Drums have been around for thousands of years, and they play an important role in many cultures around the world.
Different musicians and technology improvements developed the drums and drumming technique, so there is no single answer to who invented drumming.
However, the modern drum kits were assembled by American jazz drummers in the 1920s who started combining different drums and percussions.
Let’s find out more about the history of drums and the legends who developed drumming as we know it today.
When we think about drums, we usually imagine a drum kit as a collection of drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments used in music and taught in music schools.
However, drums had a long way to become the drum kit we know today.
The first drums we know about, dating to 5500 BC, were made of alligator skin and were found in China.
Drums were used in religious events and cultural gatherings in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, according to iconography.
The first snare drums were developed around 1300 AD, and the cymbals originated from ancient China and Turkey in 1100 BC.
The bass drum first appeared in Europe around 1400 AD, while the first tom-toms were brought to the US in the second half of the 1800s.
Drums were mostly used in military and orchestral music settings as separate instruments throughout history.
Percussionists began integrating multiple drums into a set in the 1860s.
The first drum set occurred in the late nineteenth century, which led to the development of the modern drum kit we know today.
Drums are an important part of jazz music, so it’s no surprise that the jazz drummers were the first to assemble drum sets.
The modern drum kit was developed during the 1920s in New Orleans by jazz drummers.
They assembled a drum set using classical instruments, combining different drums, cymbals, and other percussions.
By the 1930s, drummers were already standardizing their kits.
Although the drum kits still varied by the size and number of drums/percussions, the five-piece drums became a norm.
The basic layout of a standard drum kit was consisted of:
The expansion of rock music in the 1960s led to the development of drum kits as they are today.
The development of technology led to the creation of electronic drums in the early 1970s, and many drummers have used them instead of an acoustic kit ever since.
As many musicians greatly influenced the development of the drums, it’s only fair to give them the place in the spotlight they deserve.
Read on to learn more about the legends who invented and revolutionized drumming.
Combining different drums and percussions into the singular set was not easy.
Many musicians developed drums and drumming, but here are the most “guilty” ones.
One of the inventions that greatly influenced the development of drum kits was the bass pedal.
Although some forms of bass pedal existed since the 1840s, the man who is considered the main developer of the bass pedal system was William Ludwig.
He also developed an early low-mounted high-hat.
William Ludwig was a percussionist from Austria who, together with his brother, established the Ludwig & Ludwig Co.
In 1909. they patented the first commercially successful bass drum pedal system, which enabled playing the bass drum while having free hands.
Jazz legend Louis Bellson was one of the first drummers to add a second bass drum to his setup.
He sketched out a double bass drum kit for an art class as a high-school kid in 1939 and later became the first and most famous double bass drummer.
Louie popularized the use of a double bass setup, paving the way for a new drumming style.
One of the people responsible for assembling the first drum sets was Baby Dodds, a jazz drummer from New Orleans.
He suggested that William Ludvig raise the low hats to make them easier to play.
That is how the modern hi-hat was created.
One of the people who discovered a way to play different drum and percussion parts together and thus invented the first drum kit was Dee Dee Chandler.
This jazz drummer from New Orleans was one of the first drummers to use a makeshift pedal to play the bass drum with his foot while playing snare with his hands.
Gene Krupa was the American jazz drummer who is considered as founding father of the modern drumset and one of the best drummers of all time.
He popularized drum sets by using a more powerful bass drum for greater emphasis.
Also, he was the first drummer to be recorded with a bass drum and the first to popularize the extended drum solo.
One more American jazz drummer who revolutionized drums was Remo Belli.
He created the Remo brand and manufactured and commercialized the first effective synthetic drumheads.
Animal hides were replaced with a durable, acoustical synthetic membrane which, besides saving many animals, revolutionized the production of drums.
The last person we will mention in this article is Graeme Edge, drummer of the English band The Moody Blues.
He created the first electronic drum in the early 1970s by Graeme Edge in collaboration with Sussex University Professor Brian Groves.
Electronic drums became a popular alternative to acoustic drums, and their development transformed drumming.
