The drum kit and how to count

One player, two hands, two feet: a basic kit has a bass drum, a snare, toms, a hi-hat and at least one more cymbal.

What is in a kit

A drum kit is a set of drums and cymbals arranged so one person can play them all, sitting on a stool called a throne. The bass drum, or kick, is the large drum on the floor, played with a beater moved by a foot pedal. It gives the lowest sound. The snare drum sits between the knees. A set of stiff metal wires is stretched under its bottom head, and when you strike the top the wires buzz against it, giving the short, sharp crack you hear in almost every pop song. Toms are drums without wires, from small rack toms mounted above the bass drum to the large floor tom on the player’s right. They are used mostly for fills.

A five-piece kit from above, for a right-handed player: 1 bass drum, 2 snare, 3 hi-hat, 4 rack toms, 5 floor tom, 6 crash cymbal, 7 ride cymbal, 8 throne.

The hi-hat is a pair of cymbals facing each other on a stand with its own pedal. Pressing the pedal closes them together; struck closed they give a short "tss", struck open a longer wash. The ride cymbal, on the right, is for steady patterns, and the crash cymbal for loud accents, often at the start of a new section. A kit is named by its number of drums, so snare, bass drum and three toms make a five-piece kit. Cymbals are not counted.

Counting in sixteen steps

Most popular music is in 4/4: four beats to a bar. Drummers split each beat into four equal parts and count them out loud as "1 e & a, 2 e & a, 3 e & a, 4 e & a". That makes 16 steps per bar, and it is exactly how the drum pad in this course is laid out. Step 0 is beat 1, step 4 is beat 2, step 8 is beat 3 and step 12 is beat 4. The "&" of each beat is two steps after it. Every beat in this course can be described by listing which steps each drum plays.

One bar of 4/4 in sixteen steps, beats 1 and 2 on the top row, 3 and 4 below. Bold boxes are the beats. Small numbers are the step numbers used in this course, 0 to 15.

Tempo is measured in beats per minute, or bpm. At 120 bpm each beat lasts half a second, a whole bar of four beats lasts 2 seconds, and each of the 16 steps lasts 0.125 seconds. At 60 bpm everything takes twice as long. Slower tempos are not easier in every way: with more time between notes it is harder to stay even, so practise with a click at several speeds.

BackgroundBefore the drum kit, a band needed several percussionists: one for the bass drum, one for the snare, one for the cymbals. Theatre pit orchestras in the late 1800s could not pay that many, so drummers found ways to cover everything at once. They played bass and snare with sticks in a technique called double drumming, and worked small cymbals with a foot. Metal consoles held extra instruments on a tray nicknamed the "contraption", soon shortened to "trap", which is why early kits were called trap sets. In 1909 William F. Ludwig and his brother Theobald founded Ludwig & Ludwig and patented the first commercially successful bass drum pedal, and hi-hat stands became available around 1926. By the 1920s drummers in New Orleans jazz had put together something close to the modern kit.

1860s: Percussionists start combining several drums into one kit.
1909: Ludwig & Ludwig is founded and patents a commercially successful bass drum pedal.
1918: Baby Dodds, playing riverboats with Louis Armstrong, hangs a side cymbal that becomes the ride cymbal.
1920s: The modern kit takes shape in New Orleans jazz.
1926: Around this year, hi-hat stands become available.

Try it

The pad below starts with the hi-hat on the four beats and the kick on beat 1. Press Play and count "1 e & a" along with it. Then switch on the snare at steps 4 and 12, beats 2 and 4, and listen to how the bar suddenly sounds like a song.

Bass drum (kick)	Lowest drum, played with a foot pedal
Snare drum	Wires under the bottom head give a sharp crack
Hi-hat	Two cymbals closed by a pedal
Ride cymbal	Steady patterns
Crash cymbal	Loud accents
Toms	Drums without wires, mostly for fills

Which drum is played with a foot pedal?
- Bass drum
- Snare drum
- Floor tom
What gives the snare drum its buzzing crack?
- Metal wires under the bottom head
- A second drum inside
- A cymbal on top
How many drums are in a kit with a snare, a bass drum and three toms?
How many steps does one 4/4 bar have when each beat is split into four?
On the 0-15 pad, which step is beat 3?
Which step is the "&" of beat 2?
At 120 bpm, how long is one 16th step, in seconds?
At 60 bpm, how many seconds does one bar of 4/4 last?
Why were early kits called trap sets?
- The tray of extra instruments was nicknamed the contraption, shortened to trap
- They were used for hunting
- The inventor was named Trap
In which year did Ludwig & Ludwig start and patent its bass drum pedal?

Key points

Kit: bass drum (foot), snare (wires), toms, hi-hat (pedal), ride and crash cymbals.
Count 4/4 in 16 steps: 1 e & a, 2 e & a, 3 e & a, 4 e & a.
Beats fall on steps 0, 4, 8 and 12.
At 120 bpm a beat is 0.5 s and a step is 0.125 s.

Sources for this course (6)

Wikipedia "Drum kit", parts of the kit, double drumming, trap kits from "contraption", Ludwig & Ludwig 1909 bass drum pedal, hi-hat stands around 1926, Baby Dodds 1918, modern kit in 1920s New Orleans, snare wires and backbeat, fills (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_kit)
Percussive Arts Society, the 40 PAS International Drum Rudiments, 1984, including the original 26 American rudiments (pas.org/rudiments/)
Wikipedia "One drop rhythm", snare and bass drum on beat 3 with beat 1 empty, popularized by Carlton Barrett (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_drop_rhythm)
Wikipedia "Four on the floor (music)", bass drum on every beat, popularized in 1970s disco (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_on_the_floor_(music))
Drum Beats Online, shuffle as the first and third notes of each triplet (drumbeatsonline.com/blog/how-to-play-a-shuffle-beat-on-drums-a-beginners-guide-to-the-shuffle-feel)
Step and tempo values computed: one 16th step = 60 / bpm / 4 seconds.

Checked: 2026-10-17