Sangeet Yatra

The Kit — Pieces and Limbs

Five pieces do almost all the work. Learn what each one is for and which limb plays it, and most of a drum part explains itself.

Set the throne, the heights, and the grip on How to sit before you chase a sound. Both pictures are a regular kit, from the seat you play in. Kick in the middle, snare in front of your left hand, three toms, and three cymbals: hi-hat, crash, and ride. The hi-hat is on your left. Your right hand reaches across to it. Click a name to hear that piece.

An acoustic kit

Line drawing of an acoustic kit from the player's seat. Hi-hat and crash on the left, two rack toms and the snare in front, ride and floor tom on the right, kick in the middle.
Line drawing by Clngre, CC BY-SA 3.0. Flipped so the hi-hat sits on your left. Source.

An electronic kit

Same eight pieces. The pads stay quiet until the box on the left, the module, turns a tap into the sound of that drum or cymbal. Your feet still play the two pedals.

A small electronic kit from the player's seat. Hi-hat and crash on the left, snare and two rack toms in front, ride and floor tom on the right, kick above the pedal, module at the far left.
Photo by RethoricalCheese, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.

Which limb

Click a name to hear it. These are the same pieces as the pictures. A cymbal is written ×. A drum is a round note. The map of which line is which piece is on your first groove.

Hands

In the groove the hands split. In a fill, both hands move. Which hand plays which tom is on Fills.

Left hand

The backbeat. In most Western music it is beats 2 and 4, and it is what makes people nod.

Either hand

Not part of the groove. They are what you play instead of it, in a fill. The hands take turns, right hand first. Fills.

Right hand

The hat is the clock. The ride is the same job, longer and louder. The crash marks a landing, the first beat after a fill or the top of a section.

Feet

Right foot

The floor. Lands with the bass guitar, and tells you where the bar starts.

Left foot

Holds the two cymbals shut, which is what makes a hat hit short. Lift it and the same hit rings. That open hat shows up on ghost notes and accents.

This foot also plays the second kick pedal of a double pedal. This room does not teach that. It is coming.

Right hand crosses over. On a standard kit the right hand reaches across to the hi-hat while the left hand stays on the snare. If that feels wrong, you are probably left-handed — mirror everything on this page and nothing else changes.

Before you go on

  • Name all five pieces and the limb that plays each
  • Play four quarter-note kicks that sound the same as each other
  • Play four snare hits with your left hand, relaxed, no forearm
  • Keep the hat shut with your left foot while your right hand plays it