98 Fun Facts About Drums

In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of instruments, what type of instrument is a drum?

A membranophone. The system sorts instruments by what vibrates: a drum sounds through its stretched membrane, while a cymbal, whose whole body rings, counts as an idiophone.

Which Nirvana drummer went on to front Foo Fighters as singer and guitarist?

Dave Grohl. Foo Fighters began as his one-man project: in October 1994 he recorded the debut album in about a week, playing nearly every instrument himself.

On modern drums, the head is held on by a rim tightened by screws known as what?

Tension rods. Each one screws into a lug on the shell, and turning them tightens or slackens the head, which is how a drum is tuned.

Drums made with the skin of which animal have been found at Neolithic sites in China?

Alligator. The earliest such drums come from Dawenkou culture sites in eastern China, where alligators probably then lived along the coast, with the hide stretched over a wooden frame.

The ornate bronze Dong Son drums were made by a Bronze Age culture in which modern country?

Vietnam. The Dong Son people of the Red River region were seafarers who traded across Southeast Asia, which is why their bronze drums have turned up as far away as eastern Indonesia.

What do the talking drums of Africa imitate in order to communicate over distance?

The tone patterns of speech. A drummer bends the pitch by squeezing the cords between the two heads, copying the rise and fall of words in tonal languages such as Yoruba.

In which country did the drum called the karyenda become a symbol of royal power?

Burundi. The karyenda sat on the national flag at independence in 1962, and when the monarchy was overthrown in 1966 the drum was removed.

Which primates have been shown to drum rhythmically on objects as a form of communication?

Macaque monkeys. Scans found that their brains handle drumming sounds and calls in overlapping regions, hinting that drumming grew out of social communication.

What was the drum kit called in its early decades, a name some drummers still use?

A trap set. 'Traps' were the extras around the drums, such as cowbells, woodblocks and whistles, and by 1903 a 'trap drummer' was someone who played a drum and several of them at once.

The modern drum kit took shape among early jazz drummers in which city?

New Orleans. Its early jazz drummers gathered a marching band's separate drums around one seat and added cymbals, cowbells and woodblocks, so a single player could do the work of several.

Which brothers founded a company in 1909 and patented the first commercially successful bass drum pedal?

William and Theobald Ludwig. Their Chicago drum shop grew out of William's pedal design, but Theobald died in the 1918 flu epidemic and William carried the firm on alone.

Early jazz drummer Baby Dodds played Mississippi riverboats around 1919 alongside which teenage cornet player?

Louis Armstrong. Both men played in Fate Marable's riverboat band until 1921, and by 1923 they were making records together in King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

Which part of a kit began as the foot-operated 'low-boy'?

Hi-hat. Around 1926 a taller stand lifted the low-boy's two cymbals to hand height, so drummers could play them with sticks as well as the foot.

What technological change at the end of the 1920s put many theatre drummers out of work?

Films with recorded sound. Cinema drummers had supplied live sound effects for silent pictures, and when prerecorded soundtracks took over, the musicians' union ran newspaper adverts in protest.

Which drum in a kit gets its sharp crack from metal wires stretched across its bottom head?

The snare. Hitting the top head makes the wires rattle against the bottom one, and a lever on the shell can drop them away to silence the buzz.

In a kit, the bass drum is commonly known by what other name?

The kick. Orchestral players beat the bass drum by hand, but in a kit it is struck by a pedal-driven beater, hence the nickname.

Which drums are the most numerous in most kits and carry the bulk of fills and solos?

Tom-toms. Early kit toms were 'Chinese' drums whose pigskin heads were tacked to the shell, so they could not be tuned as modern ones can.

Which long, narrow, tube-shaped drums extend a kit's range upward in pitch?

Octobans. Tama makes them in eight lengths, all the same narrow width, so each drum's pitch is set by how long its tube is.

What is the most common full-size drum kit configuration across pop, rock and jazz fusion?

The five-piece kit. Kits are named by counting only the drums, so the cymbals and other percussion come on top of the five.

Which stick grip, with an underhand left hand, came from side drums slung at an angle?

