Is a drum used in a bass clef or a treble clef?

Answer 1

"A drum" has many meanings. For the sake of space, let's consider three drums:

-Bass drum (and cymbal)

-Snare drum

-Tympani

The bass drum is ordinarily notated on a bass clef staff, or a staff with a percussion 'clef'. In the first case, the F clef has its dots on either side of the fourth line up (as it is for other instruments which use it) and the bass drum is often notated in the bottom space (which would be A). This is no indication of the actual pitch of the Bass drum. The cymbal is often notated on one of the upper spaces. Noteheads are used for bass strikes while it is customary to use an X as the 'notehead' for the cymbal. The second case involves a special clef, invented long after the others, which consists of two thin parallel lines which go from the second to the fourth line. Bass drum and cymbal will be notated much the same as with the Bass clef. These two instruments are often placed together on one staff because they tend to alternate (especially in marching band or popular music) and a cymbal can be mounted on the shell of the bass drum so that the player holds the bass drum beater in one hand and the second cymbal in the other, and alternates them.

The Snare drum is often notated on the third space up from the bottom, either between the Cymbal and Bass drum, on the Bass clef, or in the same manner with the percussion clef.

The tympani are notated on a bass clef staff, and the note heads are placed to indicate the expected pitch. This is especially important when the pedal tymnpani are used, with an indicator or without, and the notes for each kettledrum changes through the composition. An historical note: at one time the tympani were notated on the D and G lines, and tuned to approximately those notes. Then, they were played high and low without regard to the actual key of the piece, pitch of the bass/cello/tuba notes, and without a care for the current key of the piece. (i.e., a piece that starts in C would have C and G as the two bass notes, but the kettledrums would just bang along on D and G. This has changed significantly since the time that this was considered acceptable. There are two theories: one is that the tympanist would tune the drums to the tonic and fifth of the starting key (and perhaps, if he was quick, retune with the changes in key) and the other is that the drums were simply tuned to g and d and left that way all the time.