Comfortably Drum – a Better Way to Set Up Your Drumkit

Playing drums is a physically-demanding activity, perhaps more so than playing any other musical instrument. A drummer will often be seated behind his kit for hours at a time for practicing, rehearsing, and performing. For this reason, it’s especially important to be comfortable when you play. One key that I’ve discovered to setting up my kit to make playing more comfortable is what I’ll call the “offset bass drum position”.

Traditionally, most drummers will set up their kit with their bass drum facing straight forward, with the front head of the bass drum parallel to the edge of the stage. While this may look nice and neat, it’s really not very practical, and certainly not very comfortable. When your bass drum is positioned in such a way, the drummer is forced to be seated with the drummer’s lower body angled slightly away from the audience. The drummer’s upper body, however, tends to try and face straight forward to make eye contact with the audience or with other performers on the stage. This can lead to bad posture, tired muscles, and a sore back.

Figure 1: The Traditional Setup

The solution is simple. It’s something that drummers who play double-bass drumkits have always done. In fact, if you play two bass drums, you can probably stop reading this article now! But for the single bass drum player (or player who uses a double pedal with a single bass drum), here’s the secret: set up your single bass kit as if it were a double bass kit. If you’re a right-handed player, position your bass drum slightly to the right and with a slight angle. If you’re a left-handed player, do just the opposite. Imagine that there’s a second, “invisible” bass drum on the opposite side. Use this “invisible drum” as a guide to position your double-kick pedal and/or hi-hat pedal.

If you play a traditional five or six-piece drumkit with two toms mounted on your bass drum, you should consider mounting the first tom on a cymbal or tom stand, which will allow you to shift both toms to the left by the width of one drum. The second tom can still be mounted on the bass drum, but in the position where the first tom would normally be. Or if you have a double-tom stand, you can mount both drums on it. By shifting the toms in this manner, you can also move your ride cymbal more to the left, which allows you to play it in a more natural forward arm motion instead of a less-comfortable sideways motion.

When seated behind the kit, you’ll now be facing straight forward—eye to eye with your audience. Your wider range of vision will also make it easier to connect with other players on the stage. You won’t have to break your neck to make eye contact with that bass player or keyboard player who’s set up way off to the side. You’ll also notice that it feels very natural—you’ll be seated in just the same way you would normally be seated if sitting in a regular chair.

Figure 2: The Offset Setup