leftypocket
Junior Member
Variety is the spice of life. I tend to switch things up every now and then just to have fun and Experiment..
The good thing about a 4pc kit is that it forces you to strip back what you play. If you haven't got a zillion toms to roll out on, you spend less time thinking about what drum to strike, and more time on timekeeping and how you address the drum itself. I regularly have times when I feel my playing becoming stagnant, or my hands feel slow, and I'll strip down to a 4pc with 2 crashes a ride a splash a china and a hihat. I still manage to play Rush songs with my band on it!
I can't help but think that if more drums were vitally important, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Bonham (ok 5 or more sometimes, but still!) would have had massive kits.... Never held them back!!!
4 drums can do just about anything unless you're one of those Bozzio-mental weirdos like me. Observe the last third of this video. Nothing more than 4 drums, yet very Spock's/Theater.
http://youtu.be/I5oXtFAThuw
The good thing about a 4pc kit is that it forces you to strip back what you play. If you haven't got a zillion toms to roll out on, you spend less time thinking about what drum to strike, and more time on timekeeping and how you address the drum itself. I regularly have times when I feel my playing becoming stagnant, or my hands feel slow, and I'll strip down to a 4pc with 2 crashes a ride a splash a china and a hihat. I still manage to play Rush songs with my band on it!
I have a 7 pc kit (3 up, 2 down) but usually on use 5 (2 up, 1 down) especially for big band gigs. Recently I have been using a 4 pc for a jazz combo (1 up, 1 down). The question is, where do most of you put the ride and how many crash/splash cymbals? With my 4 pc I put the rack tom on the left and the FT on the right. The ride goes between the FT and BD and I use two crash/splash on either side of the BD. Consensus?
try placing your 2 rack toms left of the bass drum, centered on the snare, this should free up room for your ride and still allow you the extra tom
I've only seen this on a couple of sets, but I think it looks extremely badass to have a double bass set with just two or three toms. Because it is hardly ever done, such a set will definitely stand out.
wha-BAM!
I started playing metal on a kit with 4 toms (3 rack 1 floor), when I got kicked out of my traditional/power metal band for trying to force them to be more death metal, I needed a change, easiest thing was to take a tom off. Joined a new-age thrash band, and after a year or two, decided to see if my drum parts could be arranged for a "4 piece" (actually 5 because I have two kicks), in case I was ever forced to play on a smaller kit. It was easy, and I actually preferred the parts for the smaller kit, so I went ahead and changed it. I much prefer being able to get my big 14" rack tom quite low between the kicks, and having my ride over the kick drum, and I feel more creative with fills and such.
So while my kit is actually a 6 piece due to the double kicks and my auxiliary snare (one dry, one ringy), the whole two tom concept really works for me in a metal context.