Rope Drums
Catagory: history
The first free floaters?
Rope tension drums are the ancient ancestor of the modern marching and concert drums used in drumlines and pits today. They were the first ‘free floaters’.
Gut cord, made from the gastrointestinal tract of animals, was used to produce gut snares. Most modern snare drums use synthetic gut or metal wire rather than authentic gut cord.
A Rope Tension Drum’s construction consists of a shell, or body (available in various depths and diameters), two calfskin drumheads, two wooden hoops, a long cotton rope and (in the case of the snare drum) gut snares that are stretched across the bottom head by means of a snare strainer.
The head tension is created by the use of several yards of rope that are laced through the hoops (rims). When the leather ears are pulled down along the rope, tension is applied to the heads. (Modern drums use lug bolts to tighten tension rods which keep tension on their heads) The rope is laced tightly and tied off. Excess rope is tied, often braided, into a “drag rope” that hangs across the bottom of the drum.
The rope tension drum is also known as a Side Drum because of its position on the drummer’s left side when held on the shoulder by a sling. This position, along with the angle of the drum, brought about the use of traditional grip, still the preferred grip of drum corps.
Another name for this kind of drum is Field Drum, a name it earned from it’s use on the ‘field’ of battle. These drums were used as a communications device, relaying commands from officers to the troops through the use of beats or drum calls (drum Calls are made up of one or more of the 26 Standard Drum Rudiments.)
In some ways, these drums were ahead of their times. Today, free-floaters are the hot topic in snare drum design, rope tension drums employed free-floating technology. The drums truly had no hardware mounted to the shell. The rope tension drum concept has been revitalized by Premier’s new Hosbilt marching drums. The Hosbilt drums were designed by Craig Colquhoun.
A – Batter counter-hoop
B – Batter head (flesh hoop for skin heads)
C – Stay hoop or support hoop. This is found inside the shell at both the top and the bottom
D – Muffler. This is a strip of cloth that is stretched across the shell beneath the bater head 
E – Shell
F – Vent hole
G – Snare bed
H – Snare head (flesh hoop for skin heads
I – Snare gate
J – Snare counter-hoop
K – Snare strainer
L – Eye splice and pigtail
M – Drag rope
N – Butt plate (also called anchor or back plate)
O – Snares or gut
P – Carry hook, mounted on batter counter hoop
Q – “D” ring may be used in place of carry hook (P)
R – Ear (also called tug or lug)
S – Leg (also called foot), may be mounted on batter and snare counter-hoops
I have a rope drum that has been handed down through my family since the civil war. The heads are both torn but the shell looks real nice.
From David Meyers on Feb 11