Drum Parts

Snare Drum

The snare drum seems to have descended from a medieval drum called the Tabor, which was a drum with a single gut snare strung across the bottom. It is a bit bigger than a medium tom and was first used in war, often played with a fife or pipe; the player would play both the fife and drum (see alsoPipe and tabor).Tabors were not always double headed and not all may have had snares. By the 15th century, the size of the snare drum increased and had a cylindrical shape. This simple drum with a simple snare became popular with the Swiss mercenary troops who used the fife and drum around the 15th-16th century, due to influence from the Ottoman Turk's use of the drum in their armies. The drum was made deeper and carried along the side. Further developments appeared in the 17th century, with the use of screws to hold down the snares, giving a brighter sound than the rattle of a loose snare. During the 18th century, the snare drum underwent changes that would improve its characteristic sound. Metal snares appeared in the 20th century. Today the snare drum is used in pop music and modern orchestral music.

In contemporary and/or pop and rock music, where the snare drum is used as a part of a drum set, most of the backbeats and accented notes on the snare drum are played as rim shots, due to the ever increasing demand for the typical sharp and high volume sound. In more Latin and/or Jazz music, notes may be played as rim clicks where the sticks back end is placed on the edge of the top head and forced downward on the rim to the opposite side, to keep a more smooth and syncopated beat. The so-called "ghost notes" are very light "filler notes" played in between the backbeats in genres like funk, rhythm and blues. The famous drum roll is produced by alternatively bouncing the sticks on the drum head striving for a controlled rebound. A similar effect can be obtained by playing alternated double strokes on the drum, creating a double stroke roll, or very fast single strokes, creating a single stroke roll. The snares are a fundamental ingredient to the drum roll as they help blend together distinct strokes that are therefore perceived as a single sustained sound. The snare drum is also a very good tool to use to get used to the drumset without playing a full drumset.

                     Construction

Snare drums may be made from various wood, metal, or acrylic materials. A typical diameter for snare drums is 14 inches (36 cm). Marching snare drums are deeper in size than snare drums normally used for orchestral or drum kit purposes, often measuring in at a foot long. Orchestral and drum setsnare drum shells are about 6 inches (15 cm) deep. Piccolo snare drums are even more shallow at about 3 inches (7.6 cm) deep. Soprano, popcorn, and firecracker snare drums have diameters as small as 8 inches (20 cm) and are often used for higher-pitched special effects.

Most snare drums are constructed in plies that are heat- and compression-moulded into a cylinder. Steam-bent shells consist of one ply of wood that is gradually rounded into a cylinder and glued at one seam. Reinforcement hoops are generally needed on the inside surface of the drum to keep it perfectly round. Segment shells are made of multiple stacks of segmented wood rings. The segments are glued together and rounded out by a lathe. Similarly, stave shells are constructed of vertically glued pieces of wood into a cylinder (much like a barrel) that is also rounded out by a lathe. Solid shells are constructed of one solid piece of hollowed wood.

The Heads or skins consist of a batter head, which forms the playing surface on the top of the drum and a resonant head on the bottom, the resonant head is usually much thinner than the batter head and as such is not beaten while playing. Most modern drums use plastic (Mylar) skins of around 10 mils thicknness, sometimes with multiple plys (usually two) of around 7 mils for the batter head, in addition tone control rings or dots can be manufactured on the skins either on the outer surface or the inner surface to control overtones and ringing when played and can be found positioned in the centre or close to the edge hoops or both. Resonant heads are usually only a few mils thick to enable them to respond with the movement of the batter head as it is played. Pipe band requirements have led to the developement of a kevlar based head to enable very high state of tuning to produce a very high pitched cracking snare sound.