1. A Brief History of American
Drum Set
Presentation by William “Billy” M. Baker

2. Creation of the Drum Set
• Military Brass Bands used
to play with multiple
drummers
• Over time they started
playing indoors and using
fewer players out of A Brass Band in a parade
necessity
• Drummers were forced to
play multiple percussion
instruments
simultaneously
• The arrangement they
used for this purpose
evolved into what we now
call a “Drum Set”

3. • Drum Sets went on
to incorporate
Drum Set Setup cymbals in addition
to snare, tom-toms,
and a bass drum
• Drum stands and
foot-operated
pedals helped to
develop the drum
set and make it
more practical
• These developments
enhanced the
playability of the
drum set
• Drummers soon
became much more
than just time
keepers

4. Jazz Age
• Drummers reached new heights
with the development of Jazz
• Grooves played in a “swing”
broken triplet form
• Improvisation, solos, and media
open the door to fame for
drummers
• Famous drummers of the time
included Buddy Rich and Gene
Krupa (hear his intro to Sing,
Sing, Sing now!)

5. Rock Music
• Drum equipment becomes more sturdy and durable for
louder playing
• Grooves include straight eighth notes and a strong back beat.
• Sets become more diverse: include multiple bass drums and
new varieties of cymbals
• Famous rock drummers include John Bonham, Neil Peart, and
Ringo Star (pictured here)

6. Funk
• Similar instrumentation
to Rock, but different
feel
• Drummers put more
groove in their grooves
with syncopation and
sixteenth note driven
cymbal patterns
• Music for people to
dance to
• David Garibaldi of
Tower of Power makes
new strides
incorporating Latin
influences

7. So Many Other Styles As Well!
• Disco
• Latin (Samba, Bossa Nova, etc.)
• Blues
• Country

8. Drumming Today
• There are so many genres and sub-genres
of music today that it’s hard to say what
“characterizes” drumming today
• Modern drummers have been influenced
by all of the aforementioned styles and
then some
• Drumming has become a very vital and
important part of music in the modern age

9. Attributions
• “Untitled” © 2009 Steingrimur Oli Sigurdarson licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
• “Happy Birthday Ringo Starr” © 2009 Catia Burton licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
• “Hi-Hat!” © 2009 Justin S. Campbell licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs
2.0 Generic License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
• “untitled” © 2010 Hiske Kremer licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
3.0 Unported License: <div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://i.images.cdn.fotopedia.com/hiskeflitst-
KzEqtfGcxH4-hd/Musical_Instruments/Percussion_instruments/Hi-hat/Hi-hat.jpg"><span
property="dct:title">untitled</span> (<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName"
href="http://fr.fotopedia.com/users/hiskeflitst">Hiske Kremer</a>) / <a rel="license"
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">CC BY-NC 3.0</a></div>
• “Drummer” © 2007 Tim Norris licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
• “Phi Snare Drum” © 2008 Corey Woodruff licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
• “Tom Tom” © 2009 Nathaniel S. Madore under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
• “Untitled” © 2009 Guillaume Laurent licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
sa/2.0/
• “Ellington Colliery Band” © 2001 Ian Britton licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/3.0/
• Goodman, Benny. “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing).” Brunswick 7628. Brunswick. 1936.