You will see almost as many ways to set up a drum set as there are drummers setting them up. But your drum kit setup is a critical step toward leveling up your playing, and certain drum and cymbal placements could make the difference.
The choices drummers make to place one drum or another where they want it is part personal preference, part best practices. The goal is to respect both the instruments and your body through your drum kit setup. Consider how performance from one drum or cymbal to another is made easy by the placement of each instrument.
So you’ve unboxed the gear, laid it all out to set up, and you’re excited to start playing. It’s a special feeling. But before you start turning screws and adjusting hardware, let’s make sure you have a proper space for your drums.
Where’s the best place to set up your drums?
Find a place with plenty of room for the drums. Consider the floor because rugs and carpets help to keep the drums from moving all over the place.
Noise is another consideration. Try to be as far away from the people you may disrupt as possible. If you can choose between the side of the house that’s closest to your neighbor’s nursery and the opposite side, let’s avoid waking the baby.
Ultimately, the decision to locate your drums in one place or another will largely depend on the drum configuration.
Common Drum Kit Setup Configurations
The four piece and five piece drum kit set ups are the most common configurations. These setups usually include a kick, snare, and at least two toms.
Cymbal setups often include a ride, hi-hat, and one or two crashes. Splash cymbals and other effects are really cool and inexpensive, so a lot of drummers include those, too.
The following setup diagrams show fairly common configurations. Remember, there are no rules to your setup decisions. Experiment with what you have to make the most of you gear.
Drum Kit Setup in 10 Steps
Your setup depends on you and your drums. The following recommendations are what work for most players, but there are several ways this can vary from player to player.
Your comfort and ease of motion around the kit are the two most important factors when making decisions about how to set up your drum set.
1. Kick Drum Setup
The kick drum has spurs on the front that keep it from sliding away as you play. It’s important to adjust them so that the front of the drum is about two to three inches off the floor. You don’t need to measure. The goal is to keep the front of the drum slightly higher than the back once the kick pedal is attached. This can ensure that the spurs do their job.
Before attaching the pedal, check the spring tension to make sure it is adjusted well enough. Most spring tensioners have a nut on the end that locks the tensioner and a nut on the inside for adjustment. Keep these tight so that the spring tension is reliable. This is something that you will want to adjust as you get comfortable with the pedal.
Attach the pedal by clamping it to the hoop at the base of the batter head side (the side you play). You’ll know that the pedal is lined up properly when it rests flat on the floor with the clamp tightened.
Adjust the beat on the pedal so that it strikes the head as close to the center as possible. I like to approach adjusting the beater similar to how your hand grips the drum stick. Where you tighten the beater to the pedal is like the fulcrum. Too close to the end will make you work hard for every stroke, and too far up the beater reduces your power and rebound.
2. Drum Throne Adjustment
The drum throne is the next most critical step in your drum kit setup. The thrown height is important for posture and ergonomics. Plus, it sets a proper height to which other instruments, like your snare drum, will be adjusted.
Sitting higher is usually better than lower. The important thing to consider with throne height is the height of your hip in relation to your knee. For most people, it’s more ergonomic to have the hip slightly higher than the knee and far enough from the kick pedal so that the ankle is not directly below the knee.
The ergonomics of this are about range of motion. Your muscles can only move so well and relaxed in certain positions. Find the degree to which my advice works for you, and you will experience more power and stamina in your playing.
Lastly, position your throne so that your foot can access the kick pedal with any awkward reaching. I like to think of sitting behind my drums to be more comfortable than sitting in a nice office chair behind a desk. Sit down naturally, and decide if your adjustments to reach the pedal are comfortable or not.
Related: 7 Mistakes You Can Make Setting Up Your Drum Set
3. Snare Drum Placement
Snare drums come in a variety of sizes, so it’s important to consider the depth when you choose a stand. If you are not a tall person and the snare is very deep, you’ll want a snare stand that can be adjusted low enough to play comfortably.
Open the legs of the snare stand so that they are not spread too far – the legs can get in the way of other hardware, like the hi hat stand. If the legs are not spread out enough, the stand can be more wobbly. This is less of an issue that it may seem, however.
Your snare stand will be one of two common designs. The old school design has one clamp arm that slides to hold to the snare drum, and the more modern one has a nut that adjusts all three clamp arms equally. I prefer the modern design because it’s more stable and easier to adjust.
Set the drum on your stand, and position it so that you can access the strainer release while playing. I like to keep the release on my left side because I’m more likely to use it with my left hand.
The height and angle of the drum are the most important adjustments. Make sure the drum is angled to accommodate your grip. For example, players who use traditional grip often like to angle the snare to one side. The height of drum should be whatever allows you to play on and off the rim while maintaining relaxed arms and shoulders.
You may have to revisit the snare drum height or angle as you position other instruments in your drum kit setup.
4. How to Set Up a Hi-Hat Stand
The hi hat stand presents drummers with two important issues. The pedal needs to be positioned to allow you to reach for it comfortably like you did with the kick drum. The other issue is the hi hat cymbals as a playing surface in relation to other playing surfaces, like the snare drum.
Start by positioning the hi hat stand as far forward as possible. When you sit down at the drums, your feet should comfortable reach both the kick and hi hat pedals. Consider adjusting your body before adjusting the hi hat stand too much. If your chest is parallel with the kick drum batter head, you are square with the kit and more ergonomic (for a typical drum kit setup).