Drumming and drum kits weren’t invented by one person but by various musicians who developed the instrument and technique over the ages.
The modern drum kit was born in the twentieth century, and its forefathers were American jazz drummers such as Baby Dodds, Dee Dee Chandler, Gene Krupa, and many others.
If you are curious about other great musicians who developed drumming, check out our article about top drummers of all time.
We hope this brief history of drumming roused your passion for the drums and gave you a glimpse into the creation of the instrument we all adore.
Drums and percussion instruments, in general, have a crucial role in almost every genre of music. This importance has spanned continents and centuries, from the very early drums made from gourds to the electric drum kits of today. Read on for a full – but brief – history of percussion.
The Invention of Drums
This is largely debated as no one knows precisely when drums were first created, as the very concept of hitting something to create a beat is ancient. There are even members of the animal kingdom who have the instinct ingrained in them, and they use it as a form of communication. Take the Macaque monkeys as an example; they have been observed hitting objects to create a rhythm in an effort to assert dominance. Apes do the same thing by hitting their chests.
However, the earliest discoveries of man-made drums, which are somewhat akin to what we would expect of a drum, were found in Neolithic China. These ancient drums were made of animal hides and wood or clay and were likely used in rituals or for shamanic purposes.
A History of Drums Globally
Examples of ancient drums can be found worldwide, from Africa to Asia to the Middle East to Greece and Syria as well as China. Many ancient civilisations found a way to fashion a rudimentary frum from animal hides. Among the earliest examples of percussive instruments are idiophones made from mammoth bones that date back to 70,000 BC. Idiophones produce sound via a vibration of the entire instrument.
Some of the earliest iterations of what could be recognised as drums today have been seen in Mesopotamia and Egypt. They used frame drums which are composed of drumheads stretched over a frame which is not unlike the method still used today. The first emergence of the iconic five-piece drum kit can be traced back to the jazz scene in New Orleans in the early twentieth century.
A Timeline of Drum Use
The use of drums in ancient civilisations is a source of speculation, scholars can make educated guesses, but arguably no one can say for sure what use drums had for these cultures. It is likely that ancient drums had a more practical use than the drums of today. The earliest definitively known use of drums dates back to the medieval and renaissance period. At this time, drums were used for wars and battles. They kept the time of a marching battalion and sent messages across a battlefield.
This tradition continued into the 1800s as drums were still favoured by the military to send signals during wartime. For example, drummer boys in the American civil war were expected to learn dozens of different drum calls to relay messages to the troops in battle.
The 1900s saw the emergence of drum use for leisure into the mainstream. Although during this time, the budget for percussionists was exceedingly low, and so musicians were expected to play as many different percussion instruments as they could. This time saw the first manufacture of the drum pedal, which was extremely innovative. This invention freed up the percussionist to use both hands to play more instruments.
This newfound freedom for percussionists led to a lot of experimentation. They began to add more instruments to their sets. One such instrument that withstood this test was the hi-hat cymbals which remain as a standard for drum sets today.
As mentioned above, the jazz era led to the creation of the five-piece drum set, which was then widely adopted by musicians. However, it was rock ‘n’ roll that really began to popularise drums and drumming. This era’s work in popularising drums is what made drumming more accessible and more widespread through different musical genres.
Nowadays, drum set ups still look similar to those of the jazz musicians in the 1920’s except they are hooked up to amplifiers. Electric drums have seen a rise in popularity, although acoustic kits are still preferred for their sound and rebound. Drumming remains as popular as ever, with many musicians deciding to take it up. Although getting ample practice time is vital for those learning to play the drums is exceedingly difficult for learners. Having space to practice can be invaluable, especially if drumming at home isn’t feasible due to neighbours or even other inhabitants of your house. Pirate has studios and rehearsal spaces across several countries; if you need a rehearsal space, they will likely have one near you.
In Conclusion
The innovation of drumming and drum sets continues today, with musicians constantly modifying their sets and looking for new techniques and instruments. Drums, as we know them, are bound to continue to shift and morph as the needs and opinions of the audience change in the coming years. Musicians are often looking for newness, new instruments, new genre-bending sounds.