How to buy your first drum set

Drums is the instrument where a first purchase most often gets sold on within a year, and the reason is almost never that the player lost interest. It is that the kit did not fit the room, or that the box turned out not to contain a kit.

Five decisions, in the order that avoids both. The picks state their Starter Path band, and we have not physically tested any of them.

One: the room, before the player

This ordering is deliberate and it is the opposite of how every other instrument on this site works.

A drum kit is genuinely loud — not loud like a television, loud like machinery — and no amount of enthusiasm survives a household that cannot tolerate it. The measured picture is in how loud are drums, and it is worth reading before spending anything.

Ask three questions. Is there anyone below you? Is there a shared wall? Is there a time of day when playing is impossible? If the answer to any of them is yes, the acoustic option has already been decided against, whatever the budget says.

Two: acoustic or electronic

Electronic if the room is shared. The Alesis Nitro Max Kit#ad is the kit: mesh heads on every pad, a dual-zone snare, Bluetooth audio for playing along and USB-MIDI for recording later. Mesh rather than rubber is the specification that matters, because rubber is tiring to play and teaches the wrong rebound.

Acoustic if you have the space and the tolerance. An acoustic kit teaches two things an entry electronic kit cannot: how a cymbal actually responds, and dynamics across the whole range from a whisper to a full hit. The Pearl Roadshow RS525SC#ad is the complete option.

The honest comparison, including what each one costs you long-term, is in acoustic versus electronic drums, and the apartment-specific version is in best drums for apartments.

Three: size, which means the bass drum

Everything about drum sizing comes back to one measurement: the diameter of the bass drum, because that is what puts the pedal at a particular distance from the seat.

A 22 inch kick, as on the Roadshow, is a full-size kit and assumes an adult or teenage leg. An eight-year-old on that kit cannot reach the pedal with their heel down, which is not a matter of technique but of geometry.

Junior kits exist for exactly this reason, down to a 16 inch kick for a three- or four-year-old. The age-by-age breakdown is in drum set sizes by age.

Four: what is actually in the box

This is the step that costs people money, and it is entirely avoidable.

“Five-piece kit” means five drums. It does not mean five drums plus the things that hold them up. A shell pack — drums only, no hardware — is a completely normal product and it is frequently advertised with a photograph that includes stands and cymbals that are not included.

The list to check for: hi-hat stand, cymbal stand, snare stand, bass drum pedal, throne, hi-hat cymbals, one crash or ride, and sticks. The Roadshow includes all of them, which is the main reason it is our acoustic recommendation rather than anything about its shells.

What each of those parts is, in plain language, is in drum kit parts explained.

Five: what you still need after that

Hearing protection. Non-negotiable on an acoustic kit, and it should be bought at the same time as the kit rather than later. Options are in best hearing protection for drummers.

Headphones, on an electronic kit, where they are the output rather than an accessory. See best headphones for electronic drums.

A rug, on an acoustic kit, to stop the kick drum and hi-hat stand walking forward as you play. This is a real and immediate problem on a hard floor.

A practice pad. The Evans RealFeel 12" single-sided practice pad#ad is where a large part of real drum practice happens, it is silent, and it works on the evenings when the kit cannot be used at all.

The order that saves the most money

If there is genuine doubt about whether the interest will last — and with drums there often is, because it is frequently the instrument a child names before they have held one — buy the practice pad and a pair of sticks first.

Rudiments on a pad are real drumming and they are what a teacher would start with anyway. Three months later you will know whether to buy a kit, and the pad will still be in use either way. The argument in full is in drum kit versus practice pad to start, and what the whole thing should cost is in how much a beginner drum set should cost.