Traditional grip. Early jazz drummers came out of marching bands and kept the grip, which is why it is still seen more in jazz than in rock.

Which cymbal-making family firm has been in business since 1623?

Zildjian. The firm began in Constantinople, and a feud between two brothers of the family later led Robert Zildjian to leave and start making rival Sabian cymbals in 1981.

Which large cymbal does a drummer chiefly use to keep a steady rhythm pattern going?

The ride. In the 1940s bebop drummer Kenny Clarke moved timekeeping up to it, which freed the bass drum for the surprise accents known as 'dropping bombs'.

Which drummer for The Who was notorious for smashing his kit on stage?

Keith Moon. On American television in 1967 he had a stagehand load gunpowder into his bass drum for the finale of 'My Generation', and far more went in than planned.

What word does 'cymbal' ultimately come from?

Greek kymbē, meaning cup or bowl. It passed through Latin cymbalum, the same word that later gave English 'chime'.

Drumsticks are most commonly turned from which wood?

Hickory. The wood is hard, dense and shock-resistant, the same mix that makes it a favourite for tool handles.

What did drummers begin using in the 1910s as a quieter alternative to sticks?

Wire brushes. Sticks could overpower the other instruments in a band, so drummers swapped to brushes, a sound that became a hallmark of soft jazz playing.

What is a rimshot?

Striking the head and rim together with one stick. The 'ba-dum-tss' played after a joke is often called a rimshot too, but percussionists know that phrase as a sting.

Which small medieval drum, played alongside a pipe, is the ancestor of the modern side drum?

The tabor. One musician played both at once, fingering a three-hole pipe with one hand while beating the tabor with a stick in the other.

What is another common name for timpani?

Kettledrums. The name comes from their shape, a skin stretched over a metal bowl, and paired with trumpets they long served as emblems of royal power.

How are most modern timpani tuned quickly to precise pitches?

With a foot pedal. It tightens or slackens the whole head at once, where older timpani had a ring of hand screws to turn one by one.

In the mid-15th century, Hungarian envoys arrived at the French court with large timpani carried on what?

Horseback. The big paired drums had reached Europe from the Ottoman Turks by way of Hungary, and mounted drummers and trumpeters went on to become the pride of the cavalry.

The djembe is a rope-tuned goblet drum from which region?

West Africa. The djembe was little known elsewhere until Les Ballets Africains, the troupe founded by Guinea's Fodéba Keïta, took it on tour through Europe in the 1950s.

Which Japanese word, which at home means any drum, is used abroad for thunderous ensemble drumming?

Taiko. The ensemble style, called kumi-daiko in Japan, dates only from 1951, when jazz-trained drummer Daihachi Oguchi arranged an old piece for a whole group of drums.

Flamenco's cajón, a wooden box drum the player sits on, was borrowed from which country?

Peru. Flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía met the Afro-Peruvian box through percussionist Caitro Soto on a visit in the late 1970s and took it home to Spain, where he worked it into his own music.

The tabla has been the principal percussion instrument of which musical tradition since the 18th century?

Hindustani classical music. Western audiences met the tabla in the 1960s through Alla Rakha, the virtuoso who accompanied sitarist Ravi Shankar on stage.

Which Phil Collins hit is famous for the thunderous drum break that crashes in near its end?

In the Air Tonight. Its booming 'gated reverb' drum sound, shaped with engineer Hugh Padgham, became one of the signature effects of 1980s pop and rock.

What are the two drums of a pair of bongos called in Spanish?

Hembra (female) and macho (male). It is the larger, deeper drum that is called the female, and the smaller, higher one the male.

Which 2014 film follows a young jazz drummer pushed to breaking point by a ruthless conservatory teacher?

Whiplash. The title comes from a Hank Levy big-band chart, the piece on which the student first loses the tempo and has a chair hurled at him.

Which tall, barrel-shaped Cuban hand drums drive the rhythm of rumba?

Congas. They are built from staves like a barrel, and in rumba the high quinto takes the lead while the two lower drums hold the pattern.

The bodhrán, the Irish frame drum, is traditionally headed with the skin of which animal?

Goat. The player's free hand presses the inside of the goatskin to change its pitch, while the other strikes it with a short stick called a tipper.

