A three-piece drum set consists of a bass drum, a snare drum and one tom, which is usually a deep sounding floor tom. Three-piece kits were often used in the 50s and 60s for doo-wop and early forays into rock and roll, as well as country music from the same period due to many country beats being heavily reliant on the snare and hi-hat.
Advantages of a three-piece kit are that they’re simple to transport and maintain. They also force a drummer to focus on doing the simple things by preventing the opportunity to bring in over the top fills.
Although the most popular configuration of a three-piece kit is a bass drum, snare and floor tom, some musicians choose to swap out the floor tom for a high tom. Others, such as the The Jesus and Mary Chain, have even created albums with just a floor tom and snare, and no bass drum at all.
Four-piece kit