There are few sentences that fill a parent’s heart with dread as potently as, “Mom, I think I want to learn how to play the drums.” Drums are noisy, space hungry, and pricey. For the most part, most parents know when they have a budding percussionist in the family. No pot or pan is safe. Math homework and pencil erasers mark the time not being spent on solving for “x.” The dinner table features a flat handed slapping drum solo on the regular.
So, if it is time for your family to take advantage of online drumming tutorials or invest in personal lessons, you will need to buy a drum kit. Important factors to which kit you purchase are price points, completion of kits when ordered, portability, and any noise rules you need to follow in your living environment.
Drum kits come in electric and acoustic variety. If it is possible and tolerable in your living situation, an acoustic kit is preferable for a learning drummer. While the technology is beginning to catch up, the downside to an electric kit, especially for beginners, is that it will not register the velocity of a strike with a stick. Velocity control is a skill set that is as essential for a beginning drummer as consistent rhythm. However, there are times, such as in apartment buildings with thin walls, or a family that cannot tolerate hours of learning, that an electric kit will need to do.
Included are three acoustic kits and two electronic kits. Make certain that when purchasing a drum kit for a beginner that you are pursuing an actual musical instrument and not a toy dressed up like the real thing.
Acoustic Kits
It is important to note when purchasing an acoustic kit that certain hardware, specifically the drum throne (the drummer’s stool), the kick (the pedal that strikes the large base drum), and cymbals are not regularly included.
Gretsch Catalina Club
This kit comes with Mahogany ply shells which give drum strikes a warm resonant response. The versatility available for the tuning for each drum head, from floor tom, to base drum help create a sound that is available for jazz and hip-hop.
The relatively smaller base drum means less overall volume during playtime and less wall penetration for higher frequency sounds. The bass drum comes with a pre-muffled head just to set your drummer up for success when it comes to learning without blowing out the sound budget of the rest of the house.
Not included: drum throne, cymbals, kick, cymbal mounts, sticks
Pearl Roadshow Series
As one of the industry standard names for drums, Pearl offers four different varieties of acoustic kits in their Roadshow series: Fusion, Jazz, New Fusion, and Rock. What comes standard with each set is the often excluded drum throne, cymbals, cymbal mounts, and bass kick.
What varies, style to style is simply the size of each drum head. The jazz kit, which features only one tom mounted to the bass, has relatively smaller drum heads for each drum. The bass drum will therefore be lighter in sound response, the floor tom will have a tinnier resonance, and the snare will hit higher than the other kits. On the other end of the spectrum is the Rock kit with the largest overall heads for a beefier response to match electric guitars and thumping bass guitars.
The whole package, which is as complete as is needed for a new drummer, will sound to the trained ear like a beginner kit. The drumheads and cymbals that come with the kit will sound like basic drums. For a beginner, however, it serves the purpose of having a surface to strike and learn to combine sounds. The good news is that at the price point this kit is offered at, replacement heads can be upgraded, and new cymbals can be purchased and mounted on this sufficient drum system.
The drum throne that comes with the set is sufficient, however, if you have a percussionist that requires a little more support, a replacement throne may be necessary.
Not Included: head mufflers which should be added before the kit is assembled
Best Choice Products 5 Piece Drum Kit
While most drum kits ship in multiple boxes pre-assembled, the Best Choice kit will arrive with full assembly required. The box is heavy because an entire drum kit is enclosed. It comes with cymbals, drum throne, bass kick, two bass mounted toms, a floor tom, and a snare.
As the least expensive kit on this list, this set will have the least versatility. However, if you are buying for a new drummer and are uncertain about the sustainability of their commitment, this will be the go-to choice for you.
The cost savings of this kit means that the tuning will only favor one style of playing and the drums, though made out of wood, will still begin to show wear and tear after a few years.
The biggest challenge to this set is that it must be completely assembled out of the box. While there is a large volume of how-to videos available online, patience is a must in its assembly. In other words, if you prefer Swedish furniture bought in difficult to navigate stores that are famous for meatballs, this will be a simple setup for you. If not, you may want to skip it.
However, as this kit comes in at several hundred dollars below the next best product, it proves a great choice for families who are discovering whether or not drumming is a part of their musical future.
Electric Kits
All electric kits will require, along with drum thrones and sticks, a decent set of headphones to listen to performance while playing
Yamaha DTX402K
One of the biggest bonuses to electric drum kits is portability and space storage. This kit is superior in both aspects. There is not a kick drum to strike with the kick pedal, which attaches wirelessly to the main kit processor. The high-hat system has a completely free-standing pedal as well. The high-hat cymbal is attached to the main rail system of the kit.
Other drumming surfaces include a crash cymbal, ride, snare, two toms mounted in the area of most bass mounted toms and a tom mounted in the area where I a floor tom would sit. The polymer materials that compose all strike surfaces make for relatively quiet play time while the drummer wears earphones to hear realtime performance sound.
The processing unit also includes interface with iOS and Andriod apps to enhance the experience. Playing can also be exported through USB interface in case the drummer would like to begin recording performance along with other tracks on their preferred recording suite on desktop or tablet.
Not Included: drum throne, sticks
Roland TD1K
Roland has a reputation as an innovator in electric drum kits. The reason to go with the TD1K kit is the mesh heads for all surfaces. The mesh heads are the next forward step in creating a genuine drumming experience, registering different sounds for different strike areas for drum and cymbal alike. There is still no sensing for strike velocity, but a snare drum that can tell the difference between a mid-strike and a rim shot is essential for training a new drummer.
The portability of this unit means that it can be stored in a living space without taking up featured space in a home permanently. The kit also has a reputation for easy transportation so that your learning percussionist can take it to another location should their talents be requested to join the talents of other musicians.
The processing unit (commonly known as “the brain”) has USB connection points to send to the musician’s preferred recording suite for studio recording outside of a studio.
The sound options available in the brain cover a wide variety of styles from simple and tinny jazz to beefier heavy metal style sounds.
Not Included: drum throne, sticks