Related: How to Set Up a Hi-Hat – Cymbal and Hardware Do’s and Don’ts
Depending on whether you play overhand or open on the hi hat and snare, you’ll want to position the hi hat stand so that you can play both instruments comfortably.
I play with both open and overhand, so I keep the hi hat as far forward as possible. This allows me to play it comfortably with my left hand, and my right hand can get out of the path of my snare drum strokes.
Related: Open Handed Drumming – Why This Cymbal Technique is Better
5. Ride Cymbal Placement
At this point in your setup, you can sit behind your snare with your feet comfortably accessing the pedals. You’ll want to respect your ability to move around the kit by placing your ride cymbal such that it is easily accessible.
Sit with your back straight and your snare drum playing position. Keep your bicep and should still, and rotate your hand away from your snare while moving your forearm in the direction of the ride cymbal. Place your ride cymbal wherever your stick comfortably stops.
By placing your ride cymbal this way, you’ll be able to transition from drums to the cymbals without making any unnatural motions. As Ed Soph says, erratic motions making erratic sounds. How you move is how you will sound, where you place your instruments should support the way you move.
Related: Ride vs. Crash – 11 Cymbal Sounds You Can Make
6. Floor Tom Placement
Treat the floor tom the same way you positioned the ride cymbal. If you have two floor toms, the second one is usually best placed farther away from your body than the first because you’ll want to avoid tucking your elbow into your ribs to reach the drum.
Most floor toms have three legs. Adjust the legs by starting with all of the legs close to the same height. It’s usually better if the leg closest to your is a little lower than the snare drum height, but these adjustments can be different from one player to another.
Like the snare drum, the height of the floor tom depends on how you play. Drummers like Keith Carlock position their floor toms angle downard and away to accommodate traditional grip. As mentioned earlier in this article, it’s important to consider what works for your body and style of playing.
Some drum hardware includes keeps that are designed to allow you to slide your floor tom legs into the same place every time. I like features like these because they help with setup time at gigs or anytime you need to set up your kit and want it consistent.
7. Rack Tom(s) Placement
The rack toms are usually mounted to the bass drum. They can be mounted to cymbal stands or on a snare stand, too, and they are generally higher pitch than the floor tom.
Rack tom hardware comes in three types:
- Arms that connect perpendicular to the drum,
- Arms that connect parallel to the drum, and
- Snare drum stands used to the hold drums next to the kick drum, like John Bonham.
It’s hard to mess up rack tom placement. You have a limited range of adjustments after setting up the more critical instruments, like the kick and snare.
The angle of the drum is my biggest concern. If the drum is too steep, you won’t get the rebound from the drum as efficiently. Drums that are too flat make it harder to avoid the rim. Finding the right angle depends on these practical suggestions along with the restrictions of the drum size – deeper toms are often positioned on a steeper angle.
If you have rack toms with deep shells, you may have to raise them up high and angle them more. Drummers like Nicko McBrain and Lars Ulrich position the batter heads of their deep toms almost perpendicular to the ground.
8. Crash Cymbal Placement
Crash cymbals are best placed so that they are easy to reach and don’t interfere with other playing surfaces, like the rack tom. Most drum sets have one or more crash cymbals, and I like my main crash, an 18” or 17”, to the left of my rack tom.
You can ride a crash, so it’s important to position the crash cymbals in a way that does not limit your performance. For tricky setups, boom stands help you place the crash right where you want it.
9. Percussion Add On Setup
The cowbell is an instrument that’s often used to play ostinatos like the rhythms you would play on the hi hats or ride. Consider which hand you will most likely play cowbell, and place it on the drum set in a reasonable area.
I like a cha cha bell to the left of my hi hat and a mambo bell to the right of my ride cymbal. The jam block usually hangs out with the cowbell, too. Both of these instruments are mounted to a single clamp off the hi hat stand.
Tambourines are best mounted by themselves. I know that you’ll see them mounted with a cowbell in sales photos, but you lose isolation of the cowbell sound when they are together. Unless you want a cowbell sound that’s always accompanied by a tambourine jingle, I would keep them separate.
I keep my tambourine resting free on my side snare. It’s easy to pick up and play by itself, take it off to access just the snare, or play it on the snare. I often place a small towel on the snare so the tambourine doesn’t move around. The towel also makes for another snare sound option, which is totally cool.
Related: 10 Essential Percussion Add Ons for Drum Set
10. Mic Placement for Drum Set
Drum mic placement is it’s own complicated set of issues. It’s one of the things you may want to consider for your drum kit setup if your goal is to perform live in bigger venues or record music.
For the most part, your drums and cymbals can go anywhere and be safe from microphone issues, especially with the kinds of mics available to us today. The only suggestions I have are to try to keep your cymbals on a somewhat even horizontal plane. This helps balance the levels when mixing the mics.
For more a deeper dive on mic selection and placement, check out this article on How to Mic Drums.
Final Thoughts
The music you make on your drums relies entirely upon how you move, and how you move can be facilitated by how you set up your drums. Some drummers defy these suggestions and do well, but most drummers benefit from these setup tips and tricks.