Drums - Definition and Overview

For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation).

Drum carried by John Unger, Company B, 40th Regiment New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry Mozart Regiment, December 20, 1863

A drum is a percussion musical instrument, consisting of a membrane called a drumhead that is usually stretched taut over a cylindrical tube that is open at the other end. The membrane is struck, either with the hand or some other object like a drumstick, and the tube forms a resonating chamber for the resulting sound. A drummer is a person who plays the drums.

In most popular music and jazz, drums or drummer usually refer to a drum kit.

In the past, drums were used as a means of communication - see drum (communication).

Examples of drums:

• ashiko
• Basler drum
• bass drum
• bodhrán
• bongo drum
• boucarabou
• conga drums
• goblet drum
• davul
• dholak
• djembe
• djun-djun
• doyra
• khol
• log drum
• message drum
• monkey drum
• snare drum
• steel drum - not a membranophone, but referred to as a drum
• tabla
• tabor
• taiko
• talking drum
• tapan
• tenor drum
• timbales
• timpani
• tom-tom drum

In the Sachs-Hornbostel scheme of musical instrument classification, drums belong to the membranophone class.

See also:

• drum and bass
• drum kit
• drum machine
• musical instrument
• Percussive Arts Society

External links

• Drumtopia Drum News (http://www.drumtopia.com/) has drumming news, drum tab search and a directory of drum resources.
• CSE (http://www.cse.ogi.edu/Drum/) - The Drums and Percussion Page
• Drum Machine Museum (http://www.drummachine.com/)
• Synthtopia has information on the classic Roland TR-909 (http://www.synthtopia.com/synth_review/RolandTR-909.html) and Roland TR-808 (http://www.synthtopia.com/synth_review/RolandTR-808.html) drum machines.
• Fun stories involving drums (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mmbt/www/percussion/drum-tales.html)