How to Set Up a Drumset: 13 Tips for Beginners

To set up your drums correctly, you need to make sure everything is easily accessible to you and ergonomically placed. There will be some variations from this, based on the genres you prefer, as well as your body-type - but there’s a reason all top drummers typically have very similar setups.

Sure, there are outliers - some drummers have a lone cymbal set up several feet in the air, that they practically have to stand to hit (like John Stanier of Battles); some have their snare drum so low that it seems impossible to use (like Damon Che of Don Caballero). But a more typical setup gives you the ability to freely play, perfectly relaxed, 100% in control. Relaxation and control are the keys to speed, timing, and all levels of dynamics. Whether you want extreme power, speed, finesse, or a delicate touch, you need an ergonomic setup.

• Typical drum parts
• Miscellaneous (but essential) pieces
• Step-by-step Drum Set Assembly (broken down logically by part)
• Common drum kit setup mistakes & how to avoid them
• Customization and how to make it comfortable for YOU
• Experimentation
• Tips
• Conclusion paragraph
• FAQ

Typical Drum Parts

Since there are four drums (not including the cymbals), this is called a “four-piece” setup. It’s also fairly common to have a “middle” rack tom, which would make up a “five-piece” setup. But it’s often encouraged to become proficient on a four-piece setup, since it’s generally easier to go from that to a five-piece than the other way around (it’s always easier to learn to play more drums than to feel stifled with less than you’re used to playing).

These are the parts you actually play on the drumset. But cymbals don’t magically float in the air - we need hardware, as well as many other pieces of equipment to make these actually playable. These are the “miscellaneous” (but essential) drum parts.

Miscellaneous (but essential) Pieces

These are the unsung heroes that actually hold our drum set (and drummer) in place:

• Drum rug (optional, depending on location of kit)
• Cymbal Hardware
• Drum Hardware
• Drum Heads
• Kick Pedal
• Throne (or “stool”)

First thing’s first we need a drum rug!

The drum rug will prevent your kick drum from sliding around, and scratching up your floor (or tearing up your carpet). If you want to set up your drums in a room with a carpet you don’t care about, then a rug is optional.

Cymbal hardware mostly refers to the stands that hold up the cymbals. However, we also need cymbal sleeves to protect the cymbals from keyholing, as well as felts and nuts to hold the cymbals in place on the stand. The hi hat stand also requires a clutch, which fastens the top hi hat to the stand’s inner rod; this will give the ability for the stand’s built-in pedal to bring the top hat up and down.

Speaking of pedals, we need a way to play the bass drum, since we can’t literally “kick” it. We’ll need a pedal for that. These are pricey and highly personal, so you definitely want to pick carefully when you are able.

Lastly, we need somewhere to sit, and that is upon the throne, since we are royalty.

Drum-assembly-tutorial

Setting up a drum set is obviously going to be confusing for the beginner new to the kit, and having a step-by-step guide will help them through that. But, having a system in place will also help the more experienced player set up the kit quickly.

1. Lay out your drum rug

That is, unless you’ve decided to set up the kit on an expendable carpet. However, some people find it useful to use a drum rug no matter what, so that they can mark the rug with the preferred locations of all the kit’s pieces (using tape). This is an optional hack to set up quickly when you move your kit.

2. Set up your kick drum

Put it roughly in the middle of the carpet. We want to make sure every pedal on the kit sits fully on top of the carpet.

3. Attach the kick pedal to the “beater head” side of the kit.

Attach the pedal to the very bottom center of the hoop around the “beater head” by attaching the pedal’s “hoop clamp” to the hoop of the kick drum (then tighten the screw on the hoop clamp). Push down on the footboard so the beater hits the head - the beater should hit the middle of the head. The footboard and beater should come out straight out of the kick’s head. If there are spikes or legs attached to the kick drum, angle them forward to dig into the carpet by loosening the screws holding them back, and then retightening these screws with the legs pointing forward (you’ll most likely want to do this at a 45 degree angle, although there may be “grooves” the different angles can tighten at, and you can pick what feels best for you).

