Snare Position

beastdrummagirl

Senior Member
iight. I'm curious. Where do you all position your snare in your kit? Do you prefer it to be straight or kinda tilted to a certain side? When you play, do you use more than one snare?

I like my snare positioned like this:
Snare Position.jpg
what about ya'll?
 
This should be in the "your place" or "off topic lounge", but mine is placed just like yours. I use my main snare (Pork Pie 13x7 Vented Little Squealer) along with a piccolo snare about 1 foot to the left of my hats (No name 13x4). They are both totally flat.
 
I play trad grip mostly.
I slant my snare slightly down away from me and also slightly down on the right side.
This allows my left hand to work better.
It also allows for easy rim shots when I flip the left stick to matched grip

I very seldom use a side snare.

I notice that most matched grip drummers that sit behind my kit don't like the way that I position the snare.
 

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Fairly high and slightly tilted toward me.

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My snare is completely flat. I sit with my thighs parallell to the ground when I raise my heels, and the snare is raised just above the height of my thighs, so that I can comfortably hit rimshots without hitting my legs, even when my legs are at their highest position.

My floor toms are the same height as my snare, and also mounted flat. My rack tom constantly changes angle based on my mood of the day, but it's generally somewhere between almost flat (which you can kind of see in the picture in my signature) and somewhat angled towards me.
 
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usually same here as most...flat, level same height as floor tom.... rim shots and cross sticking are easier... as far as my entire set-up I recently started flattening everything up and sitting higher on my throne and leveling my 8",10" 12" and 13" with 16" floor a step down level with snare it makes a semi-circle around me with snare in middle...if you draw an imaginary line thru the center of my 8" tom my snare and my 16" floor all the center of drums line up. This is a more compact way of setting my drums up since getting a rack and I really like it.
 
That's an interesting issue, because snare positioning has always been my biggest problem (as for many other drummers I guess) in the global drumset setup (not to speak about distance between throne and snare / kit...)!

As we all perfectly know, also in the drumming world there are trends (gear, sound, and setups). Does anybody remember how high cymbals were positioned during the eighties? or how tilted were toms? And currently almost everybody plays relatively "flat" kits with relatively low cymbals. Obviously there are very good reasons behind this type of setup, but I believe that it is also a "fashionable" trend which will soon or later be replaced by another one (by the way: I cannot believe that the setups used by some players - with the rack tom totally flat and almost on the left of the snare - are comfortable to play!).

Concerning the snare positioning, I admit that I did follow a couple of dominating trends: almost flat during the late seventies (yes, I am quite old ...), higher towards the rack toms during the eighties, once again quite flat during the nineties (when I almost quit playing) and slightly tilted right now (I mean: similar to the setup used by most jazz players in the past and also more recently). In fact, I never felt really comfortable with the chosen positioning, and I am still struggling to find the best one. Actually, I now know that there will never be a "best one", and that I will continue to search for it ... Getting older also has some (minor) advantage ...
 
I have also gone the route of making many changes to my set up over the years.
As I have gotten older I have chosen what works for me and to heck with what others say and drum fashion.
 
I have my snare tilted toward me just a little.

It looks almost flat, but I can tell the difference between totally flat and the slight tilt I have on it now.

I just have it where it's comfortable.

Snare and floor toms are even in height, and the ft's are flat.

It's funny, because I had my stuff flat and low way before it was "fashionable" (way back in 1990).
A flat positioning has been becoming the common thing for a little while, and now I'm tilting my tom more than I have in probably 15 years.
My cymbals are higher too. About 3" higher than I've had them for the last 3-4 years.

It's just what's comfortable and working for the stuff I'm playing right now.
 
Snare tilted away from you= Positive lean.

Stick is propelled forward to toms/cymbals.



Towards you= Negative lean.

Stick bounces at you. This negative force must be stopped b/f forward motion to toms/cymbals can be realized.
 
I've had my snares positioned basically the same since my dad started teaching me almost fifty years ago. It's usually tilted just slightly away from me. It's very comfortable playing into the snare and makes left and right handed rim shots a breeze. I find it very uncomfortable trying to play a snare drum that's tilted towards me.

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Dennis
 
Snare is tilted between 5 and 10 degrees toward me.

I play matched grip.
 
As close as I can get it to parallel to the ground. I sit higher than most people would, mostly because I have a 22" bass. My snare sits slightly level with the tops of my thighs.
 
I have it angled away from me so that the batter head is almost facing the audience...

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Just kidding. I use matched grip and have my main snare angled slightly towards me, but sitting rather high, since I do as well. My side snare is at the same height and general angle in case I have to trade them (as I do for a couple of songs), and my floor toms are at roughly the same angle. (Apologies for the hasty phone photo)
 

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I've had my snares positioned basically the same since my dad started teaching me almost fifty years ago. It's usually tilted just slightly away from me. It's very comfortable playing into the snare and makes left and right handed rim shots a breeze. I find it very uncomfortable trying to play a snare drum that's tilted towards me.

DSC_0577.jpg


DSC_0083-2.jpg


Dennis
Dennis, that's something we have in common, & for exactly the same reasons. Only difference is, I play matched. I was taught classical percussion on snare, & my teacher always had her snare tilted slightly away fom her. I just transferred that to kit when I took it up. Seems very natural, especially for a backbeat rimshot player like me. Was your dad into classical percussion by any chance?
 
A lot of you guys are sitting fairly high on your throne it seems...I sit as low as the throne will go
 
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