The Development of the Drumset (up to about 1935)

One of the greatest and most dangerous drummers right now is also one of the most unknown. He’s a Houston native named Chris Dave and he masterfully plays everything from jazz to fusion to soul to hip-hop. He has performed and recorded with Kenny Garrett, Pat Metheny, Ron Blake, Robert Glasper, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Mary J. Blige, Adele, and many more huge names. He plays the drumset with a prowess and a confidence, similar to the way Albert Pujols plays baseball or the way one would imagine a World War II sniper would track his target. His wisdom on how drummers should approach the instrument is all about respect and humility, particularly for the history of the drumset: “Do you have enough respect for the instrument to really learn it? How much time do you put into learning the history of drums and how drumming got where it is now? All of that matters” (Styles, 56).

The history of the drumset is a very American development in that it is a melting pot of cultures and contributions. World-wide, it is easily one of the oldest ways to express musical thought. James Blade and Johnny Dean discuss this in their instructional book for beginners entitled How to Play Drums: “The invention of the first drum was one of the greatest steps forward in the history of music and the making of musical sounds. It was found that a resonant sound came from a hollow tree trunk when it was hit with a stick, and that an even better sound came if the open ends of the tree trunk were covered with animal skin. And that is how real drumming began” (6). The birth of drumming as a musical expression is a crude and primitive emergence – it involved hitting a tree with a stick. Interestingly enough, that’s still exactly what drummers are doing today. Most drums are simply a cylindrical piece of hollowed out wood with a membrane on at least one end that is struck with an implement. So how far have we really come? How much has drumming truly evolved?

The concept of a drum is as old as history itself. A drum is classified as a membranophone, or an instrument that produces sound by striking a stretched membrane. It’s easy to think that the drum itself is what produces the sound, but it is in fact actually the tight membrane and its vibration that produces the audible sound when it is struck with an implement (http://penz4.tripod.com/historyofdrums.html). “Drums first appeared as far back as 6000 BC. Mesopotamian excavations unearthed small cylindrical drums dated 3000 BC. Several wall markings found in caves in Peru show drums used in various aspects of societal life. The American Indians used gourd and wooden constructed drums for their rituals and ceremonies. Drums have always been used for more than merely creating music. Civil uses, messaging, and religious uses are but a few” (http://penz4.tripod.com/historyofdrums.html). It is also widely accepted (though mostly unproven) that cymbals were originally invented in China out of gongs and tam tams, while drums and other percussion “accessories” are from all over the globe (http://penz4.tripod.com/historyofdrums.html). However, there are several passages in the Holy Bible that discuss people using cymbals, which suggests that cymbals were present in Middle Eastern area at least around 1000 BC. “Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals” (Psalm 150:5 New Living Translation).

“Brass bands were the most common type of instrumental ensemble in the United States in the latter half of the 19th century” (Fidyk, 1). Within these brass bands was a percussion section that generally consisted of at least two players. One would play a snare drum, the other would play a bass drum, and sometimes there would be a third member that played cymbals (Fidyk, 1). Though the cymbals were not too dissimilar from the cymbals we see and hear today, the drums were larger and had a slightly different system of tuning. The snare drum (originally called the side drum as it was carried off to the side) is the most important drum in a modern drum set up (Blades, 12). “Old-fashioned drums were larger in diameter and depth than today’s instruments. The shells and hoops were made of wood and the drum heads from animal skin (mostly calf) braced with rope…The snares consisted of gut strings which rest of the lower head…These old-time drums were used mainly in the open air where the drummers had tonal problems as the heads slackened in bad weather conditions (Blades, 12). This problem has obviously been solved by the invention of plastic and synthetic drum heads. The snare drum was played by one drummer who would carry the drum on a strap slung over his shoulder and off to his left side. Bass drums were constructed the same as snare drums, though obviously with no snares on the bottom head, and was strapped sideways to the drummer’s chest.

In his advanced instructional drumming book called The Art of Bop Drumming, author and drummer John Riley talks about the development of synthetic drum heads: “Plastic drum heads didn’t exist in the 1930s and 1940s, and were not in widespread use until the mid-1960s. The sound of Kenny Clarke, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, and all the great players of the bop era, is the sound of drums with calfskin heads. Calfskin heads have a rich, pure tone with less overtone ring than plastic heads. You can feel the stick sink into a calfskin head and rebound with a nice, soft spring on the upstroke” (10). So not only were synthetic drum heads not available in this time period, but the calfskin head actually played an important role in the sound of this style of drumming. Interestingly enough, today Remo makes drum heads that try to reproduce the sound and feel of the drum heads in this time period with their Vintage and Fiberskyn lines.

Numerous problems arose when groups with this percussion make up would perform indoors. “When these groups moved inside, the standard instrumentation was cut down somewhat for practical reasons. Because of this, the need for two or more drummers decreased and resourceful inventions began to flourish (Fidyk, 1). Other than a volume issue, there was always the issue of space on the bandstand, as well as money. Less space meant you could have fewer musicians, and fewer musicians to play meant fewer musicians to pay! Drummers were forced to figure out how to not only develop a method of limb interdependence, but also a way to arrange the various drums and cymbals so that they could play all of them. “The concept of one drummer playing two or more rhythms was made possible through the creation of the snare drum stand and bass drum pedal. Before the snare stand, drummers would hang the drum from their shoulder with a strap or sling, or position the drum on a chair” (Fidyk, 1).

