So you finally decided that drums are going to be your thing, you’re going to be the drummer in a fabulous rock band and fame and fortune will be yours. All you have to do is learn to play first. Now you’re sitting at the music store with a fist full of cash looking for your first set of skins. Hold up a minute, before you do that, have you even considered an electric drum set.
If you thought it would be too hard to learn on or too expensive, you need to rethink that position. Forget the stereotypes and discover it’s probably easier to learn on an electric drum kit.
More Sounds and Options
So the sales guy showed you a drum kit and it perfectly nails the sounds of John Bonham…awesome, but is that the only thing you want to play? Electric drum kits aren’t meant to be “better” but they are a whole lot more versatile. They come with a library of sounds including that epic Bonham solo and maybe some Dave Grohl for something a little more modern. The point is, you can learn all those styles much easier and faster with an electronic set.
Turn Down the Volume
No matter how you try and muffle the sound acoustic drums they sound like the hounds of hell are chasing you. Yes, that’s part of the appeal but if you have neighbors, they are not going to be sharing your enthusiasm…at all. Even a cheap electronic drum kit has a headphone jack, and even without headphones the volume can be adjusted to a level that won’t get you evicted. On the other hand amplifying the sound is going to require a monitor.
Learning with The Drum Kit
Unless you have a how to video open in front of you an acoustic set doesn’t offer anything in the way of instruction. An electric set on the other hand has built in tutorials that can help you check your timing and accuracy. No matter how much fun pounding on a set of skins like you’re Animal from the Muppets may be it won’t tell you your timing sucks. An electric set will. It will also record and playback so you can listen to your playing objectively. You can also grab some tutorial software to drastically improve your playing.
Learning on an electronic drum kit is easier and you can improve your playing faster and hands down they have more learning options than an acoustic drum kit. If you’re looking at your first drum kit, they run the gamut on price, but like anything you get what you pay for. More features means more money, but that also means more tools to learn.
