This blog will talk about what you need to get started with drums. While it can be challenging to train all your limbs to play simultaneously, discovering the drums and sounds can inspire you to practise more and get better at this explosive instrument.

Meet Your Teacher – Wesley Newton

In this introductory episode, let's begin with introducing your teacher who would be taking you through the art and science of groove, notes, rudiments and everything drums!

As a celebrated drummer and tutor at Demoz School of Music, Wesley Newton comes with a lot of experience and has played in some of the best bands. From jazz to rock to everything in between, Wesley has mastered it all. With Grade 8 in drums with distinction from Trinity College of Music, learning from Wesley is not only the best experience, but the most inspiring one too.

Here’s the great part – you get to be a part of this amazing journey, and with practice, you too can become one of the best – let nothing stop you!

We now understand how to identify your drum kit. Notice how different drums and cymbals played together make the most interesting sounds? Yes – this is a tutorial and an introduction to the drum kit.

Hi-Hat – Your Best Friend

The first part of the drum kit we would be experimenting and understanding is the hi-hat. This is the most commonly used part of the drums and comes in handy in some of the most popular songs. The hi-hat is a collection of two cymbals, a top hat and a bottom hat that are mounted on a stand. While the bottom hat rests freely, the top hat is attached by means of a clutch to the hi-hat rod. This rod is connected to a pedal which is operated by foot.

The hi-hat can be played in one of three ways:

1. Closed Hi-Hat – Keep your foot down on the hi-hat pedal and play the top hat using your drumstick with your right hand.

2. Open Hi-Hat – Lift your left foot from the pedal on the hi-hat stand and hit the top of the hi-hat with your right hand. Notice when you do that, it would produce a rich, sharper or a loud sound (SHHH Sound).

3. Open/Close Hi-Hat – The third way to play the hi-hat is without using your hands. Keep alternating between opening and closing the hi-hat with your left foot and you will notice a clap sound.

Snare Drum

This drum has a top skin that is referred to as the batter head because that’s the portion you strike. The bottom skin on the other hand is called the resonant head, because both the skins are tuned in such a way that they have the same frequency. 

The most interesting part about the snare drum is that at the bottom of the drum, you will find a bunch of wires attached, which works by a mechanism called the throw-off. What this does is that it holds or traps (snare) the set of wires to the resonant head, which is where this drum gets its name from.

The throw-off mechanism that we spoke about can determine the sound of your snare drum. For example, if you push the throw-back lever down, it pushes the wires away from the snare drum, resulting in a hollow sound. On the contrary, when you pull the throw-off lever up, you get the solid snare drum sound that we all love.

There are three ways of playing the snare drum:

1. Striking the head of the snare drum with your stick.
2. Striking the rim of the snare drum with your stick.
3. Striking both the rim and the head of the snare drum together.

Playing the rim shot is more like an explosive way to make your snare sound. Most of the best drummers hit the rim and the head of the snare drum together to cut through the mix and sound clearly. A rim shot can also help you connect with your audience and help them groove to the snare drum.

Bass Drum

The bass drum is the biggest drum in your drum kit and is placed at the centre in front of your right foot. With the help of a kick drum/bass drum pedal, you can play the bass drum. Step on the pedal of the bass drum and you would hear a “thud” like deep sound. That’s the bass drum for you!

The bass drum, snare drum and the hi-hat form the core of drumming. For instance, if you were to strip every other part of the kit and play just using the hi-hat, snare drum and the bass drum, you could still sound great.

Toms

These are also an important part of the entire drum kit. As these are of different sizes categorized as hi-tom, mid-tom and the floor-tom, playing the toms can add that extra flavour to your playing in terms of the frequency of sounds.

The hi-tom and mid-tom are mounted on the bass drum while the floor tom is a little wide apart from the snare drum and placed on the floor using a stand, just as the name suggests.

Cymbals

What you see here are cymbals made out of brass. An important part here is that whenever you play a cymbal, strike it at the same time when you play the kick drum. The cymbal on the left, close to the hi-hat is called the “Crash” cymbal, which is used mostly at the end of every bar signifying an explosive sound and the start of the verse/chorus. The cymbal on the right is called the “Ride”.

The ride cymbal has two parts – the usual ride where you strike on the larger surface and the bell of the ride, which is at the top. The ride can be played using the tip of your stick while the bell of the ride can be played using the shoulder of the drumstick. Similarly, alternating to play the bell and the ride can give texture to your groove, which we will be looking into in the later lessons. Here, you see an additional crash cymbal on the right, beside the ride.

In terms of sizes, the hi-hat that we discussed first is 13 inches, while the others are – 17-inch crash, 19-inch crash, and 21-inch ride.

Now, all of these different parts constitute the entire drum kit. In the next few lessons, you would physically get to hear the different sounds from each part of the kit when we start practising rudiments, grooves and fills in different time signatures. The next blog post introduces the Rhythmic Chart and the use of notes and rests. Keep reading to expand your understanding of playing the drums.