A full bass drum is the first thing I leave at home when the room gets small. Plenty of drummers covered the low end this way for years, long before the big front-facing kick became standard on every stage. Here is the setup.
When the technique earns its keep
A 22-inch kick is too much drum for a good share of the work I take. Coffeehouses, sit-down theaters, churches, a writers’ night in the round. A full bass drum overpowers those rooms before the band plays a note, and the engineer will spend his evening pulling it back down. The practical side counts too. On a fly date, I can’t check a bass drum without a steep baggage fee, and a borrowed one is always a gamble. The sideways kick answers both worries. It packs flat and assembles in under a minute. The bottom of the hand stays at a level the band can play over comfortably.
A theater run years ago sold me on it. The house engineer kept asking for a quieter kick, night after night, until I left mine at home for good. The sideways rig replaced it and stayed.
Why you rarely see it now
The decline had nothing to do with sound. A large front-facing bass drum became the standard image of a drummer. A logo head advertises the band from the rear of the hall. Double pedals arrived, and players wanted two beaters across one wide drum. A floor tom on its side offers the audience no logo and no second pedal mount. The method drifted out of fashion, and a younger crowd of drummers grew up without it.
Building it
Start with a floor tom. A 14, 16, or 18 will each serve, though a deeper shell yields a rounder note. Lay it flat. One head faces the floor, the other faces up.
The head against the floor does the part most players overlook. Once the drum settles, the floor becomes a second resonating surface. Low frequencies that would scatter into the room instead reflect off the boards and return toward you. A small drum will sound considerably larger than its diameter suggests.
You’ll play the top head, and two approaches both serve well.
- Mount a bass drum pedal on a short riser or a solid wooden box, square to the head so the beater strikes straight down. Several of the older cocktail-kit pedals were built for exactly this.
- Skip the pedal and play the head by hand with a soft mallet. I choose this more often than not. A mallet reaches a span of dynamics no pedal can match, and on a quiet stage those dynamics are the whole reason for the gig.
A last choice will affect the outcome. A floor tom with both heads fitted delivers the floor-coupling in full. A tom with only a batter head still produces the effect, though the note turns drier and shorter. Given the option, I’ll take a two-headed drum every time.
Tuning it low
Tension governs the bottom end.
Bring the top head down until it rests just above the wrinkle. You want a loose, fat note with a little give under the beater. Set the floor-side head slightly higher than the top, tight enough to speak cleanly without choking. Tune toward a pitch that settles beneath the band. A note lower than the bass player’s open string puts you close.
A drum tuned this way and coupled to the floor delivers more weight than its size promises. Drummers leaned on that for decades, which is why the approach lasted.
Beater, damping, and keeping it still
Small details separate a setup with genuine bottom from one that only thuds.
Reach for a felt beater or a soft mallet. Wood against a tom shell produces a clacky attack, and the shell was never built to absorb that strike.
Keep the stroke square. The beater should meet the head straight up and down, exactly as it would against an upright kick. A glancing hit thins the note and weakens the attack.
Should the drum ring longer than the song allows, fold a hand towel and lay it near the edge of the top head. A little weight will tame the ring. Bury the head under a pillow, though, and the tone you wanted disappears.
A drum on a smooth floor tends to creep while you play. Pin it with a sandbag across the rim or a strip of rubber matting beneath the shell. Your own heel against the edge will do in a pinch.
Where it won’t serve you
The sideways kick has limits, and a couple of rooms will expose them fast.
A loud band on a wide stage covers it completely. You will not cut through electric guitars with a 16-inch tom on the floor, mic or no mic. Carry the full kit on those nights and spare yourself the trouble.
The floor beneath you matters more than anything. Carpet over a concrete slab comes close to ideal, since the slab anchors the drum and lets the low end open up. A hollow wooden riser rattles and rings against every stroke, so test one at soundcheck before you rely on it. If the platform resonates, move the drum onto solid ground instead.
Where to go from here
The Real Drumz page covers the floor toms and hand drums I keep for this kind of work, plus what to check before you buy one. The rest of the Tips and Tricks section follows the same spirit, including a method for recording a full kit with only a microphone or two. Try the sideways kick at one quiet gig, and you’ll pack differently for the next.