Home > Bass drum

A bass drum is a large, heavy drum that produces a "thump" of low but indefinite pitch. It is used in orchestral music, marching music, and throughout 20th century popular music as a component of the drum set.

In popular music, the bass drum is used to mark time. In marches it is used to keep the march even (marching bands march to the beat of the bass). A basic beat for rock and roll has the bass drum played on the first and third beats of a bar of common time, with the snare drum on the second and fourth "back beats". In jazz the bass drum plays less of a timekeeping role and serves more to punctuate the music. The same is true in classical music, though the styles are dramatically different.

An orchestral bass drum is quite large, about 36" in diameter, and is played with one or sometimes two large, padded mallets. Usually the right hand plays the drum and the left hand muffles it. When played with both mallets, a knee or forearm can be used for damping. In a drum kit, the bass drum is much smaller, most commonly 20" or 22" but sizes from 18" to 24" are quite normal, and extremes both larger and smaller are sometimes seen. It is usually more heavily muffled than the classical drum. It is played using a pedal operated mallet. A pedal-operated bass drum is often called a kick drum.

In many forms of heavy metal music, particularly thrash metal and death metal, a second bass drum pedal is used, either operating a second beater (twin-pedal) on the same drum using an extended mechanism, or more traditionally simply playing a similar second bass drum, placed beside the first and tuned identically. Double bass drum techniques were pioneered by Louie Bellson in the 1950s and popularised in the 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around by Ginger BakerPeter Edward "Ginger" Baker (born August 19, 1939, Lewisham, London), British percussionist who gained fame as a member of Cream from 1966 until 1968 with Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, and later joined Clapton and Steve Winwood in the 1969 group Blind Fait of CreamCream were a seminal 1960s rock band which featured the guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. Celebrated as the first of the great power trios of rock, their sound was characterised by a melange of blues and psychedelia, com and Keith MoonKeith John Moon ( August 23, 1946 September 7, 1978) was the drummer of the rock group The Who. He was born in London in 1946, although he would later claim to have been born a year later. He is considered one of the most unusual and yet original drummers of the WhoThe Who is a British rock band. They were noted for the dynamism of their live performances and for their thoughtful music, including Tommy one of the first rock operas. While not a heavy metal band themselves, their distorted guitars, epic songwriting, a.

In many modern marching bands and drum corps, a set of multiple bass drums called tonal bass drums are used. A bass drum line typically consists of four to six tonal bass drums, though many smaller high schoolHigh school or secondary school is the last segment of compulsory education in Hong Kong, United States, Australia, Canada, China, Korea and Japan. It provides a secondary education. Hong Kong Secondary education in Hong Kong is largely based on the Britis only have enough players to use two or three drums, and some universities and drum corps have marched up to sixteen at once. The drums typically are between 18" and 32" in diameter, but some groups have used bass drums as small as 14" and as large as 36". Generally, tonal bass drums are tuned higher than kick drums or orchestral bass drums so complex rudimental passages can be heard clearly. Each player usually carries one drum, though in rare cases players carry two or three smaller drums at once. Skilled bass drum lines can execute complex linear passages so convincingly that it sounds like the entire bass drum part is being played by a single musician.