Drum Equipment
Getting Started
One practice pad, some sticks and a metronome is all you need to get started:
Drum Sticks - 5a lighter / 5b are heavier.
Hickory is a good choice
Hardwood (tend to be darker coloured) may cause wrist pain due to the transfer of vibrations into your bones.
Be aware that coloured/painted sticks will leave paint marks on drum heads.
Metronome - Try a metronome that isn’t on your phone help you focus.
I would definitely recommend Benny Greb’s Gap Click app too as it does things a conventional metronome can’t.
This is the classic.
These modern foam pads have become popular since the Covid-19 lockdowns,
This one has a metronome built-in.
Quiet Practice
The links below make up a quiet version of the examination standard configuration of drums.
Snare drum / High, Mid, and Low toms / A set of hi-hats / a ride cymbal and a crash cymbal.
Practice Pad Kit (snare, high, mid, low toms & bass drum inc. pedal)
Cymbal Stand x 2
Total = £399.95
Another Quiet Option
This will give you both a quiet(ish) kit to practice on and a full acoustic drum kit when you’d like to go gigging! woohoo!
Total = £581.97
Buying Drums & Saving ££
SEND THROUGH LINKS AND WE’LL HAPPILY REVIEW THEM FOR YOU
The cheapest way to get a drum kit is definitely second-hand. You can nearly always find a cheap set of drums on facebook marketplace or ebay. I’d recommend going for that and changing to mesh heads.
Well known manufacturers to look out for are:
Mapex, Ludwig, Premier, Natal, Pearl, DW, Sonor, Yamaha, Gretsch & Tama - if it’s got their name on, even their lowest level drums are usually very well made.
80% of the drums sound actually comes from the heads that you put on, so even a beaten up old thing from a reliable manufacturer with new heads will probably sound very good.
The quality manufacturers will use higher quality steel and other fixings that won’t warp, bend, crack or thread. There are a lot of screws on a drum kit and the poorer quality kits tend to have low quality metal work that fails… particularly if the kit travels a lot when gigging.
Consider…
Drum pedals generate a thud that famously turns downstairs neighbours into your worst enemies.
Foam Matting - Vibrational isolation to set your kit on.
Drum Mat - This will stop your drum kit from sliding around on hard floors.
Some people even create floating platforms with mdf and tennis balls to help with this.
Exercise Books
Trinity Graded Drum Books
The Best Beginner Drum Book - Drumeo
4-Way Coordination Drums - Dahlgren, Marvin, Fine, Elliot
Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer - George Lawrence Stone
Anatomy of Drumming: Move Better, Feel Better, Play Better
There are thousands of books on style specific drumming, general musicianship, the history of drumming, meditative and ritual drumming and much more. If you find any good ones, please let me know!
