itsukano IE

The Drumset
Hiromasa Sakakibara


I’d like to tell you about the drumset. The drums are now necessary in most of the music now. Have you ever seen the drumset? Have you ever played it? I think you know at least what the drumset looks like. There are many different parts in the drumset and each of them has different features.

I’ll tell you first about the snare drum. It’s the most important and most used drum in the music. Many years ago, it was used traditionally by the Western soldiers. After that it became popular and became the important part of the orchestra, brass band, and marching band. Finally, it has become a part of the drumset. In the drumset, it’s usually placed on between your legs. There’s a metal string called snappy on bottom of the snare drum and it makes the sound very loud and unique.

Next, is the bass drum. It’s the biggest drum in the drumset. It produces very low and strong big sound. Instead of playing with the sticks, you play it with a pedal called the foot pedal. When you step on it, the beater strikes the bass drum and makes the sound. The stronger you step on it, the louder the sound gets.

The last drum is the tom. It’s made very similar to the snare drum except that there’s no snappy on the bottom of the drum. There are often 2 or 3 toms set in the drum set. 1 or 2 are set on the bass drum and 1 on the floor. The latter one is called the floor tom. Each toms produce different kind of low sounds.

From now, I’m going to talk about the cymbals used in the basic drumset. First is the high-hat. It’s often placed on left side of the snare drums. You can play it with your foot and the sticks. When you step on the foot pedal of the high-hat, it makes quiet sound. When you don’t step on it, it makes loud sound.

The others are the crash cymbal and ride cymbal. They produce very loud sound and it’s usually set on the stand. It looks like a big gold dish.

Now that you know the basic information about the drumset, let’s go find the members and start your own band!　But of course these are only the basic facts about the drumsets. If you are interested, you should study more about it. Good luck!