The steelpan is the national instrument of which country?

Trinidad and Tobago. After African percussion was banned from Carnival in the 1880s, players switched to bamboo sticks and then to metal pans and lids, the forerunners of the steelpan.

What are full-size steelpans traditionally made from?

55-gallon oil drums. The barrels were left over from the islands' oil industry, and before them bands had made do with frying pans and dustbin lids.

Which body declared 11 August World Steelpan Day in 2023?

UN General Assembly. Its resolution said the steelpan promotes inclusive societies, sustainable communities and the creative economy, and invited the world to mark the day each year.

Which technique sustains a drum's sound by rubbing the head?

A thumb roll. On a tambourine the thumb is dragged around the skin so that it judders and sets the jingles rattling, and players moisten it or rub on beeswax to add friction.

What did ancient Chinese armies use their drums for?

Morale, marching pace and orders. At Changshao in 684 BC, Lu's adviser Cao Gui waited until Qi had drummed three times, saying courage peaks at the first beat and is spent by the third.

Which cymbals are usually the kit's strongest accent markers, hit for climaxes and vocal entries?

Crash. It gives a loud, sharp burst that is used for occasional accents, though in an orchestra a player may roll soft mallets on a suspended one to build a slow swell.

Which 1970s pop star began as a group's drummer before stepping out front to sing?

Karen Carpenter. She sang the Carpenters' early hits from behind her kit until her brother and their manager coaxed her out front, yet she always thought of herself as a 'drummer who sang'.

Which standard, agreed by rival makers in 1983, lets an electronic drum kit trigger another maker's sounds?

MIDI. Roland's founder and a Californian synth designer pushed their rivals to share one format, then proved it at a 1983 trade show by cabling a Sequential synth to a Roland.

Which Muppet drums for Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, usually chained to his kit by a collar?

Animal had two people behind him on The Muppet Show: Frank Oz worked the puppet while Ronnie Verrell played the actual drums.

Which Beach Boys drummer was the only member of the group who actually surfed?

Dennis Wilson was the one who urged his brother Brian to write about the sport, which gave the Beach Boys their first local hit, 'Surfin''.

Which band took its name from the surnames of its drummer and its bass player?

Fleetwood Mac was named for Mick Fleetwood and John McVie before McVie had even joined: the name was meant to entice him away from John Mayall's band.

Rick Allen kept drumming for which British rock band after losing his left arm in a road accident?

Def Leppard kept Allen, who came back on a specially designed electronic set that lets his left foot trigger the parts his arm once played.

Which instrument does Will Ferrell overplay in a Saturday Night Live sketch about Blue Öyster Cult?

Cowbell really is on the band's '(Don't Fear) The Reaper', though the other instruments largely drown it out, which is what set Ferrell wondering about the man who played it.

Which Queen stadium anthem has no drums at all on its studio recording, only stomps and handclaps?

We Will Rock You got its beat from the band stomping on a drum riser at Wessex Studios and clapping, overdubbed many times to sound like a crowd.

What do drummers call the padded, height-adjustable stool they sit on behind the drums?

A throne can even be wired up: some drummers fit a vibrating 'throne thumper' so that they feel the bass drum through the seat instead of turning the stage monitors up.

Which famous drummer narrated the first two series of the children's show Thomas & Friends?

Ringo Starr, who took over the Beatles' drum stool from Pete Best in 1962, later played Mr. Conductor in the American spin-off Shining Time Station.

Which band began when drummer Larry Mullen Jr. posted a notice on his Dublin school's board in 1976?

U2 first practised in Mullen's kitchen, and he later joked that it was The Larry Mullen Band for about ten minutes, until Bono walked in.

Which orchestral work has one drummer repeat the same short rhythm from its first bar to its last?

Boléro repeats that drum figure 169 times while the orchestra swells above it, and Ravel wrote it as a ballet score for the dancer Ida Rubinstein.

Which Led Zeppelin drummer stretched his 'Moby Dick' solo to as long as 30 minutes in concert?

John Bonham often put his sticks down partway through and played the drums and cymbals with his bare hands, while the rest of the band left the stage.

