Drum Kit Guide: Basic Parts of a 5-Piece Drum Kit

A drum kit is a multi-piece musical instrument comprised of various percussion instruments, primarily drums and cymbals. Traditionally, a drummer plays a drum kit with drumsticks, rods, brushes, and occasionally mallets (collectively known as beaters).

Drums fit in the category of membranophones—instruments that make sounds by striking a membrane (called a drum head) stretched across a solid frame called a drum shell. Snare drums, kick drums (or bass drums), floor toms, rack toms, bongos, timbales, and congas are all membranophone drums.

In rock, pop, jazz, bebop, R&B, and hip hop music, a five-piece drum set serves as an industry standard. A percussionist can use as large or small a kit as they desire, but the drum sounds we associate with these genres usually come from three types of drums, plus cymbals, that make up the standard five-piece drum kit.

1. 1. Kick drum: This drum is often called a bass drum (but take note that in the world of classical music, a "bass drum" refers to a different instrument). A kick drum sits on the floor, and the drummer plays it with a foot pedal. Right-handed drummers strike their kick drum pedal with their right foot, and left-handed drummers use their left foot. The kick drum produces a deep percussive sound with a swift attack and minimal decay. This makes it an excellent instrument for marking a song's rhythmic pulse. Kick drums almost always sound on the first note of a musical measure, but adventurous drummers (particularly jazz drummers) use them in all sorts of ways. In progressive rock music and heavy metal, some drummers favor double bass drums—two kick drums side-by-side to enhance low-end thunder.
2. 2. Snare drum: A snare drum pairs with the kick to form the foundation of a five-piece kit. A snare is a relatively small drum that produces a loud sound full of upper-mid frequencies. A band of metal snare wires running under the drum amplifies this effect. Drummers strike snare drums with drum sticks, rods, or brushes. Right-handed drummers hit their snare with their left hand, and lefties hit it with their right hand. In a standard rock or jazz beat, the snare strikes the second and fourth beats of a 4/4 measure—but that's just the beginning. In most music, the drummer strikes the snare more than any other drum in the kit.
3. 3. Floor tom: A floor tom is a wide, deep drum that rests on legs. Traditionally it stands by itself, although some drum kits let a player anchor the floor tom to the kick drum. Because pitch is determined by the size of the drum, and a floor tom is particularly deep, it produces a low-pitched, resonant sound. Its response is looser than a kick drum, which means that the attack comes a bit slower, and the decay lingers for far longer. This makes it less precise for keeping the pulse of a song but useful for creating a sense of propulsive urgency in music. Most professional drummers use floor toms a good deal less than their kick or snare.
4. 4. Rack toms: Sometimes referred to as tom-toms, rack toms comprise the last two pieces of a five-piece drum kit. These drums mount on top of a kick drum and are called "mounted toms" or "hanging toms" by some players. They are tuned slightly differently from one another, such that a drummer has a "high tom" and a "low tom." Rack toms have a tightly focused sound with minimal decay. Traditionally, drummers use them less than the other drums in a kit; they primarily feature in drum fills and transitions but rarely in core drum grooves or backbeats.
5. 5. Cymbals: A five-piece drum kit will typically include at least one effects cymbal. Cymbals belong to the family known as idiophones—instruments that make a sound when the entire instrument vibrates upon being struck (as opposed to membranophones like drums that produce a sound via a membrane). Cymbals are made of metallic alloys and usually have a brass-colored veneer. Acoustic drum kits traditionally feature hi-hat cymbals, a ride cymbal, and one or more crash cymbals (or splash cymbals), which come in different sizes. Other idiophones include cowbell and woodblock.

Drummers may purchase each of these percussion instruments individually, or they may opt to buy a complete drum set as a package purchase. A "piece-shell-pack" might include a set of drums but no cymbals or hardware (like cymbal stands, hi-hat stands, snare drum stands, drum thrones, drum keys, and bass drum pedals). A drum kit advertised as a "drum set with hardware" may feature all the components you need to get up and running.

Electronic drum sets are multi-piece digital instruments set up much like an acoustic drum kit. But while acoustic drums are membranophones and idiophones that themselves make sounds, electronic drums are actually MIDI sensors. When drummers strike electronic drum pads with drumsticks, they send information to a sound generator. The sound generator then produces sounds for each part of the kit: A digital kick drum sounds more-or-less like an acoustic kick drum, a digital snare sounds like an acoustic snare, and so on.

Electronic drums have several upsides and a few drawbacks: They are lighter and easier to transport than acoustic drums, they allow for easy control of volume (you can even listen to them via headphones), and they are versatile, enabling you to change the sound library associated with the drums.

The main downside of electronic drums is that they require external speakers to produce sound. They also require electricity, which can be tricky for a band that also has amplifiers and keyboards to plug in, and some drummers find electronic drums to be notably less responsive than acoustic drum sets and therefore harder to play.

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