Best drum sticks for beginners

Buy a pair of 5A wood-tip sticks, then buy a second pair. That is the answer for almost everybody. 5A is the near-universal default at 0.565 inch, it is what a teacher assumes you own, and it costs about fifteen dollars. The only common reason to deviate is hand size — a child wants a thinner 7A — or an electronic kit, where a nylon tip lasts considerably longer. Everything else on this page is a reason not to buy something.

Every pick states its Starter Path band, and we have not played any of them — the method is on how we pick. Lengths, diameters, tapers, materials and tip shapes come from dealers that publish them, cited at the bottom: Vic Firth’s own site loads but serves no specification text to a plain request, so a dealer is the verifiable source here.

The numbering system runs backwards

This is the single thing worth knowing before you look at a wall of sticks, and nothing about it is guessable.

A lower number means a thicker stick. From thin to thick, the common beginner range runs 7A, then 5A, then 5B, then 2B. So a 7A is the lightest of those, not the heaviest, which is the opposite of what almost everyone assumes on first contact. The letter was originally an indication of intended application rather than size, which is why it does not help either.

Here is the whole decision in published numbers:

7A — 15.5 inches, 0.540 inch. The thin one. For children and adults with small hands.

5A — 16 inches, 0.565 inch. The default. Buy this unless you have a specific reason not to.

5B — 16 inches, 0.595 inch. The thick one. Same price as the 5A, and the wrong place to start.

Look at that range: from the thinnest useful beginner stick to the thickest is fifty-five thousandths of an inch. Less than the thickness of a credit card and a half. It sounds like nothing, and it is the difference between a child who can hold the stick loosely and one who grips it to keep control — and a tight grip is the root of most early drumming problems. Our guide to choosing drum sticks explains the system in more depth; this page is the part where you buy something.

The second axis: tip material

After size, the only choice that matters to a beginner is what the tip is made of, and the honest answer depends entirely on what you are hitting.

Wood tips give a warmer, rounder cymbal sound, and there is nothing glued on that can fail. They are the default and the right choice on an acoustic kit. They do wear — the tip frays and flattens against a hi-hat edge over months.

Nylon tips are brighter and more defined on cymbals, and they last considerably longer. The trade is that a nylon tip is a separate part and can work loose and fly off after heavy use, which is startling but not dangerous.

The practical rule: acoustic kit, wood; electronic kit, nylon. Rubber and mesh pads are abrasive in a way cymbals are not, and the durability difference stops being academic within a few months of daily practice. If the kit is electronic, our page on drum practice pads covers the same wear problem on the pad side.

The picks

The Vic Firth American Classic 5A, wood tip#ad is the stick to buy, and there is very little to argue about. 16 inches, 0.565 inch diameter, medium taper, hickory with a lacquer finish, wood teardrop tip. It is the default size for almost every drummer alive, which means every teacher, book and bandmate assumes it, and it is the cheapest thing on this page. Buy these if the player has roughly adult hands and an acoustic kit, which covers most readers. Skip them if the player is a small child — 0.565 inch is genuinely too thick for a seven-year-old’s hand, and the resulting grip problem reads as a talent problem.

The American Classic 7A#ad is the answer for smaller hands: 15.5 inches, 0.540 inch, same hickory and same medium taper, so nothing changes except the scale. It is also quieter, which matters more in a shared house than people expect. Buy these if the player is a child or an adult with small hands. Skip them if the hands are average or large — a 7A in a full-size hand feels flimsy and encourages exactly the tight grip you are trying to avoid. One honest note on cost: the single-pair 7A listing returned a price but no availability message when we checked, so the pack we have linked is three pairs and costs roughly three times a 5A single pair. For a child who will outgrow them, that is worth knowing before you click.

The 5AN#ad is the same 5A profile — 16 inches, 0.565 inch, medium taper, premium US hickory — with a nylon teardrop tip instead of wood. It is on this page for one specific reason: on an electronic kit, nylon lasts considerably longer against rubber pads. Buy these if the kit is electronic, or the player is wearing through wood tips. Skip them if the kit is acoustic and cymbal tone matters — and note the tip is a separate part that can come loose eventually.

The 5B#ad is on this page as a warning rather than a recommendation, which is why it sits in the overspend band despite costing the same as the 5A. 16 inches, 0.595 inch — thirty thousandths thicker. Because it is the same price, it reads as a free upgrade, and it is not: the extra mass costs endurance, makes quiet playing harder, and is louder in a house where that is already a negotiation. Buy these if the player is a year or two in, plays heavier music, and a teacher has suggested it. Skip them if this would be a first pair — it is the clearest example on this page of a purchase that feels like an upgrade and is a downgrade.

Three variants that get bought by mistake

Worth naming, because in a listing photograph all of these look identical to the stick you meant to buy.

The Barrel Tip 5A. Published at the same 16 inches and 0.565 inch in the same hickory with the same medium taper — but the tip is a barrel rather than a teardrop, which changes the contact patch and the cymbal sound. Not worse, just not what you chose.

The Extreme 5A. Longer, at 16.5 inches. Half an inch of extra length changes the balance point, which a beginner will feel as the stick being harder to control.

Anything with an N. The suffix means nylon tip on an otherwise identical stick — 5A against 5AN, 7A against 7AN. If you wanted wood and the model ends in N, you bought nylon. Read the model name, not the photograph.

What we did not list, and why

2B and heavier. Genuinely useful sticks for marching and for practice-pad work where deliberate extra mass builds strength, and completely wrong as a first pair for a kit. If a band director has asked for 2B, buy 2B; nobody else should.

Unbranded multi-packs. Four pairs for the price of one is tempting and it is the purchase we would avoid here. The whole argument of this page is that a few thousandths of an inch decides how a stick behaves, and these listings publish no diameter, no length and often no wood species. Without those numbers you cannot replace a stick you liked, which on a consumable is the one thing you need to be able to do.

Maple and oak. Real options with real trade-offs — maple lighter and more fragile, oak denser and harder on the hands. Both are decisions for a player who already knows what their hickory sticks do. All four picks here are hickory deliberately.

Brushes and mallets. Different implements for different jobs rather than different sticks, and not a first purchase. A beginner needs sticks.

Stick bags and holders. Useful once there are several pairs and a reason to carry them. With two pairs, the kit’s floor tom does the job. Our page on drum accessories you actually need ranks the whole list in priority order.