4. Place the throne in front of the kick and pedal.

Set up its height so that your leg comfortably rests on it at a 90-110 degree angle. This can be adjusted for your style, but this is the best “average” height (and finding this angle will also help you control the distance of the pedal from where you’re sitting).

5. Set up the Snare Stand

Extend the snare stand’s legs by undoing the wingnut at the bottom, sliding this part of the stand upwards (or sometimes downwards) until the legs come out, and re-tightening this wingnut when the stand can stay up comfortably on its own. The snare basket will come out if we loosen its adjustment knob - we want to loosen it enough so the snare can fit in the basket, but not so much that the middle of the stand touches the bottom of the snare drum. We’ll use these wingnuts on the stand to also adjust the height and angle of the snare, and similar wingnuts on the cymbal stands later.

6. Set up the Snare between the Kick and Throne

Put the snare stand in between the kick and the throne, and then place the snare drum into the snare basket. You should be able to comfortably put your legs around it. The snare’s height should be slightly above your waist (this is important). The snare can be perfectly flat, slightly angled toward you, or angled slightly away from you if you play with traditional grip - it shouldn’t be a severe angle (unless you’re a seasoned traditional player).

Set up the Hi Hat Stand to your Left of the Snare

The hi hat stand is more essential to the kit than the other cymbal stands, so we start with this one. It’s also more involved to set up. The pedal needs to sit flat on the floor. Different hi hat stands may require a drum key to do this, but most just require you to squeeze the two metal rods under the pedal together, until you can place their tips into the conveniently placed holes on the sides of the bottom of the stand. If your hi hat rod isn’t inserted yet, you’ll need to remove the top half of the hi hat stand, find the hole inside where it goes, and screw that in (then put the top half back on using the screws on the side of the stand).

Place your bottom hi hat on the cup at the top of the hi hat stand, with the rod going through the hole in the hi hat. Then, we will put the top hi hat in the clutch - unscrew the middle of the clutch, place the top hi hat in between the halves of the clutch, and then re-tighten the clutch. Finally, place the top hat onto the stand atop the bottom hat. Then step on the pedal slightly, and tighten the clutch onto the hi hat rod (this will control the opening of the hi hat - we can adjust how much your hi hat opens based on your taste later).

Place the hi hat stand to your left of the snare drum. The height of the hi hats should be higher than the snare, but the exact height can vary based on your musical preferences - it should probably be several inches to a foot above the snare drum. You’ll be playing the hi hat pedal with your left foot, so make sure that it is also in a comfortable position.

8. Set up all the cymbal hardware

This will include cymbal stands and our hi hat stand. All of these stands have legs that need to be spread out - we can achieve this by finding the bulkier bottom half of each stand, and undoing the wingnut screw keeping the legs tucked into the body of the stand, pulling the legs out, and re-tightening these screws. If your drums came without heads already on them, you’ll need to put them on before setting up the kit.

9. Set up the rack tom above the kick drum, right behind the snare drum

Those directions are from your perspective, with it angled slightly towards you. Make the height comfortable for you to reach it quite easily, while not getting in the way of the other pieces - the surface will probably be a few inches above the snare drum.

10. Set up the floor tom to the right of your snare drum

It should be at about the same height as your snare drum, to its right (from your perspective). It can be perfectly flat, or also slightly angled toward you, but flat is generally accepted as best. It should be a comfortable distance to reach regularly, as you may even want to play entire grooves on it.

Set up your crash cymbal stand to your left and slightly behind the hi tom

The crash should be easy to reach, but not interfere with your path to the hi tom (or hi hat). You’ll need to use the screws on the cymbal to control the heights and angles of the cymbals, but it’s much easier to do this before putting cymbals on.

12. Set up your ride cymbal stand so the cymbal can hover next to the hi tom (to your right)

This cymbal stand is the most likely to have a “boom” arm that helps the cymbal hover above a different area than the base of the stand. It’s also the most likely cymbal stand to need a boom arm to use properly. Make sure the legs are spread wide enough to support the weight of the cymbal when it’s in this position. If you have two hi (or “rack”) toms, you’ll want to adjust this placement slightly to make room for the second tom.

