Tom setup question

311Spider

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I was looking on Amazon at Dom Famularo's Open Handed Playing book, and in it has diagrams of the author's and other OH drummer's drum setups. What I find curious is how they all have the small rack toms to the right of the larger ones instead of to the left, which is most traditional. I've seen other drummers use this setup as well, most notably, Kenney Aranoff. So my question is why? What is the logic behind this kind of setup? I can see it being more convenient for certain fills, but if you're looking to roll through all the toms starting from the highest pitched to the lowest it would make things very difficult.
 
I was looking on Amazon at Dom Famularo's Open Handed Playing book, and in it has diagrams of the author's and other OH drummer's drum setups. What I find curious is how they all have the small rack toms to the right of the larger ones instead of to the left, which is most traditional. I've seen other drummers use this setup as well, most notably, Kenney Aranoff. So my question is why? What is the logic behind this kind of setup? I can see it being more convenient for certain fills, but if you're looking to roll through all the toms starting from the highest pitched to the lowest it would make things very difficult.

That's probably one (of many) reasons for such a setup. So that you don't do a descending tom fill--the same type of fill already done by thousands of other drummers. It makes a nice semi-melodic fill when you go around the kit 12"/10"/14".

I have read somwhere that Kenny Aronoff has his kit set up this way because he rarely used the 10" tom but is nice to have there when you need it. It also facilitates the placement of the right-side hi-hats.

I have the drum kit at my church set up like this. I just swapped the 10'' and 12'' toms. I usually play on a 4-piece at home, so it feels comfortable to have the 4-piece approach when I play at church. This way my 'default' rack tom is the 12"--I just don't like the sound of a 10". But it's still there for the other drummer who plays every couple months or so and for the occassional fill from me. I can count on one hand the times I've smacked the 10'' though.
 
I was looking on Amazon at Dom Famularo's Open Handed Playing book, and in it has diagrams of the author's and other OH drummer's drum setups. What I find curious is how they all have the small rack toms to the right of the larger ones instead of to the left, which is most traditional. I've seen other drummers use this setup as well, most notably, Kenney Aranoff. So my question is why? What is the logic behind this kind of setup? I can see it being more convenient for certain fills, but if you're looking to roll through all the toms starting from the highest pitched to the lowest it would make things very difficult.

Peep this...

http://www.domfamularo.com/dom-famularos-drum-setup.html
 
I think the most important part is the hi hat position since toms aren't played nearly as much as the hats. The open handed thing still has many limitations as many patterns will now need crossing the other direction.
 
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