"If you’ve got a problem, take it out on a drum" - Neil Peart
How you set your kit up can change everything. Learning how to set your kit up the right way could help you become the drummer you were always meant to be. On the other hand, playing a poorly set-up kit can make it more difficult to play and can even lead to injury over the long-term.
So the question is, how do you set a drum kit up the right way?
Let’s start with the bass, or kick, drum, stool, and bass pedal. Once you’ve made sure that your bass drum is upright and in place, put your stool behind it and adjust the height so your spine is perfectly straight and your knees are at a ninety-degree angle when your feet are level on the floor.
Make sure that you’re sitting comfortably and there’s enough distance between your stool and your bass drum for your snare. Adjust your bass pedal so that your right foot can freely and easily use it while you’re sitting on your stool.
Set your snare drum up in front of you so that it will sit between your knees while you’re playing. Adjust the height of the snare, make sure that it’s slightly higher than your knees, and angled toward you, so that when you do hit it, you hit the skin and not the rim.
It’s now time to place your hi-hat, which should sit slightly to the left of your snare drum, and be positioned slightly higher than your snare. The additional height will make it easier to hit while playing crossed stick style.
It’s now tom time. Your floor tom should sit slightly to the right of your snare drum and ideally be at the same height, while the mounted toms fit on top of your bass drum, and need to be angled toward you.
The angle of your mounted toms is crucial, as it’ll help to increase the fluidity of your playing, so take some time to make sure it’s right for you. Play around with your setup until you find that sweet tom spot, and lock them in at that angle.
Last, but by no means least are your cymbals. The ride should be positioned close to your floor tom and should be set slightly higher than your snare, but as every drummer is different it’s wise to take some time to play around with the positioning of your ride so that it feels comfortable and natural when you switch between it and your hi-hat.
Add your crash or multiple crash cymbals to your kit by positioning them slightly in front (or the left) of, and above your mounted toms. Make sure that they're within easy reach and not too far away, as you don’t want to have to stretch to be able to play them.
As you begin to nail your chops and find your natural playing style, the positioning and the way that you set up your kit will change in order to accommodate it, but hopefully, you’ll now have a clearer idea of how to make the most of your kit and let it help you to play the way you’ve always known that you can.
How Do I Stop My Drums From Sliding?
The momentum or forward creep of your kit is always caused by a single component. Your bass drum. When you think about it, it actually makes sense as you’re pushing the bass drum away from you every single time you use your pedal and the beater strikes the drum.
That doesn’t stop it from being frustrating and annoying but as it's a relatively simple issue to correct, most drummers stop thinking about it as soon as they’ve discovered the solution that works for them.
The easiest way, and the one that most drummers use while they’re playing, is to set your kit up on a drum rug or some old carpet. Instead of slowly moving forward while you’re playing, your bass drum’s feet will bite into the carpet or rug and it will stop moving.
It’s a simple and effective way of stopping your drums from sliding and moving and has been used by countless drummers for almost a century. And it worked for them, so it’ll work for you too.
Alternatively, if you’re going to be moving your kit around a lot, from practice to shows and back to your house, it might be more prudent to invest in either a set of K Brakes which are incredibly easy to fit to your bass drum's feet and will stop it sliding on just about any surface.
Another choice is a kick strap which is designed to anchor your bass drum to your stool and make sure that it doesn’t move. Any of the three will halt your bass drum in its tracks and make slipping and sliding a thing of the past.
How Do You Put Toms On A Drum Kit?
A floor tom is easy to add to a kit, you just set it up the right of your snare drum, make sure it’s at roughly the same height as the aforementioned snare, and position it so that it’s within easy reach and can easily be played as and when you need to.
Mounted toms are designed to fit onto your bass drum, and can easily be fixed in place using a tom mount that’ll allow you to fit one or more toms to your kit. When the toms are mounted on your bass drum, you can then adjust the angle that they’re set at to one that suits you and your playing style. Toms are made to be easy to fit onto your kit and the setup and system that they use is completely intuitive and simple to understand.
How Many Tom Drums Do You Need?
That’s like asking how long a piece of string is or asking someone how many slices of pizza they want. Every single drummer will have a different answer, and while some elect to use a simple single mounted tom and floor tom set up, other drummers prefer multiple mounted and rack toms in order to increase the versatility of the kit that they’re playing.
Ideally, though, beginners and new drummers should learn to play on a kit that includes two mounted toms and one floor tom as it will increase their fluidity and help to focus and hone their playing style and ability. So realistically, you’ll only need three toms.
Should The Bass Drum Be Off The Ground?
Again, this is down to personal preference. Some people like their bass drums placed completely off of the floor which can produce a more resonant sound and is ideal for smaller (18") or 'jazz' bass drums.
With the drum on the ground a more gutsy but shorter note will be made. This is also suited to larger bass drums.