the drum kit we know today started out as a collection of different instruments normally played by several people over time several key inventions changed this and enabled one person to play this collection of drums and symbols whilst seated in this video I'm going to be showing you a typical modern drum kit and we'll be learning about its components and how to position it all ready for playing here is what we call a five-piece drum kit it's referred to as a five-piece kit because it has five drums these days drums can be made of many different materials including exotic woods and Plastics but most drums are made of maple or Birch and it's very common to have a metal snare drum made of either Ste steel aluminium or copper drums come in lots of different sizes for example the drum sizes we have here start at 10 in in diameter and go up to 22 in for our biggest drum as a general rule the bigger the drum the lower the pitch so small drums produce high notes and big drums produce low notes let's have a closer look at the drum kit one item at a time as we'll see some components are common to all drums other things are specific to one item here is the snare drum it has a shell with two membranes stretched over the top and bottom of it years ago these membranes would have been made of calf skin and referred to as drum skins modern drum Skins are made of plastic and we call them drum heads the top head is called the batter head and the bottom head is called the resonant head the drum heads are held in place with one top and one bottom rim or counter hoop and are secured by tension bolts which are threaded through the hoops and secured into a fixing on the shell called a lug we can use a special drum key to change the amount of tension we place on the hoop therefore pulling the hoop in a downward motion which in turn will cause the head to have more tension when we increase this tension we eventually get a note out of the drum head although it's worth noting that when we tune the drum it's not necessarily to an exact pitch like a guitar but more for personal tuning for example in order to get the drums in tune with one another or even to achieve more or less stick response the snare drum gets its name for the fact that it has a set of metal wires or snares stretched across the bottom head these snares vibrate in sympathy when the top head is St truck giving us a tight crisp marching drum type sound the snares are fixed in place at one side of the drum and at the opposite end we find a lever or snare strainer which allows us to lower and raise the snare wires so that they either come into contact with the bottom head snares on or hang below without contact snares off the sound of the snare when the snares are in the off position is one similar to a bongo drum or small TomTom the snare is mounted at the kit on its own stand it sits in a cradle and can be adjusted to be at different heights and angles if we look straight in front of the snum we find the first of the three TomTom this is the high Tom and we can see it's mounted on the bass drum next to a similar but slightly larger Siz drum called the middle Tom both of these wooden drums are the same in construction as the snare drum but have no metal wires on the bottom so they produce a very round open tone we adjust the tuning of the tension bolts on both drums top and bottom heads so that the high Tom produces is a higher note than the middle [Music] Tom moving on from the middle Tom round to the right we have the low Tom or Flor Tom as it is sometimes known this particular low Tom is mounted on the symbol stand but many of these drums have legs on them and sit on the floor its construction is like that of the high in Middle Toms and the low Tom as its name suggests is tuned so it produces a lower note than that of the middle Tom the biggest and lowest drum we have is called the bass drum it sits on the floor with two Spurs sticking out the front to stop it from moving forward when being struck its components are are similar to The Toms in that it has a big shell lugs and Hoops Etc but it may also have arms on which we suspend the TomTom the biggest difference of all is in the playing of the bass drum and that requires us to attach a bass drum pedal to the counter hoop on the batterhead side of the drum the pedal has a beater a foot plate and a spring which all work together so when we push the foot plate down the beater strikes the head and then the spring helps return the beater to the start position again we'll take a little closer look at this technique later on bass drums vary quite a bit and we can do many things to alter the sound that the drum produces we can adjust the tuning of the drum by turning the tension bolts we can alter the sustain of the drum by putting a soft blanket inside the drum or you may find a hole in the front of the bass drum head for putting a microphone inside okay we've had a good look at the drums and now we'll move on to the symbols symbols also come in all sorts of shapes and sizes the most essential of which are high hat symbols the ride symbol and the Crash symbol they are made from different types of metal alloys essentially bronze or brass with a mixture of copper tin silver gold and phosphorus which is usually either cast or pressed into a dis form before being hammered or lathed and Polished most symbols have common components so let's explore that first each symbol usually has three main parts to it the Bell is the domed bit in the middle the bow is the curved profile of the symbol and the edge each part of each symbol will produce a different sound depending on where it is being played so we use each part of the symbol differently depending on the sound we wish to use the high Hut symbols sit on a stand with a pedal foot plate attached to it the bottom High Hut symbol is placed upside down on the stand and the top high hat symbol is placed in a device called a clutch the clutch and the top high hat are then slotted onto a rod which moves up and down when the foot plate is depressed there therefore allowing us to bring the two symbols together there is a spring built into the stand which means if you release the foot plate the symbols will part again this can be really useful in making lots of different sounds from closed and open foot sounds to sounds played with a stick such as closed open and half open the ride symbol is the biggest symbol we have here today and it's mounted on a stand and angled to make it easier to get to the bow and Bell areas It's usually the thickest symbol we use and often 20 in in diameter its playing area is mainly the bow area of the symbol halfway between the Bell and The Edge although we can use all three parts of the symbol for great effect as we'll see later the last of the three symbols we're going to look at is the crash symbol which is often 16 or 18 in in diameter it's worth noting that the crash symbol is not only smaller in diameter than the ride but is also thinner and therefore will vibrate more freely when struck the playing area for a crash symbol is generally The Edge if you want a fast crash sound although playing on the top of the crush on the bow area provides an interesting softer crush and can be used for quieter parts of the [Music] music lastly let's have a look at the hardware and adjusting the kit so that we're sat comfortably and ready to play there's no doubt that having all the parts of the drum kit in the right place will not only make things easier for you to play it will mean that you can also produce the right sounds and achieve the correct response from the drums or symbols that you are playing set your stool height so that when both your feet are on the high hatut and bass drum pedals your thighs are approximately par to the ground and at 90° or more to your calvs move the high hat stand or stool to achieve the correct positioning so your legs and feet can move freely move your Toms and snare drum so you can easily reach the middle of each drum without stretching too much also note the angle of the drums if the angle is too steep the stick will not rebound [Music] properly try keeping the angle of attack so the stick is almost parallel to the playing [Music] surface with symbols just be careful they're not set too high you'll get to them quicker if they're lower and also set them close enough so you can at least play the bell of each symbol comfortably the most common setup are usually slightly off horizontal for a crash and 45° or so for a ride symbol but this will depend on your drum setup and at the end of the day your personal preference experiment with small movements of your equipment until you find out what's right for your musical situation as far as drum kit setup goes we've looked today at a regular five-piece kit set up for a right-handed player remember if you're left-handed you'll most likely choose to play the kit in a mirror image or opposite version of this kit or it's possible you may want to play a right-handed kit open-handed the choice is yours I hope you've enjoyed this overview of the drum kit and have enjoyed learning about how to set up your drum kit next time we'll talk about how to hold the drumsticks and some basic stroke technique bye for now