A drum kit (or "drum set" or
"trap set" - the latter almost a moribund term) is a collection of
drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments arranged for convenient
playing by a sole percussionist (drummer), usually for jazz, rock, or
other types of contemporary music. Such a kit has been an integral part
of most popular music since the jazz of the 1920s until the arrival of
synthesised and sequenced percussion (such as drum machines) replaced
drums in some electronic music. Companies such as Simmons (in the
1980s), Yamaha, Roland and many others have created electronic
drum-sets which use pads or triggers (mounted on acoustic drums) to
play sampled or synthesized sounds. The trend in electronics since the
late 1980s has been away from overtly electronic sounds and less
towards an intensified acoustic sound.
The exact collection of
components to a drum kit varies greatly according to musical style,
personal preference, financial and transportation resources of the
drummer. At a minimum a kit usually contains a bass drum sitting on the
floor and played with a pedal, a snare drum on a stand, two or three
tom-toms, some of which are mounted on top of the bass drum and the
largest typically free-standing alongside it (on the floor - hence the
word "floor tom"), a hi-hat (two small cymbals played by means of
pedal) played with the left foot, a ride cymbal and a crash cymbal
arranged on stands on the right and left. The drummer sits with the
snare drum between his legs, his left foot on the hi-hat pedal and his
right on the bass pedal. He will usually play with sticks, but may also
use brushes, mallets, hands, or any of a variety of "multi-rod" sticks.
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