Drum Sets

I play in a worship band for Teen Community Bible Study every Thursday night. I will usually play guitar or the cajon (a fancy word for a drum box). The cajon is a box with snare springs at the top of it, to create a bass and a snare sound (depending on where you hit the box with your hand).  We have been using the cajon in this particular band ever since we started because it was all we could afford, and it fit our playing style because we do not play loud. Just a few weeks ago a nice person donated a full drum set to the church we play in and hold Teen Community Bible Study. We talked to someone in the church and they said we are free to use it and fix it up if we would like. I was licking my lips at those words. I have never actually played a drum set before, but I knew what it was composed of and I knew how to play it, I just never had the opportunity before. I sat down and played a little and it sounded awful; and it wasn’t because I was bad at playing the drum set. The toms were unbearably out of tune and the cymbals sounded like cheap china cymbals.  Thankfully, I knew how to fix up the set because of my previous knowledge in my high school drumline.

                I first started fixing up the toms. The drum has many tension rods around the rim to tighten or loosen the drum head. You need a drum key to fix the drum head, which I have because I had to do the same thing tuning the tenor drums I marched with. So I tightened the tension rods in a star formation and eventually got the toms sounding much better. One of the other band members has a drum set at home and he said he could bring in one or two of his cymbals to put on the “new” set we got. The bass drum, hi-hat, and snare drum all sounded fine, so we made the old drum set as good as new.

                There are many different drum sets and brands. To start off, there are two different types of drum sets available: Acoustic and Electric. The acoustic is the one most bands have. They are louder and bigger. Electric drums are better for beginning drummers. They are quieter, smaller, and they have different settings you can use. There are literally about 75 different drum brands. There are a ton I have never even heard of, and I’ve had a lot of experience with drums and drum brands. The most common and quality brands are Yamaha, Vic Firth, Innovative Percussion, Pearl, Zildijian, Remo, and Pro Mark.