Neil Peart was the drummer and main lyricist of which Canadian progressive rock trio?

Rush hired Peart in 1974, two weeks before its first US tour, and he was soon writing nearly all the words as well as several travel memoirs of his own.

Which Rolling Stones drummer trained as a graphic artist and drew comic strips for a record sleeve?

Charlie Watts worked as a graphic designer for an advertising company after art school, drumming in coffee shops and clubs on the side.

Which Cream drummer's five-minute 'Toad' is one of the earliest recorded drum solos in rock?

Ginger Baker cut the instrumental for the 1966 debut album Fresh Cream, and it set the mould for the long rock drum solo that followed.

Which jazz drummer, a vaudeville performer at 18 months old, never learned to read sheet music?

Buddy Rich had his drum roadie play each new part in rehearsal while he listened, then performed it from memory.

Whose solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 'Sing, Sing, Sing' turned the drummer into a star soloist?

Gene Krupa's interludes on that record were the first extended drum solos to be recorded commercially, lifting the drummer from accompanist to solo voice.

Which drummer formed a Detroit garage-rock duo in 1997, the same year she first played the drums?

Meg White learned on her bandmate Jack's kit, and the duo's 'Seven Nation Army' went on to become a sports anthem.

Which drummer and Prince collaborator reached the US top ten in 1984 with 'The Glamorous Life'?

Sheila E. is the daughter of the percussionist Pete Escovedo, and she had already toured with Marvin Gaye before her own single took off.

Which Danish-born drummer moved to California to train at tennis and instead co-founded Metallica?

Lars Ulrich is the son and grandson of tennis players, and he met James Hetfield by placing an advertisement in a paper called The Recycler.

Which Queen drummer wrote 'Radio Ga Ga' after his young son said something like it in the car?

Roger Taylor's son had been reacting to a song he disliked on the radio, and the hit it inspired reached number one in 19 countries.

Which Eagles drummer sang the lead vocal on 'Hotel California' and 'Desperado'?

Don Henley met Glenn Frey when both were recruited for Linda Ronstadt's backup band in 1971, and the Eagles grew out of that tour.

Which Arkansas-born drummer sang lead on The Band's 'The Weight' and 'Up on Cripple Creek'?

Levon Helm also had a film career, playing Loretta Lynn's father in the 1980 biopic Coal Miner's Daughter.

Which drummer founded The Police in 1977 and later scored the films Wall Street and Rumble Fish?

Stewart Copeland earned a Golden Globe nomination for one of those scores, and went on to write the music for the Spyro the Dragon video games.

Which Roots drummer, on Jimmy Fallon's late-night shows from 2009, directed Summer of Soul?

Questlove made the film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival as his directing debut, and his stage name is often styled with a question mark in place of the Q.

Which drummer is the only member of Pink Floyd to appear on every one of the band's albums?

Nick Mason is also a keen car collector, and in 1977 he spent his album earnings on one of only 36 Ferrari 250 GTOs ever built.

Which drummer led the Jazz Messengers for 35 years, making the band an incubator for young talent?

Art Blakey kept hiring new young players, and Wayne Shorter, Benny Golson, Freddie Hubbard and Wynton Marsalis all passed through his band on the way up.

Which Mötley Crüe drummer played concert solos on a kit that revolved, spun or hung above the crowd?

Tommy Lee co-founded the band and also found its singer, suggesting Vince Neil, whom he had known casually in high school.

Which Wrecking Crew session drummer played the widely imitated beat on the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby'?

Hal Blaine gave the Wrecking Crew its nickname himself, and his drumming is heard on 40 singles that reached number one in the US.

Which singer got her start as a teenager in 1935 with the orchestra of drummer Chick Webb?

Ella Fitzgerald went on to lead the band herself after Webb's death, until she left for a solo career in 1942.

Clyde Stubblefield improvised the much-sampled 'Funky Drummer' break in 1969 for which singer?

James Brown's record was sampled by Public Enemy, Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, yet Stubblefield had no songwriter credit and received no royalties for any of it.

Which surf instrumental by the Surfaris, written as a B-side, is best remembered for its drum solo?

