Floor Tom on the Left

PlayTheSong

Senior Member
Pardon my ignorance, please. I can see why it might be nice to have a second snare, and I understand placing it left of the hi-hat, but I'm puzzled by the placement of a second or third floor tom on the left side as well.

When does that come in useful?

Thanks
 
Pardon my ignorance, please. I can see why it might be nice to have a second snare, and I understand placing it left of the hi-hat, but I'm puzzled by the placement of a second or third floor tom on the left side as well.

When does that come in useful?

Thanks

Putting a floor tom on the left side isn't all that extreme. A pretty conservative mod, if you can even cal lit that,as people do all sorts of things.

For someone that pretty much just does that all time just look at Weckl.

A couple of reasons for the traditionalist:
- break away from ruts. Open new possibilities. Sort of like switching the racktoms around or whatever...
- access to the sound when working the hats.
- avoid stretching the kit too far back for comfort.

It's just another drum. Some like to have a higher pitched snare on the left, some a lower, what makes a floor tom so different?
 
I can think of a couple reasons.

You can do patterns with the non dominant hand on a low tom so you don't have to change up your coordination too much.

You don't have to twist like a yogi if one is on the other side of the snare.

But most of all it's because Papa Jo did it and he was plain old cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3QFNNk3tgI
 
Several years ago when I was having some pretty bad back pain, I did this. Now, I really like it. It kept me from having to twist so much. I tried all kinds of different positions to have them both on the right side, but nothing felt right. Once I moved one of the floor toms to the left, it felt pretty natural after a few weeks.

photobucket-4685-1400502319386_zpsd48dbe9e.jpg
 
Thanks for the illuminating explanations. Although it would be awkward/impossible to use this left floor tom in any descending fill, I can see the creative possibilities.
 
Thanks for the illuminating explanations. Although it would be awkward/impossible to use this left floor tom in any descending fill, I can see the creative possibilities.

Check out Mangini. He moves from right floor to left floor so fast everything is just a blur. But he is a freak of nature and I think most would not be able to pull off those types of movements. I certainly can't.
 
It can add to particular grooves.

A good example is Larry Mullen Jr on U2's mega hit "Pride (In the Name of Love)" where Larry plays the left side floor tom one 16th note after the snare. It would be really awkward to play that groove with the traditional left side floor on unless you played the entire song left hand lead (which is possible, but would likely affect the feel).
I lifted the same concept on this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwddaJ8Uk4g

Larry also used the left side floor on U2's hit "Desire" by playing the Bo Diddley beat divided between the floor tom on this left side and the floor tom on this right side. Could he play the same notes without the left side floor tom? Sure, but the song would feel different.

Pete Parada (now with the Offsping) played on an album by a band called "Engine" some years back. There was one little fill that set up the chorus on a particular song. It was subtle but pretty cool. I worked out the fill with the floor tom in the traditional position, and while it was the same notes, it didn't feel the same and sounded awkward instead of cool. I looked inside the CD cover at the liner notes, and there was picture of Pete in the studio with a 2nd floor tom on the left side. So I moved a floor tom to that position, and suddenly the same fill felt right and sounded cool. The notes were technically the same, but the feel completely changed by moving the floor tom.

That said, except for that one song, I don't find enough of use for a left side floor tom to keep one there.
 
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