Origin of the Drum Set

When I was a kid, many holiday get-togethers involved Bongo drums and loud Armenian music. My uncle played the bongos and though I watched him in fascination, I never wanted to mimic his talent. I was interested in the drum set. When I was in high school marching band, I loved watching the drum line. Collectively, they were the drum set. But I wanted to be the one to make the noise all by myself.

The drum set has only been around since the early 20th century. The percussion in ensembles used to be collective (brass bands!) -- just like my high school drum line. According to this source, "Small budgets and little stage space for theater shows and silent movie bands" forced drummers to play more than one instrument at a time. So drummers played a bass and snare drum with their hands.

In 1909, William and Theo Ludwig developed a bass drum pedal. Drummers now had two free hands, while their feet would create the boom-boom sound of the bass. By the 1930s, a standard set became more and more popular -- snare, bass, tom-toms, and cymbals. A standard set (like mine pictured below) includes a 21in ride cymbal, 18in crash cymbal, 16in crash cymbal, 16in floor tom, 10in tom, 12in tom, 13in hi-hat, and a 16in snare. (The black covers on the tom-toms and snare are mutes so I don't upset the neighbors like this person!)


Drummers nowadays can customize their set however they would like -- the number of cymbals, tom-toms, and other beauties from the percussion family (cowbell, tambourine) are endless additions. Watching the sheer joy and energy drummers display, hitting their feet and waving their arms in the air, makes it hard to imagine a time when a drummer used two limbs to only play one drum.

Though the history of the drum set is long and elaborate, you get a gist of how one of the greatest creations in the world came to be. For a longer, more detailed history of the drum set, I recommend reading this.