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Re: Drumkits for kids?
My 6-year old nephew wants to join the illustrious ranks of Danny Carey, Rick Allen and Dr Avalanche. In other words, he wants to be a drummer and has asked for a drumkit for Xmas.
I'm obviously all for the kid getting first dips into music at an early age. Sadly, I know relatively little about percussion, let alone kits marketed for minors. Do you guys have any recommendations / experience on the subject?
The overall price shouldn't be too big of an issue. As I said, I'm all for it and would gladly talk my aunt into chipping in on the budget if an otherwise suitable kit is found. If anyone could part some advice on this, it'd be much appreciated.
Re: Drumkits for kids?
i dunno much about it but there is this store around me that has kids kits for like $100 they are miniature though...not sure if you want a good kit or not or jsut some intro set...my advice would be to get soemthign very rudamentary at this stage and if he shows more inclination then he can upgrade later on...6yo is pretty young, they generally have the attention span of a fly
honestly i was condiering getting my youngest one of those cheapy kits to see if she was into it or not, but my wife isnt into it
Re: Drumkits for kids?
Six is probably a wierd age for this. He's probably too big for any of the child kits, but a full size will seem huge.
I'm a big proponent of Musician's Friend, they usually have starter sets(generally off brand) for reasonable prices. Nothing special, but would work fine for a kid.
Either way it's quite an investment for a kid that age to possibly decide he isn't into in a year and then sit in a closet for 10 years.
One thing to keep in mind, there's only so much you can do with a non-melody instrument by yourself other than make noise. Maybe just get a snare drum or practice pad and put him in lessons with the deal that if he sticks with it, a set will come further down the line.
Re: Drumkits for kids?
I've been drumming for about 25 years (since about age 10) and agree with pretty much everything that jorge said.
I would definitely go with a snare drum first. One of the biggest mistakes I've seen a lot of young drummers do is jumping straight into a full kit. Yeah, I know it's cool and you want to do those big fills and crash the cymbals and all that right away, but just like anything else, the best place to start is by learning the basics.
Get a snare drum. Learn the proper way to hold the sticks. Work on basic techinique and rudiments. If your nephew finds this enjoyable and wants to learn more, then take the next step and get a kit.
At this point, I think the best gift would be a snare drum and drum lessons. I don't know what the going rate these days is, but maybe you could get him a weekly lesson for 6 months or a year.
Re: Drumkits for kids?
Neemo wrote:wow...i'm glad i didnt buy that kit...it appears that it woulda been the wrong thing to do....but what does a guitar player know about drums anyway?
In my experience....nothing.:haha:
Awesome...
The more I think about this, Dreamline and I are approaching this more as if you want them to learn the skill. If that's the route you're looking to send them in, everything he and I said holds completely true.
If you're just looking to buy them a cool toy that could either get them into something some day(probably wouldn't), or just be something fun to bang on for a little while, one of those $100-200 child sets probably aren't a horrible idea (although a pretty pricey toy).
Re: Drumkits for kids?
Yeah, jorge...we are definitely of the same mind on this one. I'm certainly approaching it as the beginning of a musical hobby rather than just as a fun toy to bang on.
Our school started musical instruments at 4th grade, but we were limited to strings. I was anxious to play something so I did viola. 6 months of plucking and screeching later, I decided it wasn't for me and switched to drums. I'm sure my parents are glad they didn't dump a bunch of money into a good viola and instead I had a rental from school.
We picked up a used snare drum for about $50. Once I had stayed with that for awhile, I eventually bought a drumkit from a buddy who had switched to guitar.
...If you're looking for a toy, just get the Rock Band game. Then your nephew can be a pretend drummer just like all the other kids out there. 
Re: Drumkits for kids?
^Ha. Actually as far as teaching you to follow a rhythm, and keep a beat (a lot of people who think they can can't) Rock Band probably isn't a horrible idea.
Music in my school started in 5th grade. I'd wanted to play drums as long as I could remember before that. It was concert band (no strings, I'm from a small town) All I got to take home was a practice pad and a pair of sticks. I actually didn't even touch a drumset until High School for the Pep Band for basketball games, and was 15 or 16 before I got one for myself.
At the point I did first play a set, I wasn't even instructed on it, it was kind of pointed at and I was told to play it. That didn't work out great at first, but after a while you learn to make different limbs do different things, but 4 years of learning fundamentals of different percussion instruments and just general music info really helped.
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