Finally, put cymbals on your stands

Unscrew the wingnuts on the top of the stands, and place cymbal sleeves on the stands if they’re not there already (follow that up by putting cymbal felts on the sleeves here, if they’re also not there). Gently put your cymbals on top of these sleeves, with the tip of the stand sticking out through the middle holes of the cymbals, and re-fasten all of these screws tightly so everything stays put as you play (you may have to adjust heights and angles after putting cymbals on and realizing you misjudged distances). Make sure that there’s clearance around every cymbal with the surrounding drums, and adjust the position of the stands to your liking after putting the cymbals back on. Once you’re done, the kit should look like this, only with a throne ready to sit in in front of it!

Common Mistakes When Building a Drum Kit

Once you’ve gotten everything set-up and you’ve been playing for a while, there are some common missteps you might have in your set-up. Some of these can be personal choices you’ve made about your set-up, but even those choices should be at least reconsidered based on ergonomics and technique.

• Rack tom angled too sharply

  This reinforces bad technique. We want to use the same muscles and motion as if we were dribbling a basketball, and we want the sticks’ rebound to come upward, not backward. This habit is sometimes reinforced by young, small drummers playing a bigger kit, and being unable to reach the top when it’s angled more flat. If possible, playing a student level (or even children’s) kit can prevent this issue. I’ve seen some of my favorite, idiosyncratic, self-taught drummers (who are amazing players) make this mistake - and then decades of shows later, their rack tom slowly becomes more flat (while still maintaining a slight angle towards the player).

• Inappropriate Hi Hat Height

  We want the hi hat to be accessible with either hand, and able to be reached after playing any instrument comfortably. If the height is too close to the snare, and you’re a heavy-hitting, cross-handed player, you won’t have enough clearance between your hands. If the height is too far away, and you want to play intricate funk patterns with syncopations and interplay between the two, you’ll have too far to go between the two surfaces.

• Bad Cymbal Angles or Heights

  This one is a bit complicated - metal drummers will have tons of cymbals, which each have a specific purpose - some may be very angled, or perfectly flat. But if you only have a few cymbals, you want to be able to hit their edges with the shoulder of the stick, or the center of the cymbal with the tip of the stick, or the bell with the shoulder - all comfortably. Some pro drummers have a few cymbals set up at weird angles because they only use that one cymbal in a very specific way - but you’ll see that all of their other cymbals follow these rules.

• Snare too Low

  No shade to the aforementioned Damon Che. This mistake is commonly made by drummers who want to rest their hand on their thigh (particularly cross-handed players). Over time, it will become natural to have your hand hover in the proper position at the proper height. Resting your hand on the thigh means you need to lift up your hand to the right position every time you want to play, instead of just being ready to go. Plus, having the snare too low means you can’t properly use your wrist to its full potential. Even a bit too high of a snare drum is better than too low, since you can still use your wrist (although it’s still best to leave the snare height just above your waist).

Customization - How to Make it Comfortable for You

As we said, every body is different. Notice the space in between “every” and “body” - drums are a physical instrument, and no two bodies are alike. Add to that your personal style, your preferences in music, and lots of little adjustments can be made.

Heavy rock drummers who aren’t playing 5-stroke rolls on the high hat may want to set it higher, so they can get plenty of clearance from the snare and use their back muscles. Dave Grohl famously played like this in Nirvana. These drummers can also angle the high tom towards them more for the same reason, but it still shouldn’t go past 45 degrees (plus, many heavy drummers actually prefer a perfectly flat hi tom).

Left-handed players often like to play a mirror image of this typical right-handed setup - OR they may get used to this setup after sharing a kit with right-handed players when they start as a beginner. Some even use a mix of right-handed and left-handed setups, like Harry Miree (who uses a double pedal on a “right-handed” kit, and uses the left pedal as his main pedal - most players do prefer playing the kick with their dominant foot, though).

