The snare is a shallow drum with crooked, wiggly wires attached to one of the heads. These crooked wires are called snares, and they are what give this drum both its name and its distinctive sound. The head that has the snares lying against it is a special extra thin head and should never be hit with your sticks. It should be treated as carefully as an egg. The snare drum uses a special stand to hold it, called, you guessed it, a snare stand. There are generally two different kinds of snare stands one on top of which the drum sits flat, and another kind that has an adjustment that allows the stand to grab the snare drum tight.



Whichever kind of stand you have, it is very important to pay attention to that fragile bottom head when putting the drum on the stand. It's very easy to break that head by setting the drum down on the stand and letting the little finger like parts of the stand accidentally poke through the head instead of resting against the outside of the drum, as they're supposed to. It's very important that you understand this part of setting up your snare drum. You will find a device on the side of your snare drum called a throw off. This is like a switch that can turn the sound of the snares on and off and can also control how tightly the snares hug the bottom head.

Feel free to turn the snares on and off and use the fine tuning adjuster to get an idea of how the throw off affects the sound of the snare drum. The fine tuning adjuster is turned like a knob, while the on off control is more like a switch. You generally want to find a medium setting where the snares aren't rattling around too loosely and aren't so tight against the bottom head that they sound choked.

Experimentation with the throw off will lead you to the sound that works best for you. Once you have the snare drum on its stand, it's time to put it in the kit. When you're sitting at your bass drum on the throne, your right foot should be on the bass drum pedal with the snare drum stand between your legs. (Take a moment to make sure that the height of the snare drum is right for you, it can be adjusted. The snare drum should generally be at the same height as your stomach.)

The hi hat stand and cymbals are probably the most complex piece of hardware on your drum kit. The bottom part of the hi hat stand looks like the other cymbal stands except it has a pedal as one of its parts.Set the bottom part upright and spread the legs out until the base of the pedal is sitting flat on the floor, and then tighten the legs in place. Now look for a thin metal rod that has a threaded end. There might be an odd looking contraption with a hand screw on the side of it attached to a long, thin rod. This contraption is called a clutch. If the clutch is not attached to the long, thin rod, locate it hi the pile of hardware.