Drum kit with bass drum pedal

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Technology

Drum kit with bass drum pedal · Around 1900, an orchestra often had several percussionists: one for the bass drum, one for the snare drum and the cymbals. William F. Ludwig played in circus and theatre orchestras in Chicago and found the wooden pedals of his day too slow for ragtime. In 1909, he patented a pedal with a spring, which springs back by itself after every stroke. With his brother Theobald, he started a drum company. Now one musician played the bass drum with his foot and the rest with his hands. This is how the drum kit came about. Chick Webb and Gene Krupa made it, in swing, an instrument for spectacular solos.

Listening

• 
  Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) · Chick Webb, 1938
• 
  Drum Boogie · Gene Krupa and His Orchestra, 1941
• 
  Wipe Out · The Surfaris, 1963

In School of Rock

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• Genre Map · Technology^NL Map

See also

• Swing and big band
• Rock 'n' roll
• New Orleans jazz