided to learn the drums last year. I got a kit and messed around just fine, but it wasn’t until I started taking lessons that I really progressed. I learned more in the first few weeks than in months of goofing off.
I’m self-taught on the guitar and have been playing for a long time, but I don’t think it was a time-effective way to learn at all.
Lessons keep you focused by giving you structure and goals. You also get someone experienced that can nip bad habits in the bud. They’ll also force you to do the hard or boring stuff that you might otherwise avoid on your own.
Edit: Some more advice…
Make sure he is holding the sticks properly.
I practice with ear plugs. My ears are not particularly sensitive, but after long practice sessions I noticed I had headaches. Ear plugs let me play as long as I want without worry.
I’ll address this part. More likely than not what you are seeing is one of these. It is basically a speaker turned around that acts as a microphone for the kick drum. This gives the mixer more options for sound to tailor the sound as he sees fit.
That might be it, or it might be a standard-shaped mic with a circular sound baffle in front of it to lesson the likelihood of pops spiking the mic’s signal…but yeah, definitely a mic.
Beginner drummer here (electronic kit). What kind of throne did you buy? My back would hurt after an hour or so because I’d start to slouch after a few minutes of practice. I bought a throne with a backrest to help “remind” me not to do that. It has a lever-type height adjuster like you find on office chairs. Really useful to quickly find that sweet spot where my bass pedal leg is at just the right height to almost effortlessly bounce. I’m also finding that the more I practice, I can move the kit components closer together for reachability like CaveMike mentioned.
Your son probably has no back issues, but springing for a proper drum seat was worth the money, IMO.
Thanks for the responses everyone. A lot of good info. I guess I’ll try playing with dampening the snare to see if I can lower its volume when I hit the tom.
For the throne, we’re just using the one that came with the set. If it were my set, I’d probably want a sturdier throne, although I am able to use it. He’s not heavy, about half my weight, so I’m sure it’s sturdy enough for him, for now.
I have another question. The bass drum hammer hits close to dead center on the bass drum. Is that normal? I would have thought hitting off-center would give a fuller sound. I can’t shift it left or right, but I haven’t looked to see if it can go up or down.
Finally, excellent answer for the subkick. I’m sure that’s it. Actually, that sounds like such a good idea, how come I haven’t come across that before?
Mine does not have an adjustment for left or right. It is slotted to hit in the middle.
There are a bunch of adjustments you can do to the bass pedal. Lengthen/shorten the ‘handle’ of the hammer. Adjust the chain. Adjust the spring. Adjust the distance between the drum and pedal.
Also, I found this webpage to be really useful: http://onlinedrummer.com/. It has a lot of beginner-level stuff on it.
Start by watching this video (and any others that catch your eye) by Bob Gatzen on Tuning a snare drum. He’s good about giving reasons why; not just, “do it like this”. Snare buzz is just a fact of life, but excess ringing in the toms can be addressed with Moon Gel (looks like rectangles of blue Gummy material. Don’t eat them. )
Traditional (conventional?) seating has you sit with your thighs parallel to the floor when sitting relaxed, feet on pedals. Adjust the height of the throne accordingly. (Try it that way for a while, then adapt to your comfort.) Seat back is a good idea, as are motorcycle style cushions. (Round seats can cut blood circulation in the backs of your legs.)
I’ll try to get back later with more, just can’t right now.
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