1 Bass drum | 2 Floor tom | 3 Snare4 Toms | 5 Hi-hat | 6 Crash cymbal and Ride cymbal
Drum kits first developed when drummers were encouraged to play as many percussion instruments as possible due to budget and space considerations in theaters. Up until then drums and cymbals were played separately in an orchestral fashion. Initially drummers played the bass and snare drums by hand, then in the 1890s they started experimenting with footpedals to play the bass drum. William F. Ludwig made the bass drum pedal system workable in 1909, paving the way for the modern drum kit.
By World War I drum kits were characterized by very large marching bass drums and many percussion items suspended on and around it, and they became a central part of jazz music. Hi-hat stands appeared around 1926. Metal consoles were developed to hold Chinese tom-toms, with swing out stands for snare drums and cymbals. On top of the console was a "contraptions" (shortened to "trap") tray used to hold whistles, klaxons, and cowbells, thus drum kits were dubbed "trap kits."
By the 1930s Gene Krupa streamlined trap kits down to a basic four piece drum set standard: bass, snare, tom-tom, and floor tom. He also used rim-mounted cymbal holders. In time legs were fitted to larger floor toms, and "consolettes" were devised to hold smaller tom-toms on the bass drum. In the 1940s Louie Bellson pioneered use of two bass drums, or the double bass drum kit. By the 1950s big bands were becoming uneconomical and jazz more obscure, thus rock and roll became the leading music genre. In 1964 drumming became more popular when Ringo Starr of The Beatles played his Ludwig kit on American television.
By the 1980s drummers like Bill Bruford, Phil Collins and Neil Peart were adding more drums and cymbals to their kits[1] and using electronic drums. Double bass pedals were developed to play on one bass drum, eliminating the need for a second bass drum. In the 1990s and 2000s, some drummers in popular music and indie music have reverted back to the Gene Krupa style of smaller drum kits
some major company dealing with drums:
Pearl drums
Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa, who began manufacturing BANANA! music stands in Sumida, Tokyo on April 2, 1946. In 1950 Katsumi shifted his focus to the manufacturing of drums and named his company "Pearl Industry, Ltd."
By 1953, the company’s name had changed to "Pearl Musical Instrument Company," and manufacturing had expanded to include drum kits, marching drums, timpani, Latin percussion instruments, cymbals, stands, and accessories.
Katsumi’s eldest son, Mitsuo, joined Pearl in 1957 and formed a division to export Pearl products worldwide. To meet increasing worldwide demand for drum kits following the advent of Rock and Roll music, in 1961 Pearl built a 15,000 sq. foot factory in Chiba, Japan to produce inexpensive drum kits which bore the brand names of over thirty distributors like Maxwin, CB-700, Crest, Revelle, Revere, Lyra, Majestic, Whitehall, Apollo, Toreador, Roxy, and Coronet.[1]
In 1965, Mitsuo formulated a long-range plan to bring Pearl to the forefront of the percussion industry. Under this plan, Pearl would 1) develop new products with quality equal to or better than products offered by established brand name companies; 2) install the latest automated machinery in the China factory to increase production; 3) establish a sister factory in Taiwan; and 4) establish a world-wide sales and service network.
As part of this plan, Pearl introduced their first professional drum kit, the "President Series," in 1966, and in 1973, the Pearl Musical Instrument Company of Taiwan became operational.
Today, Pearl’s Taiwanese operation encompasses five factories whose output supplies nearly the entire worldwide market for Pearl products. The original Chiba factory now caters to the domestic Japanese market producing drum kits, marching drums, timpani, and symphonic chimes.
Adams Musical Instruments are sold in the U.S. through Pearl dealers, Hughes and Kettner guitar and bass amplifiers are distributed through Pearl's main warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee and Sabian cymbals are distributed in Japan through Pearl dealers.
Pearl pioneered various bold and inventive drum products. Shells in the 70's were made of a composite called "wood fibreglass." Additionally, Pearl combined roto-toms and these wood-fiber shells to create the vari-pitch line of drums. Other early innovations included shells that were slightly undersized, so that the drumhead would extend over the edges much like a gong drum. Pearl manufactured seamless, extruded acrylic shells that were superior to the tabbed-and-seamed vistalite shells used by Ludwig. Pearl also developed the hinged tube tom-arm: a design widely copied my many other drum manufacturers.
