When Should I buy buy my Child Drum Kit?
Truthfully, the answer is as soon as possible. When a student begins learning an instrument, the benefits of committing and enjoying practice are extremely beneficial when the instrument is available at home.
Acoustic Drums/ Electronic drums and options?
This is dependent on your lifestyle\living arrangements or preference. Both Acoustic and electronic drum sets are advantageous .
If space and sound is a concern for you, then an electronic drum set is the way to go. Students can simply plug in headphones and hear real drum sounds, whilst the rest of the house remain almost undisturbed.
If this is not a concern to you then acoustic drums all the way! Silence pads can be used on drums and cymbals. They do impact on the overall enjoyment, sound and feeling of playing the drums, but can also be easily removed when volume is not an issue.
An alternative to this is using mesh drum heads and low volume cymbals on an acoustic kit. This has become a popular choice for many drummers and students in recent times. Low volume cymbals are at least 50% quieter than traditional cymbals and mesh drum heads are at least 80%. These will fit onto any acoustic drum set, just make sure to note the correct sizes of the drums.
Rech Cymbals and Mesh head pack:
How much should I be Spending and what should I be looking for?
There are countless brands and types of drum sets, so I have broken this down into a few categories.
- ACOUSTIC DRUMS
When purchasing acoustic drums for beginner students they will need a 5 piece drum set. This consists of:
1x Snare Drum 1x Bass Drum 1x Bass Drum Pedal 2x Rack Toms 1 Floor Tom. They will also require a set of Hi hat cymbals on a Hi hat Stand and a Crash or ride cymbal on a stand, Drum sticks and a stool.
A cheap second hand acoustic drum kit of an entry level brand(DXP, Powerbeat, Percussion Plus and many more) could be purchased for approximately $100-$200 or brand new between $300-$500. The best places to find these are Gumtree, Ebay and Facebook Market Place. These drum kits are great to begin with and may last a few years, however their life spans are often short lived due to the cheaper parts used to build them.
If you would prefer a long lived named brand set, then this will cost between $500-$2000 for a low to medium range set or approximately $2000+ for a higher end model. The brands are Pearl, Tama, Gretsch, PDP, DW, Ludwig, Mapex, Sonor and Yamaha.
HOT TIP: Sound off pads can also work great for practice with minimal annoyance to others A set of name branded sound off pads will cost approximately $150 or a generic cheap brand around $30-50. (ebay)
- ELECTRONIC DRUMS
The same Principals apply when buying an electronic drum set, however with slightly different price points. A secondhand entry level brand will cost roughly $200-$500. brands such as Carlsbro, KAT or Artist.
Roland and Yamaha are the leading brands in electronic drums. A second hand entry level set could be purchased for approximately $500-$1000. with higher end sets at $2000+
A new entry to intermediate set brand new is approximately $1000-$2000.
Top end Electronic Drum sets $5000+
scottbartondrums.com 