this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
23 points (82.9% liked)
Asklemmy
43965 readers
1934 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm gonna give some advice that goes a bit against the grain here. It sounds like you want to try it out without making any big purchases before you know if you'll like it, so I'd suggest finding a drum instructor and take one or two lessons just to get a feel for a real acoustic kit. Let them know you don't have drums and just want to try some out. They'll be able to get you playing a super basic beat in that time and you can see how you feel from there. Learning instruments is hard for most people, especially learning a first instrument. At first it kind of sucks, because you don't know how to do anything. That's where an instructor will also be really helpful because they can show you some things that are fun but also easy. If you enjoy the lessons but still aren't sure you want to commit to buying anything, look for practice spaces in your area that provide equipment. Most small cities will likely have a few. This way you can try some stuff out on your own and play around without having to go all in on buying anything.
Then look in to getting a practice pad. I like this one because it's got two sides that emulate the feel of both drums and cymbals pretty well and is good for getting your hand coordination down, and the soft side is pretty quiet.
If you're still in to it, I would strongly suggest looking in to getting a used acoustic kit. Try craigslist/fb marketplace and look for Yamaha, Ludwig, Pearl, Gretsch, Tama, DW, Sonor, or Mapex. Try to get something that includes hardware and cymbals. If you're patient, you can usually find something in the $300-$500 range. Anything lower in those brands is an absolute steal. Learn how to tune and know that, just like playing, tuning drums is a skill that takes practice and you will be bad at at first.
As far as electric goes, there are very good electric kits out there, but in my opinion the only ones really worth getting are very expensive (think $1500-$2000+). The cheaper ones are a good way to learn bad habits and not get a feel for how large a dynamic range acoustic drums can be. If you do start out on electric and switch to acoustic when you find you want to stick with it it will likely be a harder transition than if you just started on acoustic. I understand some people can't make acoustic work because of their living situation, but imo everyone wanting to give drums a serious try should start acoustic if at all possible.
One final note, and I kind of touched on this before, but if you really want to give it a serious try just know that starting out sucks because you will be bad, and that's ok. Sucking at something is the first step to being good at something. Practicing can be a real bore, but if you focus on fundamentals and taking it slow you can build a great foundation quicker than you might expect that will make things easier and more fun down the road.