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BASS DRUM (DRUM KIT, CONCERT & PITCHED)
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A bass drum, or kick drum, is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch.
Bass drums vary in size, depending on use, convenience and aesthetics; size has little to do with the volume of sound produced.
The largest, the concert bass drum, is used for orchestral, ensemble or concert band music.
The kick drum, seen in most drum kits, is struck with a beater attached to a pedal.
The pitched bass drum, used in marching bands and drum corps, is tuned to a specific pitch and usually played in a set of three to six drums.
A bass drum is
typically cylindrical with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's
depth, and a calf skin or plastic head at both ends of the cylinder. Tension is
adjusted either by threaded taps or by strings.
Bass drums, being too large to be hand held, are always mounted in some
way.
The usual ways of mounting a bass drum are:
Using a shoulder harness so that the heads are vertical.
On a floor stand as part of a drum kit. The heads are always vertical when mounted in this way.
On an adjustable cradle so the heads may be adjusted to any position between vertical and horizontal.
Bass drums can have a variety of strikers depending on the music:
A single heavy felt covered mallet
For a vertically mounted drum, the mallet above may be held in one hand and a rute held in the other.
Two matching bass drum mallets or a double headed mallet for playing drum rolls.
For a drum kit, a variation of the mallet described above is mounted on a pedal and called a beater.
In 1900, Sonor drum company introduced its first single bass drum pedal. William F. Ludwig made the bass drum pedal workable in 1909, paving the way for the modern drum kit. A bass drum pedal operates like a hi-hat control: a footplate is pressed to pull a chain, belt, or metal drive mechanism downward, bringing a beater or mallet forward into the drumhead. The beater head, usually felt, wood, plastic, or rubber, is attached to a rod-shaped metal shaft. The pedal and beater system are mounted in a metal frame and like the hi-hat, a tension unit controls the striking pressure and release recoil.
Tommy Aldridge pioneered the use of double bass drums in hard rock and heavy metal music.
A double bass drum pedal operates much the same way, only with a second footplate controlling a second beater on the same drum. This is usually attached by a shaft to a remote beater mechanism alongside the primary pedal mechanism, except in the symmetrical Sleishman twin bass drum pedal.
When using a double bass drum pedal, the foot controlling the hi-hat pedal moves to the second bass drum pedal, so the hi hat opens and remains open. If a closed hi-hat sound is required, drummers use a drop clutch to keep the cymbals closed without use of the pedal.
The most common method of bass drum playing is a "heel-up" technique: the pedals are struck with the ball of the feet using force primarily from the thigh as opposed to the ankles. Most drummers play single strokes, although there are many capable of playing doubles or diddles; Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, and Terry Bozzio perform complicated solos on top of an ostinato bass drum pattern. Thomas Lang, for example, has mastered the heel-up and heel-down (single- and double-stroke) to the extent that he is able to play dynamically with the bass drum and perform various rudiments with his feet.
In order to play "doubles", proponents of the "heel up" technique use either the "slide technique" or the “heel-toe” technique. In the slide technique, the pedal is struck around the middle area with the ball of the foot. As the drum produces a sound, the toe slides up the pedal. After the first stroke, the pedal will naturally bounce back, hit the toe as it slides upwards, and rebound for a second strike. In the heel-toe technique the foot is suspended above the foot-board of the pedal. The entire foot is brought down and the ball of the foot strikes the pedal. The foot snaps up, the heel comes off the footboard, and the toes come down for a second stroke. Once mastered, either technique allows the player to play very fast double strokes on the bass drum. Noted players include Rod Morgenstein, Tim Waterson (who formerly held the world record for the fastest playing on a bass drum), Tomas Haake, Chris Adler, Derek Roddy, Danny Carey, Hellhammer.
Heavy metal and punk music, where drummers often play a constant stream of rapid-fire notes on the bass drum, require an ability to play evenly at extremely high tempos. Many extreme metal, thrashcore and grindcore drummers use a combination of fast double bass drum patterns, the snare, and the cymbals to create blast beats.
With two feet playing bass drum, many of the techniques of snare drum playing (such as rudiments and rolls) can be performed on the bass drums.
CONCERT BASS DRUM
The orchestral or concert bass drum is a double-headed membranophone with a cylindrical body developed in Europe but now found throughout the world. It is played by professionals and amateurs, males and females. Incorporated into some orchestral works of the late 18th century, the bass drum gradually became a standard member of the orchestra’s percussion section in the 19th century; today, the percussion battery of every orchestra includes a bass drum. Slightly smaller ones for marching have also been a part of military bands since the late 18th century. Indoor wind ensembles such as the concert band and the brass band also include the bass drum in their percussion sections. The bass drum has no solo literature, but is often included in the instrumentation for solo percussion works and for percussion ensemble works. The band or orchestral percussionist it expected to be proficient on it; percussionists do not specialize on the bass drum. The bass drum has been adapted by Plains Indians’ drum groups at powwows and by the Zulu peoples of South Africa.
