{"id":65,"date":"2009-08-19T12:59:24","date_gmt":"2009-08-19T19:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/?p=65"},"modified":"2017-12-08T20:05:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T03:05:57","slug":"comfortably-drum-%e2%80%93-a-better-way-to-set-up-your-drumkit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/archives\/65","title":{"rendered":"Comfortably Drum \u2013 a Better Way to Set Up Your Drumkit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s especially important to be comfortable when you play. One key that I\u2019ve discovered to setting up my kit to make playing more comfortable is what I\u2019ll call the \u201coffset bass drum position\u201d. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019s lower body angled slightly away from the audience. The drummer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"Figure

Figure 1: The Traditional Setup<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n

The solution is simple. It\u2019s 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\u2019s the secret: set up your single bass kit as if it were a double bass kit<\/em>. If you\u2019re a right-handed player, position your bass drum slightly to the right and with a slight angle. If you\u2019re a left-handed player, do just the opposite. Imagine that there\u2019s a second, \u201cinvisible\u201d bass drum on the opposite side. Use this \u201cinvisible drum\u201d as a guide to position your double-kick pedal and\/or hi-hat pedal.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

When seated behind the kit, you\u2019ll now be facing straight forward\u2014eye 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\u2019t have to break your neck to make eye contact with that bass player or keyboard player who\u2019s set up way off to the side. You\u2019ll also notice that it feels very natural\u2014you\u2019ll be seated in just the same way you would normally be seated if sitting in a regular chair.<\/p>\n

\"Figure

Figure 2: The Offset Setup<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s especially important to be comfortable when you play. One key that I\u2019ve discovered to setting up my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[19,18,111,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":820,"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/silentsky.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}