Your first kit
Four ways to start, and what each sounds like next door
We name no brands here, because the right first kit is the one your teacher helps you pick for your house.
A practice pad and sticks
A rubber or foam surface on a stand. It sounds like soft tapping, about as loud as typing at a wooden desk. Most of your first months happen here.
A kit with mesh heads and low-volume cymbals
These take much of the bang out. The neighbors still hear the thud of a bass drum pedal through a floor, so the kit wants a rug and an outside wall.
An electronic kit
It plays through headphones, so the room hears only sticks on pads and the pedal. A good choice for an apartment or a house with a thin wall.
An acoustic kit
The real sound. It carries through walls and floors and across a street. Plan where it lives and when it plays before it comes home.
Before the first practice
Talk to the people next door
Tell your neighbors before the first practice, not after the first complaint. Agree on the hours that work for both houses, such as after school and before dinner, and keep the kit off a shared wall. A rug under the kit and a mat under the pedal take out much of what travels through a floor.
A kit that stays quiet is a kit that gets played.
Ask your teacher before you buy or rent
Start on a pad, and bring in a kit when the playing is ready
Set practice hours with the neighbors, and keep them
At the school
Here, you can play loud
The school has three practice kits in rooms with acoustic panels and a window in every door. Come to a class to try, sit down at one and hear what it sounds like before you decide what to bring home.
