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If Drums Are Planets Then Your Snare Is The Sun

Photo credit: chantrybee

Your snare is what gives life to the rest of your kit. Its the thing that all the other parts of your kit revolve around. Its what your drumming revolves around. And its also the thing that all your grooves, songs and bands revolve around too. Seriously. Your snare drum is that important and its critical that you get it set up right. So when your stool is set up and you've got your feet on the pedals, its time to set up your snare (Oh and I know the sun isn't actually a planet but hey, its still  a good title).

Your stand usually comes in 2 parts:

• Base
• Basket

What Your Snare Stand Does

The base is the support for the whole stand and the basket is what holds the snare drum itself. Its not too important how far you spread the feet of the stand. The farther apart they are, the more stable your snare will be. But wide feet will take up more space and will be harder to fit in between your pedals.

The basket also allows you to adjust the angle of your snare so when you set it up make sure that the basket can tilt towards and away from you. Set 1 arm of the basket pointing directly away from you and the other 2 pointing behind you to your right and left hand sides.

Fitting Onto The Stand

Loosen off the basket and put the snare in with the snare wire lever on the left hand side. This controls the wires on the bottom of the drum and needs to be pulled tight so that the snares are touching the bottom head. These wires are what set your snare apart from your toms and give it its distinctive "crack" sound. You need to be able to reach it easily.

Hopefully you've loosened the basket so much that the snare doesn't fit tight. That's good. Just get the snare drum fitting in the 2 bottom arms and then tighten the basket until the top arm is touching the snare. Don't tighten too much or you will crush your snare and bend the bottom out of shape.

Snare Drum Position

Put your snare stand in between your pedals so that it is sitting straight in front of you.

You're going to be playing this drum a lot so make sure you can reach it comfortably.

Everyone's a different size and shape so its hard to say what height it should sit at. Try starting off so that the centre is at the same height as your elbows. Then adjust up or down from there.

If your snare is too low, rim shots will be impossible. Too high and it will be very difficult to hit.

What's The Right Angle?

The angle of your snare will also affect a lot things just like the height does. Too angled towards you and rim shots will be impossible. If its flat or too angled away from you, you will hit only the rim (which hurts). So try setting it so that its slightly angled towards you. Like the height, you can then adjust the angle up or down from there.

It may take a while but keep experimenting and you'll find what works best for you

Question of the day: I've been thinking about video games today and I'm trying to think what game is as important to the gaming world as the snare drum is to drumming. So it forces me to ask an important question. If drums were video games, what would your snare be?

Alex

PS: My vote? Half-life 2.

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