A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. It is used in orchestral music, marching music, and throughout 20th century popular music as a component of the drum set.
In popular music, the bass drum is used to mark time. In marches it is used to project tempo (marching bands historically march to the beat of the bass). A basic beat for rock and roll has the bass drum played on the first and third beats of a bar of common time, with the snare drum on the second and fourth beats, called "back beats". In jazz, the bass drum can vary from almost entirely being a timekeeping medium to being a melodic voice in conjuntion with the other parts of the set. In classical music, the bass drum often punctuates a musical impact, although it has other valid uses..
An orchestral bass drum is quite large, about 36" in diameter, and is played with one or sometimes two large, padded mallets. Usually the right hand plays the drum and the left hand muffles it. When played with both mallets, a knee or forearm can be used for damping.
In a drum kit, the bass drum is much smaller, most commonly 20" or 22" but sizes from 16" to 24" are quite normal, 26" is not unusual in a big band, and extremes both larger and smaller are sometimes seen. It is usually more heavily muffled than the classical drum. It is played using a pedal operated mallet, which a right-handed drummer will conventionally operate with the right foot. A pedal-operated bass drum is often called a kick drum.
In some forms of jazz, rock, hardcore punk and many forms of heavy metal music, particularly thrash metal, power metal, black metal and death metal, two bass drum pedals are used, one operated by each foot. Originally two tuned bass drums were used for this, but a double pedal on the same drum using an extension mechanism (see illustration) is now more common. Although a double pedal will help conserve space, drum resonance is affected by having two beaters playing one drum which is why many drummers will opt for the classic two bass drum setup. Some drummers have also experimented with two different bass drum tunings, sometimes combining this with double beaters so as to have more than two pedals. With two feet playing bass drum, many of the techniques of snare drum playing (such as rudiments and rolls) can be performed on the bass. Double bass drum techniques were pioneered by Louie Bellson in the 1950s and popularised in the 1960s by Ginger Baker of Cream and Keith Moon of the Who. In certain types of metal, the drummer plays a constant stream of rapid-fire notes on the bass drum, and the ability to play evenly at extremely high tempos is prized (as exemplified by Canadian band Eudoxis whose bass drums measured six feet in length).
Some metal bands have turned to using triggers, although this practice is greatly frowned upon by fans or drummers that do not understand that the trigger is merely a sensor that produces a certain sound assigned from a sound module once the head has been struck by the drummer's foot or stick. It does not make a player faster or slower, and if anything, it forces the drummer to actually play more precisely as mistakes are way more easy to discern. There are various reasons why triggers are advantageous; they are easy to maintain and one can always have the desired sound at any time, and they are almost essential if somebody plays doublekick, for it is impossible to tune two bass drums to the same note, since no drum is ever identical as the other (not even in case of same brand, model and dimensions), which is also the reason why many players prefer using a double pedal instead. Whether the drum is struck softly or heavily, the signal produced by the transducer will always be at a constant volume. Whilst in some cases this is desirable in a death metal band, where the use of dynamics is less needed, it is not in a different setting such as jazz or fusion music. Many bands (such as the Australians The Berzerker) use drum machines to obtain impossible bass drum speeds for human legs (although they actually use a drummer in a live situation), but this practice is not well received by fans and musicians who consider it cheating.
The most common method of doublekick playing is a "heel-up" technique: the pedals are struck with the ball of the feet using force primarily from the thigh as opposed to the ankles when using the "heel-down" technique. Most drummers play single strokes, although there are many who are also capable of playing doubles or paradiddles.
A more difficult method is the "heel and toe" technique: the foot is suspended above the footboard of the pedal and the first note is played with the heel. The foot snaps up, the heel comes off the footboard, and the toes come down for a second stroke. This method is much more difficult and tiring than running. However, once mastered it allows the player to lay down very rapid rolls on the bass drum. Noted players include Derek Roddy, Mike Justian, Nicholas Barker, Tim Waterson (who holds the current world record), Danny Carey and Flo Mounier. The technique is commonly used in death metal and other extreme forms of music, but there are musicians such as Thomas Lang or Virgil Donati that employ it for various styles and are also capable of performing impressively complicated solos on top of an ostinato bassdrum pattern. Lang has actually mastered the "heel and toe" to the extent that he is also able to play dynamically with the bassdrum and to perform all kinds of rudimental stuff with his feet.
Many drummers use a drop-clutch mechanism in order to disengage the top hi-hat and free both feet while double bass playing. This results in the hi-hat producing a closed sound until the hi-hat foot is available. The mechanism is disabled by fully pressing on the hi-hat pedal again. Another solution to produce close hi-hat sounds is by mounting an X-hat on the kit, thus leaving the main hi-hat for the open sounds.
Marching bass drums
A unique musical ensemble consisting of graduated pitch marching bass drums is usually found in marching bands and drum and bugle corps. A bass line typically consists of four to six tuned bass drums, although variations do occur. Smaller lines are not uncommon in high school marching bands, and huge basslines of at least 16 musicians have been seen.
The drums typically are between 18" and 32" in diameter, but some groups have used bass drums as small as 14" and larger than 36". Unlike the other drums in a drumline, the bass drums are generally mounted sideways: the two drumheads don't point up and down, but left and right. As a result, bass drums are played with a different technique than other drums in the line.
The drums are tuned such that the largest will play the lowest note, the closest smaller one will play a higher note, and so on, with the smallest drum playing the highest note. This, combined with the sound produced by all of the drums being stuck at once (a unison note) allows the writer at least 6 different sounds with which to work, in the case of the standard 5 drum group. The bass drum ensemble can be very important for a group: they typically provide impact, melody, and tempo due to the very "cutting" nature of the sound of the instruments.
Tonal bass drums are tuned higher than kick drums or orchestral bass drums so complex rudimental passages can be heard clearly. Each player usually carries one drum, though in rare cases players carry two or three smaller drums at once. Skilled bass drum lines can execute complex linear passages so convincingly that it sounds like the entire bass drum part is being played by a single musician.