Snare drums stands made the life of an early 20th Century drummer considerably easier, but didn’t do anything to change the style or method of drumming. The marching snare drummer could do almost exactly what the seated snare drummer could do. What revolutionized a drummer’s capabilities was the innovation of pedals, allowing drummers to play percussion instruments with their feet. “William F. Ludwig Sr., percussionist and founder of the Ludwig Drum Company developed and marketed the first bass drum pedal in 1909. Once these two practical inventions were available, a single drummer could do the work of two or more players. As a result, the drum set, or trap set (as it was known in the early part of the 20th century) was born!” (Fidyk, 1).

Straight cymbal stands were a no-brainer as far as mounting cymbals. Drummers could produce syncopated rhythms and effects by playing the cymbal with one hand and choking off the sound with the other hand. But the crashing together of two cymbals that was so common and well-known with marching percussionists was still not able to be replicated by the seated drummer. Thus came the rise (literally) of what is known today as the hi-hat cymbal and hi-hat stand. Initial versions of the hi-hat in the very early 1900s were known as “clangers,” which were small cymbals mounted on the top of bass drum. Then a contraption simply named “shoes” came along, which were two hinged boards with cymbals on the ends that were crashed together (Blades, 23). Mr. Ludwig had to get involved shortly after his development of the first bass drum pedal in 1909 to make the hi-hat a more versatile instrument.

In a magazine printed in the early to mid 20th Century, pioneer New Orleans drummer Baby Dodds discusses his role in the invention of the hi hat cymbals and stand: “I was in St. Louis working on the steamboat and William Ludwig, the drum manufacturer, came on the boat for a ride. He was very interested in my drumming. I used to stomp my left foot, long before other drummers did, and Ludwig asked me if I could stomp my toe instead of my heel. I told him “I think so.” For a fact, I thought nothing of it. So he measured my foot on a piece of paper and the space where I would have it and where it would sit and he made a sock cymbal. Two cymbals were set up and foot pedal with them. One day he brought one along for me to try. It wasn’t any good, so he brought another raised up about nine inches higher” (Gara, 25). It was this innovation that helped create the four way interdependence that drummers are required to use today.

The early version of the hi hat stand described by Baby Dodds was known as the low boy. It stood about twelve inches high and was played with the left foot. When pressed down, the low boy would close and bring two cymbals together so drummers could accent certain parts of the beat (generally beats 2 and 4). This completely freed up the drummer’s hands up since the right foot was taking care of the bass drum duties and now the left foot was playing cymbals (Fidyk, 2). The low boy continued to develop and was eventually raised from its original twelve inches to approximately twenty inches. Hi-hats stands that were up high above the snare drum and could be played by hand as well as foot may have been developed around 1926 by Barney Walberg of the drum company Walberg and Auge (Blades, 23).

“Also in this decade, New Orleans drummers began experimenting with “fly swatters”
which later became the wire brush creating connected, legato dance beats on the snare drum. The effect was produced by rotating the brush fan over the top of a calf skin drum head” (Fidyk, 5). Drummers also began using cotton and felt mallets in addition to their brushes and sticks and still commonly use them today.

A major contributor in the continued development and evolution of the drum set was the swing drummer Gene Krupa. “His energized playing with the Benny Goodman Orchestra helped to make him a drumming icon. Gene joined Goodman in 1934 and his influence affected all who followed, to include the type of equipment and drum sizes players used” (Fidyk, 6). Krupa standardized the dimensions and set up of the drums that many drummers still use today. Krupa used a twenty-four inch bass drum, a fourteen inch snare drum, a nine by thirteen inch tom, and sixteen by sixteen inch floor tom. Even more importantly, he helped develop tom mounting and the drum key, which allows drummers to quickly tune their drums by tightening metal tension rods around the drums (Fidyk, 6).

The drumset has continued to evolve beyond 1935. New drums have been invented, different types of cymbals have been constructed, and these innovations have influenced new styles of playing. No matter what style of drumming one wants to learn or what instrument for that matter, knowing the history of the instrument only strengthens the student’s relationship with it. The great Tony Williams is quoted in John Riley’s second book Beyond Bop Drumming as saying “If you have a drum set in the room and the postman walks in, he’ll sit down and go ‘dat, dat, dat, do, do do, buzz, buzz, buzz, bam, boom, boom.’ Anybody can do that and keep a beat. If you’re really serious about drumming, don’t you think that there’s more to it than that? There’s a technique that really takes concentration, work, dedication, discipline, and time…I’ve always been a student; I’ve always been studying, constantly. Learning has always been exciting for me. I’m always learning something” (5). Just as Tony Williams and Chris Dave have expressed, a true master is one who never loses respect for his craft and instrument, and always has respect for it. Knowing the development and evolution of the drumset is a large part of having a good bond with the instrument, which is necessary for being able to play it better than a postman.




Blades, James, and Johnny Dean. How to Play Drums. London: Hamilton, 1985. Print.

Fidyk, Steve. "History of the Drum Set." National Jazz Workshop - A Summer Jazz Camp at Shenandoah University. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. . Web.

“History of Drums." Index.html. Web. 11 Oct. 2011. . Web.

Gara, Larry. "Baby Dodds." Evergreen Review Reader. New York: Grove, 1979. 12-27. Print.

Riley, John. Beyond Bop Drumming. Alfred Publishing. 1997. Print.

Riley, John. The Art of Bop Drumming. Manhattan Music, Inc. 1994. Print.

Styles, Stephen. "Chris "Daddy" Dave." Modern Drummer Feb. 2010: 46-57. Print.

The Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Wheaton, IL. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2004