The rock kick drum descends from drums Ottoman janissaries strapped to their chests
That thud on beats one and three of a rock song has a battlefield ancestor. The Turkish davul, a two-headed drum slung across the chest of Ottoman janissaries, spread with the empire's reach and eventually became the orchestra's biggest drum and, with a pedal added, the heartbeat of the drum kit.
A bass drum is a large cylinder, usually wider than it is deep, with a head at each end made of calfskin or plastic and tensioned by rods or cords. Three main kinds exist: the concert bass drum, the largest in the orchestra; the much smaller kick drum of a kit, struck by a pedal beater; and pitched marching drums, tuned to set notes and played in groups of three to six. Its main job is keeping time, and marching bands historically stepped to it.
The davul was played with a big wooden stick on one side and a thin rod on the other, producing a far deeper sound than earlier drums. Its strap made it easy to carry between battles, but it also drove folk dances and paired with shawms in ensembles called davul-zurnas. With Ottoman power reaching from Vienna to North Africa, the design travelled widely. As long drums spread across Europe, composers hunted for lower tones, and Britain introduced a deep single-headed gong drum 70 to 100 centimetres across in the 19th century. Smaller versions without a fixed pitch became the orchestral bass drum familiar today.
Composers use it freely, calling for rolls with paired mallets, strokes with timpani sticks or bare hands, and effects like thunder or earthquakes. It is always mounted, whether on a shoulder harness, a floor stand or a tilting cradle.
The kit version took shape when Sonor introduced a single pedal in 1900 and William F. Ludwig made one that worked properly in 1909. Kit drums usually measure 20 or 22 inches across. Many have a hole in the front head to shorten the sustain and admit a microphone, and drummers stuff pillows or blankets inside for a tighter thud. In the 1960s Keith Moon and Ginger Baker began using two bass drums, and double pedals now let one drum do the same. Electronic kick sounds underpin genres from footwork to South African gqom.
Source: Bass drum
