In this lesson I’m going to show you what equipment you need to start learning to play the drums. In the beginning, there are really only 2 things you need.
Drum Sticks
The first thing you need is a pair of drum sticks. The cost of these can range from about $1.00 a pair to $10. If you’re really strapped for cash, a really cheap pair will get you by in the beginning. However, with drum sticks, as with most things in life, you tend to get what you pay for. Many times cheap sticks break easily. They are frequently warped so they aren’t straight. This makes it harder to learn to play smooth rolls, and other drum rudiments.
I have been using and recommending Vic Firth Dave Weckl Signature Drumsticks for many years. These are a medium weight stick, and work well for most styles of music. They have a great feel and balance to them, they’re a good choice when you’re just getting started.
You will find that there are many choices available when it comes to buying sticks. Don’t spend too much time worrying about this though. When you’re first getting started, it doesn’t make that much difference anyway. As your stick control and technique on the drums develop, you can experiment with other brands and sizes of sticks. In the beginning you just need a pair of medium weight drum-set sticks to get started.
Drum-Set
The second thing you need if you’re going to learn to play the drum-set, is a complete set to practice and play on. Telling you to buy a drum-set if you want to learn to play the drums may sound obvious. But many teachers tell their students to buy a snare drum or practice pad in the beginning just to make sure they like playing the drums, before they invest in an actual drum-set. I disagree with this logic for a number of reasons.
First of all, playing on a practice pad or snare drum is just not the same as playing on a full drum-set. You can’t play a rock beat without an actual drum-set. Most students will find playing on a practice pad or snare drum boring in the beginning. Therefore, they won’t work at really learning to play the drums, and will quickly give up. If you start playing on a drum-set from day one, you’ll probably enjoy the drums. There’s a much better chance that you’ll stick with it, and learn how to play.
The second thing is that if you actually invest in a drum-set, you’ll be much more likely to learn to play it, because you’ve already spent some money on the instrument.
The third reason is that most drum-sets come with a snare drum. So if you buy a snare drum first and later buy a complete drum-set, you’ll have an extra snare drum that you really don’t need.
The last reason is that drum-sets aren’t necessarily that expensive. You can purchase them in lots of different price ranges, so you don’t have to spend a lot on your first set anyway. If you decide to get rid of it, it’s pretty easy to sell it to another beginning drummer.
What Is A Basic Drum-Set?
Most basic drum-sets consist of 5 drums. These include a bass drum, snare drum, 2 mounted toms, and a floor tom. They include 3 or 4 cymbals. The cymbals consist of a ride and crash cymbal, or one crash/ride designed to be used as both. They also include a pair of hi-hat cymbals that are open and closed with your foot.
Basic drum-sets include hardware as well. This consists of a bass drum pedal, a hi-hat stand, and 1 or 2 cymbal stands to mount your ride and/or crash/ride cymbals on. They also come with tom mounts to mount your toms to the bass drum.
Example Of A Basic Drum-Set With A Crash/Ride Cymbal
A basic drum-set may also include a drum stool, also called a drum throne. This is very helpful, as you can then adjust the height at which you sit at the set. If you continue to play, you will eventually need a drum throne. However, in the very beginning, a folding chair or other chair you have available will work.
Buying A Drum-Set
When looking at drum-sets, just like drum sticks, you’ll find that there are many choices available in all different price ranges. As with drum sticks, you tend to get what you pay for. I recommend that you buy what you can afford. The most important thing is simply to have a set to practice on and get started, rather than waiting to save up your money to buy an expensive drum-set. The advantage to buying an inexpensive drum-set is that it’s usually easy to sell it when you’re ready for something better. There are always beginning drummers looking for an inexpensive set to get started on, so many times it’s actually easier to sell an inexpensive set than an expensive one.
I recommend buying a reputable brand if possible, simply because then you’ll know the set is decent quality. That doesn’t mean that nothing else will work, but if you buy an off brand drum-set, you don’t always know what you’re getting. It may fall apart very quickly. The name brand set will probably hold up better. It will also be easier to sell if you decide to upgrade to better set later. Some of the reputable brands include Pearl, DW, Yamaha, Ludwig, Tama, and Premier.
Inexpensive Drum-Sets For Beginning Players
PDP by DW CENTERstage 5-Piece Drum Set with Hardware and Cymbals Onyx
You can buy a PDP set at Guitar Center for complete with cymbals for $399.99. It’s backed by DW which is a very reputable company. Bear in mind that this is an entry level set. It comes with cheap cymbals, which don’t sound great. You can always replace these later with better cymbals though. It’s just an inexpensive way to get started.
Pearl Export Series
In my experience these are just really good sounding drum-sets. Several of my students have owned them. If they have good drum heads on them, and are tuned properly, they are good enough to perform on professionally. If you buy them new, they’re about $650 without cymbals. There are also lots of used Pearl Export Series on the market. I’ve seen them on Craigslist, complete with a set of cheap cymbals for $400.
Other Drum-Set Buying Tips
With used drum-sets, sometimes the drum heads, the part of the drum you hit, are very beat up. This is considered a disposable part of the drum. You can easily purchase some new heads to replace them. It’s not a big deal, although drum heads do cost a bit of money – anywhere between $10-$40 per head, depending on the size of the drum.
If you shop for used drum-sets on the internet, you might find used sets as low as $50, up to $5000 or more. The drums on the $50 set are probably made from very cheap wood. The cymbals are cheap metal and probably sound awful. The bass drum pedal probably doesn’t work very well. But if that’s really all you can afford right now, it will still get you started. When you get a little extra money, you can buy a better bass drum pedal. You can buy some good used cymbals to replace the tin cymbals that came with the set. Many drummers piece their sets together, eventually buying the exact crash cymbal they want, the throne they want, etc. So whatever equipment you get in the beginning, you’re not stuck with it forever.
Most of the drum-sets you’ll find are standard size sets. Usually this will include a 20″ or 22″ bass drum. I recommend these for most beginning drummers. These will work for any style of music.
For small children, under 10 years old, I’d recommend a junior drum-set. A standard size kit is hard for a child to play as they have a hard time reaching the pedals as well as the drums.
