Seat Height and Positioning in Relation to Drum Kit and Limb Positioning

Probably the most overlooked aspect of drumming is seating.  It's viewed by some as something that is quite  trivial, and that it doesn't deserve our full attention.  This can be a huge mistake, your seating and your drum positioning have the potential to make your progress more or less difficult. So, lets go through the basics. It should be noted that these will vary from player to player, since your body characteristics need to be considered, i.e. your height.

SEAT   HEIGHT

Positioning your seat/stool/throne is important, since it's our primary and sometimes only contact with the ground, so it needs to be stable and properly adjusted. Selecting a suitable stool height is easy.  First, sit down on your stool and examine your thighs.  If your thighs are sloping downward when seated, between say about 5 to 10 degrees, your about there.  You don't want to sit too low, to the point where your waist is bellow your knees.  This puts unnecessary stress on your legs, and lower back. Ultimately, it requires a lot more energy to maintain this position whilst playing as well. This can really effect double and single bass drummers alike.

SEAT   POSITION

Height is one issue, position is the other.  When we talk about seat positioning, we have to approach this in relation to how we position the different parts of the drum kit. It's a built up process, first we start with the bass drum, snare and hi hat. Then add any other drums or cymbals we want to use.
   
   The Bass Drum. - It's best not to sit too close.  A good rule of thumb is to position your seat back far enough so that your knee is bent at about 90 to 100 degrees (between right angles or a little over that), so that your shin is about vertical or slightly sloping forward (from the position of the bass drum pedal). This allows your ankle greater freedom of movement and thus gives you greater control over it. Once we're found a comfortable distance, we need to make sure we're sitting at a comfortable angle to our base drum as well. Generally, most drummers position the bass drum directly in front of them, so that their leg is straight out in front of them (the 12 o'clock position), because at first this would seem like the most natural thing to do, but we have to place our feet, based on how we would normally, comfortably sit (not at a drum kit). If you think about and do this, then your legs will probably come out in front of you, in opposite but parallel directions, at about a 10-20 degree angle from an imaginary line directly straight ahead of you (the 12 o'clock position). So, depending on where your legs naturally sit in front of you, you can determine where you bass drum will sit in relation to your drum stool. This will probably be somewhere from straight ahead of you (the 12 o'clock position) to about 25 degrees from directly ahead of you. 

  The Hi Hat - The same basic rules apply to the hi hat. Don't sit too close, so that your knee is at least a 90 degree angle, and try to position it slightly off center to your line of sight, so that your foot will fit over the hi hat pedal, at the point where your foot sits most naturally.
   
  The Snare Drum - The snare should fit directly into front of you, between you legs. It's height should be slightly above your knees, the exact place will of course vary depending on what you are most use to and comfortable with. This position lessens interference between your legs and hands while playing the snare drum.  Also, rather than having the snare perfectly flat, you might want to tilt it towards you slightly about 5-10 degrees, which might make it more accessible. 
   

  THE TOMS

The position of your toms should be a natural one, and not one based solely on appearance.  A common, useful approach for your mounted toms, is to have the first (high) one positioned a little to the left of the snare drum if possible, and tilted towards you at around 10/20 degrees. It's positioned about 4/5 inches higher than the snare drum and as close to the snare drum as possible. The other mounted toms could be positioned following the same approach, each one being slightly lower in height than the previous one, all being angled slightly towards you, and following a natural circular path where your drumstick tip (whilst you are holding the stick) lands in the centre of each drum, without you having to play using awkward and comfortable hand and arm positions.  I find this makes it easier to move down (around) the drums rapidly. 
  
The floor tom should be about the same height as your snare drum, tilted slightly towards you. Try not to locate it too far to your side where it takes a lot of movement to reach it, or too close to you, where it  impedes on the positioning of your leg.