The cylindrical tubular shell of the bass drum is made of laminated birch wood painted black. One metal-rimmed pressure hole is located on the shell wall. Equally spaced around the circumference and securely fashioned to the shell and centered between its rims are 12 elongated metal lug assemblies that accept a threaded rod at each end. Each of the drum’s two synthetic membranes is stretched over a metal flesh hoop with a diameter slightly greater than that of the shell. Each head is placed over its respective rim opening, followed by a collar hoop--like the shell made of laminated wood and painted black--that has the same diameter as the head hoop over which it fits. Twelve metal rim-tension claw-hooks are attached around the rim of the collar, each with an eyelet through which a metal tension-rod can pass. The 12 claw-hooks are aligned with the 12 lug assemblies, and one of each is connected to the other by a metal tension-rod. Except for its wider bolt-like head, a tension-rod passes through the eyelet in each claw-hook. The bottom of each rod is threaded and screwed into a lug bolt located at the end of the lug assembly. It is with this above-described mechanism, and with the use of a tuning key, that the amount and evenness of tension on each of the membranes can be independently controlled. The bass drum is suspended in a hoop-shaped tilting stand allowing the primary striking head to be positioned anywhere between vertical and horizontal. The beater typically used to strike the bass drum is a stick, one end of which has a large felt head.
The performer stands with the
drum shell in front, usually with the drumheads positioned near to vertical.
Only one head is typically struck on the orchestral/concert bass drum, the
other head can be referred to as the resonance head. The player holds the
thickly padded beater in the right hand, leaving the left hand free to mute the
resonance head if needed. Occasionally the player is asked to produce a roll,
in which case the drum is tilted closer to horizontal and two matched beaters,
one in each hand, are used to strike the playing head. Producing a low but
indefinite pitch, the concert bass drum is the largest membranophone found in
the contemporary orchestra and concert band. The felt-headed beater helps
attenuate harsh upper overtones while bringing out the fullest possible bass
qualities. It has a wide dynamic range.
The most likely antecedent to the 18th century European bass drum was the davul of the Turkish Janissary band or mehter. By 1782 bass drums are known to have been in use in the British Royal Artillery Band; an interesting vestige of Turkish bass drum practice found in British military bands up to the present day is the wearing of a tiger or leopard skin apron by bass drummers. Some early military bass drums had only a single head. Double-head bass drums were initially all rope-tensioned, the rod-tension hardware did not come into existence until the middle of the 19th century.
KICK DRUM
The kick bass drum is a double-headed membranophone with a cylindrical body. First developed in the United States, it can now be found wherever Western jazz and popular musical idioms are found. It is a component in a composite instrument called a drum set (see first detail photo) that includes other membranophones (see toms and snare drum) as well as idiophones (see suspended cymbal and hi-hat cymbals) all of which are played by a single percussionist.
The cylindrical tubular shell of the pictured bass drum is made of laminated beech wood painted black. Equally spaced around the circumference of and securely fashioned to the shell are two rows of ten metal lug assemblies each of which accepts a threaded rod. Each of the drum’s two synthetic membranes is stretched over a metal flesh hoop with a diameter slightly greater than that of the shell. Each head is placed over its respective rim opening, followed by a collar hoop--like the shell made of laminated wood and painted black--that has the same diameter as the head hoop over which it fits. Ten metal rim-tension claw-hooks are attached around the rim of the collar, each with an eyelet. The twelve claw-hooks are aligned with the twelve lug assemblies, and one of each is connected to the other by a metal tension-rod. Except for its wider bolt-like head, a tension-rod passes through the eyelet in each claw-hook. The bottom of each rod is threaded and screwed into a lug bolt located in the lug assembly. It is with this above-described mechanism, and with the use of a tuning key, that the amount and evenness of tension on each of the membranes can be independently controlled. Two adjustable metal legs keep the drum from rolling when set up on the floor. An elaborate mechanical beater device, called the kick pedal, rests on the floor at a perpendicular angle to the beater head and is clamped to the beater-head collar hoop (see second detail photo). It is a metal frame with a footplate that activates a chain drive mechanism that, in turn, propels a rubber head at the end of a metal-rod beater against a reinforced spot on the beater head. The responsiveness of the kick pedal is adjustable. A metal post attached to the top of the drum’s shell is used to support two toms (see separate entry).
The shell of the kick bass rests on the floor, stabilized by its two legs, its heads positioned vertically, and the kick pedal attached. The seated drum set player (who would be on the far side of the pictured drum set facing the camera in the first detail photo) operates the kick pedal with his or her right foot. The ideal sound quality is a bass-range, but un-pitched and dull thud, the dryness of which is essential for when a fast succession or articulations is produced. The player can control the volume of the sound, which can range from soft to very loud. Some drum set configurations include two kick bass drums, each with its own kick pedal operated by one of the performer’s feet.