Guide to Tom-Tom Drums: 4 Types of Tom-Toms

A tom-tom drum is a cylindrical drum that can be tuned to different pitches. Unlike snare drums, tom-toms don’t have snare wires, and they may only have one drumhead. Tom-toms are an essential part of the standard five-piece drum set.

There are four main types of tom-toms, each of which is slightly different.

1. 1. Floor toms: Floor toms are a type of tom-tom built with large drum shells that stand upright on the floor. Floor toms typically have drumheads on both sides of the instrument, but only a top head is required. A metal bearing edge secures the drum heads. Floor toms are among the lowest-pitched instruments in a classic five-piece drum kit. Compared to the kick drum, floor toms are more resonant with a less-focused low end. They have comparatively loose attack times and longer decay trails after they are struck.
2. 2. Rack toms: Also known as mounted toms or hanging toms, these percussion instruments are smaller than floor toms, and they mount on top of a kick drum with the help of chrome hardware. Like a floor tom, a rack tom has a drum shell and a pair of drum heads that are held in place by a metal bearing edge. A five-piece drum kit features a high tom and a low tom—each tuned to a different pitch. Rack toms with particularly deep shapes are sometimes called power toms.
3. 3. Roto toms: A roto tom is a tom-tom that does not have a drum shell—instead, the drum head membrane is simply pulled tight around a bearing edge. Roto toms are less common than other types of tom-toms, and they are not considered part of a typical five-piece drum kit.
4. 4. Concert toms: The concert toms used in classical music are closely related to floor toms and rack toms, though they tend to be more melodic. Concert toms are single-headed, which means they only have one drumhead on top and are open on the bottom of the shell.

Tom-tom drums originated in Asia. Musicologists alternately attribute the word “tom-tom” to the Sinhala language of Sri Lanka or to Chinese musical culture, which features a gong-like instrument called a tam-tam. Structurally, tom-toms are similar to all membranophones, which are instruments that produce sound when a player strikes a taut membrane.

Tom-toms became integral parts of the standard drum kit in the early twentieth century. Initially, tom-tom drums could not be tuned, but under the guidance of drummer and bandleader Gene Krupa, the Slingerland drum company developed a line of tunable tom-toms that set the template for today's models.

Tom-toms consist of three main components: the drum shell, the drum heads, and supplemental hardware.

1. 1. Drum shell: A drum shell provides the structure of the tom-tom. Most tom-tom shells are made of natural wood (poplar, birch, and maple toms are all fairly common). This wood can be painted a wide array of colors, from jet black to sunburst fades. Some players prefer acrylic toms in translucent colors. Notably, Led Zeppelin's John Bonham was famous for his clear see-through acrylic drum kit.
2. 2. Drum head: Most rack toms and some floor toms have two drum heads. One is stretched over the top and is struck with beaters such as drumsticks. As such, it is technically known as the drum's batter head. The other, when it exists, stretches across the bottom of the drum. Tom-tom drum heads were once made of calfskin, but today's models tend to be made of plastic.
3. 3. Supplemental hardware: In addition to heads and a wood or acrylic shell, a tom-tom features chrome hardware to keep it structurally intact. This includes a series of tension rods and lugs (either tube lugs or imperial lugs) that drummers use to tighten and tune the drum heads in a process known as tensioning. Tom-tom drums also feature a bearing edge—commonly called a rim—connecting the drum's head to its frame. Most floor toms stand independently of the rest of the kit on detachable legs; others attach to the kick drum using a chrome tom arm. Rack toms always attach to the kick drum and essentially float in front of the drummer in the center of the kit.

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