Double pedal players may want to sit higher to ensure they can use all of the muscles in both legs more efficiently. Chris Turner has been given the title “best feet in metal” by fellow professional drummer Craig Reynolds, and he (Chris) sits very high. Some very chaotic single-pedal players even sit a little lower than recommended (although most still sit with their legs at 90-110 degrees). How can you know what’s right for you? Through experimentation.

Experimenting with your Setup

If you have the ability to leave your kit setup and playable in one location for a long period of time - DO IT. This will be your most important tool for figuring out what works for you, through trial and error. Once you’re able to play many genres, at many volumes, at many tempos - you want to fine tune your setup to your specific body, and the styles of music you love the most.

One thing to test out your mobility on the kit is this (relatively) simple drill. Play single-stroke triplets on your snare drum (at whatever speed is comfortable). Then, try moving just the first of each three triplets to the hi tom - this means you’ll switch between your right and left hand on the hi tom, and fill in the other triplets on the snare. Now that you have the pattern down, try that between every combination of two drums and/or cymbals. For instance, try the notes on the beat on your hi hat, while filling in the other triplets on the floor tom, etc.

Obviously, some combinations will be harder than others. And you may be new enough at the drums that they’re all fairly hard, especially when the two surfaces are far from each other. But none of them should feel impossible, unless your setup has a major flaw.

Tips for a Quick Setup

Once you have a setup you like, you want it to stay like that - even when you tear down your kit and set it up in a new environment. Here are some tips to quickly set up your kit in the same position every time.

• Try taping your drum rug under the corners of your cymbal stands, snare stand, tom stands and pedals with brightly colored tape. This will help you find these preferred locations quickly.
• When you collapse your cymbal, snare, and tom stands - don’t do anything that isn’t absolutely necessary to transport them. Leave the heights of them the same (if you can), only collapsing the boom arms of the cymbal stands, as well as the legs. This will leave your stands at their ideal heights for you.
• All of your hardware probably has “memory locks,” which you can also use to maintain the right heights from setup to setup.
• Especially if you’re a heavy hitter, your snare and tom logs will loosen as you play. Make sure to re-tune your heads regularly.

You also don’t want your gear to fall apart as you play. Make sure to thoroughly tighten all of your screws before your gig or rehearsal. If any screw gets so tight that you can’t loosen it afterwards, here’s a quick drummer hack - squeeze a pair of drumsticks around the screw, and twist with those.

Drum Setup Tutorial: Final Touch

You want your setup to be as ergonomically-friendly for your style of playing long-term. This is especially true if you eventually want to play shows every night; you don’t want a setup that will give you back problems, tendinitis, etc. Once your kit is set up, everything should be easily accessible to you, promoting a relaxed feel while you play. You will want to customize it to your favored style of play (not to mention your height, wingspan, and so on), but following these guidelines will make for an excellent starting point.

FAQ

How do you set up a kit for a left-handed drummer?

We covered this earlier, but there are few different options. You can use a mirror-image of our step-by-step guide, or you can make small adjustments to the existing setup laid out above (some left-handed drummers even play a right-handed kit, but with an open-handed technique - or even with a more typical cross-handed style).

I want to add extra cymbals - where should I put them?

These can go anywhere, but more of them should go on the side of your hand that tends to play cymbals more. I do a standard extra cymbal on my right hand side, since I tend to play my cymbals more often with my right hand.

I want to add extra electronic drums - where should I put them?

They can go wherever - some people even replace their toms with a sampling pad! When I use one, I put it to the left of my hi hats (which is pretty common).

I don’t have room for a full set-up - what’s the most important stuff to keep?

Kick, snare, and hi hat are all you need to generate a killer groove - start with that.

How do I set up my drums on uneven ground?

This is a tough one - ideally, you shouldn’t have to. Basically, all you can do is try to flatten the ground as much as possible with your rug before setting up.

How can I tell if my setup is garbage?

If you regularly miss drums or cymbals, or if you suffer from joint or muscle pain, you might need to tweak your setup. Some muscle pain can be due to muscle-building when trying new, physically-demanding patterns - but this differs from pain from your body’s start point being uncomfortable.