Wipe Out was written almost on the spot in the studio, and it opens with a cracking noise meant to imitate a surfboard breaking.

Which seven-second drum solo from a Winstons B-side became one of music's most sampled recordings?

The Amen break was played by Gregory Coleman and has turned up in thousands of tracks, yet the Winstons received no royalties for the sample.

Which 17-minute rock track of 1968, filling an album side, has a Ron Bushy drum solo in the middle?

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida got its title, by drummer Ron Bushy's account, when he wrote down what his slurring bandmate sang, a garbled phrase about the Garden of Eden.

Jeff Porcaro's half-time shuffle on 'Rosanna' drove a 1982 hit for which band that he co-founded?

Toto was built by busy session players, and Porcaro himself also drummed on four tracks of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

What name is given to the accents on beats two and four that drive most rock and pop drumming?

The backbeat was emphasised all the way through Wynonie Harris's 'Good Rockin' Tonight' in 1948, one of the early records to lean on it from start to finish.

What do drummers call the very soft strokes played between the main beats of a groove?

Ghost notes are meant to sit underneath the main beat, felt more than heard, and they are a distinguishing feature of R&B drumming.

Which rapid-fire drum pattern, named by Napalm Death's drummer, is a hallmark of extreme metal?

Blast beat drumming came out of hardcore punk and grindcore, and prog-rock drummers were playing early versions of it as far back as 1970.

What do drummers call the metronome pulse fed to their headphones to keep a recording in time?

A click track may first have been used by Walt Disney's team, who needed the music for their early cartoons to land exactly on the action.

Which disco-era rhythm has the bass drum sounding on every beat of the bar?

Four-on-the-floor was popularised by 1970s disco, where the drummer plays it with one foot on the bass drum pedal, down at floor level.

Which 1980s drum effect emerged when Phil Collins drummed without cymbals on a Peter Gabriel album?

Gated reverb turned up, by engineer Hugh Padgham's account, when a talkback microphone hanging over the drums was left open during the session.

Which Roland drum machine flopped on its 1980 launch but became a cornerstone of hip-hop?

TR-808 production stopped after about 12,000 units, but its deep, booming bass drum won a cult following among musicians who bought it cheaply second-hand.

Which big-band drummer is credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums, an idea he had at 15?

Louie Bellson came up with the set-up in a high school art class, then went on to drum for Benny Goodman, Harry James and Duke Ellington.

Whose Symphony No. 103 is nicknamed the 'Drumroll' for the long timpani roll that opens it?

Haydn did not choose the nickname himself, and he wrote the symphony in London over the winter of 1794-95, on the second of his two visits to England.

Which bass drum, created for Rio de Janeiro's first samba school, drives the rhythm of carnival?

Surdo players in a Rio carnival band split into three parts, each on a drum of a different size, and the pattern they make between them drives the samba.

Which word for a military drum display began as a Dutch signal to innkeepers to shut their taps?

Tattoo comes from the Dutch 'tap toe': drummers went through garrison towns each evening to send soldiers back to barracks. The ink kind is an unrelated word.

Which huge Northern Irish parade drum is one of the loudest acoustic instruments in the world?

Lambeg drums frequently pass 120 decibels, and they are carried in the street parades held around the Twelfth of July.

Which Boston Symphony timpanist whittled his own sticks and founded a drumstick company in 1963?

Vic Firth meant the sticks only for his own use, but his students took to them and retailers followed, while he stayed the orchestra's principal timpanist until 2002.

Which British company made the first fully electronic drum set, with its famous hexagonal pads?

Simmons tried triangles and bat-wing shapes before settling on the hexagon, and Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were among the 1980s bands that used the pads.

In which Oscar-winning film does Riz Ahmed play a touring drummer who starts to lose his hearing?

Sound of Metal won the Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Film Editing, and it earned Ahmed a nomination for Best Actor.

Which Best Picture winner has an original score made up of solo jazz drumming by Antonio Sánchez?

Birdman director Alejandro G. Iñárritu asked his friend Sánchez for a score using only drums, a proposal the drummer found scary because he had nothing to model it on.