Best drum sets for kids

Drums have a peculiar advantage as a child’s first instrument: there is no finger strength requirement, nothing to tune, no intonation to get wrong, and a satisfying sound is available on the first hit. A five-year-old can play something that sounds like drumming within minutes, which is not true of any string instrument.

The obstacles are physical fit and noise, and the first one is the one people get wrong. Our method, and the fact that we have not played these kits, is on how we pick.

Why an adult kit is not a kit they grow into

On a guitar, an oversized instrument is uncomfortable and can technically still be played. On a drum kit it is a different situation entirely, because drumming requires four limbs to operate four things at once, and if any one of them is out of reach the whole coordination cannot be practiced.

A full-size bass drum is 22 inches in diameter. The pedal sits in front of it, which puts it a fixed distance forward of the throne. A child’s leg is not long enough to reach that pedal while sitting at a height where their hands can also reach the drums. They can have their feet on the pedals or their hands on the drums, not both.

Throne height cannot rescue this. Lowering the throne so their feet reach means their knees come up and their hands are below the snare. Raising it so their hands work means their feet dangle. There is no setting that works, and the child spends the session unable to do the one thing drumming is.

A 16 inch bass drum — six inches smaller in diameter — moves the pedal substantially closer, and everything comes into range at once.

Acoustic or electronic for a child

This is genuinely close and depends almost entirely on the building.

Acoustic wins on feel. A real drum responds to where and how hard it is struck, in ways rubber and mesh pads only approximate. Cymbals in particular have a range of sounds depending on how they are hit, and no pad reproduces that.

Electronic wins on hours. A kit with headphones can be played at eight in the evening in an apartment. An acoustic one cannot, and a kit that can be played for twenty minutes daily accumulates far more practice than one available for two hours on a Saturday afternoon.

Practice hours beat authenticity by a wide margin at this age. If there is any doubt about the noise, take the electronic kit — the Alesis Debut ships with headphones for exactly this reason.

What to skip

Toy drum sets. The tell is plastic heads that are not tunable and cymbals made of thin steel or plastic. These do not sound like drums, cannot be tuned, and the “cymbals” make a sound closer to a biscuit tin. A child who plays one is not practicing drumming, and there is no path from it to the real thing.

A full-size kit bought at age seven to save buying twice. Covered above: the child cannot operate it. Junior kits resell easily because every family faces this two years later.

Electronic kits with rubber pads rather than mesh, at the bottom of the range. Rubber pads are noticeably louder in the room than mesh — a hard stick on hard rubber makes a real clack — and they have almost no rebound, which makes them tiring and teaches a stroke that does not work on a real drum.

What you also need

Hearing protection for an acoustic kit, from day one. A child’s hearing is not more robust than an adult’s and the exposure is at close range. Children’s ear defenders or musicians’ plugs, every session.

A practice pad. Cheap, silent, and where most early technique work happens. It is also the thing that lets them practice in a hotel room, at a grandparent’s house, or at 9pm. See drum kit vs practice pad.

Smaller sticks. Adult 5A sticks are too long and too heavy for a small child’s hands. Junior sticks are inexpensive and make a real difference to whether they can control the stroke.