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I play guitar and drums. And I have both ...

My son really enjoys messing around w/ my instruments so for christmas last year when he was 6 I got him a jr size drumset.

Firstly part of the reason I did so is no matter what I did the fullsize was just too large/unwieldy for him to use. Even when I lowered my throne (seat) then he couldn't reach the upper half of the set. He literally had to stand at my drumset to try to use it at all.

The jr size set on the other hand is perfect size and works very well for him.

I considered more expensive sets but after a bit of reading I got him this GP Percussion set off of Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OIQZPW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And it was a great decision.

Pros:

• these are 'real' drums with lugs and can be tuned
  
• very nice quality
  
• perfect size
  
• very nice price
  
  Cons
  
  
• cymbals are cheap starter cymbals (as they are with every set so this is not particular to this set)
  
• the bass drum pedal is a "belt" drive and feels too lose to me (I use chain drive pedals)
  
  But the cymbals and the pedal can be upgraded if your kid ever takes the playing seriously and if not they are serviceable.
  
  Your kid is 4 - this will be a toy to them. As a musician and a father I support my kids interest in music but until your child shows actual sustained interest and commitment my advice is do not overspend just because as a musician you might understand ' you get what you pay for' in an instrument.
  
  Your child will most likely play with it for a while then forget it exists and sub $200 is a lot easier to throw away than $600-1200 on a toy.
  
  

The best upgrades you can do are invest in a good snare and cymbals. You can get a decent sound out of even the cheapest drumset, but a versatile snare will last you forever and dramatically change the way you play. And good cymbals you can get one at a time, used cymbals can sometimes sound better than new ones and are cheaper.

Depending on what you can afford, something like this or this.

For cymbals, check out mycymbal to see what sounds good, and then look on ebay or craigslist for those cymbals. Something like Zildjian A's or A Customs, Sabian AA's or AAX's, or Paiste Alpha's or 2002's.

Playing drums ain't cheap, but you can upgrade these critical parts if you're patient and know what you want. Good luck!

I actually recently bought a pair of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00ENJC962/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1484522741&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=House+of+Marley&dpPl=1&dpID=31kMgeFdkKL&ref=plSrch
and they work pretty well: it's a fairly consistent reduction in noise across all ranges so I'm not really experiencing any of the effects others have talked about where certain frequencies are more prominent than others. A look at your link suggests that your choice is a little higher-end. It's almost definitely a better product but it would be hard to say what they're actually like without playing with them.

I'm no audio professional, but in my humble opinion, the whole in-ear monitor and over-ear protection thing is overkill. This is probably dependent on the age of your kid though. If they're young (like 10 years old), I'd definitely take a lot more care in choosing which direction to go in. I've been using similar options to the earphones I linked in since I was around 14 years old and I've still got good hearing. That said, I'm still quite young.

Another thing to consider, that I don't think has been mentioned yet, is ease of use. You could have the most effective solution possible, but if it's uncomfortable, awkward and just a general pain to use then all it's really going to achieve is put your kid off using it. I don't really have any wisdom or anything to impart here, but it's something else worth taking into consideration.

TL;DR Yup, those earphones look good and out of everything, is probably the option I'd go with. Unless your kid is still quite young.

Been playing about 46 years, started as soon as I could stand. I initially learned by playing along to Black Sabbath, Stevie Wonder, KISS, Beatles, etc. Music that was around in 1970, which is when I can consciously trace my first memories of hearing a backbeat.

Polyrhythmic concepts have been around since the beginning of time and when I was in my late teens and early 20's I was very much enamored with playing stuff that was "different", so polyrhythms were that thing that set people apart.

Where I grew up there were those who were taken by Jeff Porcaro and there were those taken by Neil Peart. Groove vs technical ability. I was somewhere in the middle of all that and really didn't fit into either group.

In my early 30's I wrote a book that touched upon my exploits in rhythm at that time.

Development of any skill will vary from person to person, and sometimes I'm a slow learner but my persistence and ability to beat my head against the proverbial wall until I eek out something I feel is cool and nail the tune is what really should take precedence over that thing called "talent".

In your growth as a player you're going to experience the ups and downs that come with the territory; it's a bit like making a pile of dirt in your yard. You shovel onto a pile those hours that you practice and the pile continues to grow. Eventually it will collapse under its own weight and mushroom outwards then your pile is considerably shorter. That's when people tend to think "Oh I suck" but really, your foundation expanded with the collapse and as long as you keep on piling on the hours and practice you will continue to rise and grow a wider foundation.

I can recommend a book "Body Mind Mastery" by Dan Millman to help your growth. It's a great read and will show you ways to improve that you probably would have never thought of.

Anyhow, please subscribe to my Youtube Channel as I'm always putting out new content and am livestreaming my "work" sessions.

I'm also writing a book with even more concepts like the one above.

Thanks for your compliments, I really appreciate it.

That really depends. Personally I'd say that you'll never become interested in drumming unless you can get on an actual set, but I totally understand not wanting to spend 500+ on something you might dislike. Drumming on a pad is not a bad idea to get rhythms down and such, but it doesn't really translate to an actual set. Instead, or in addition to a pad, you should try to find someone who has a set of their own. If you don't know anyone personally, you may want to make some friends at a local music store (Guitar Center is always a solid go-to) and see if they can show you some basics, either in-store or at home.

Also, note that a lot of drum places, Guitar Center included, allow you to play whatever sets they're displaying. Don't be afraid to sit down and try em out.

Its also definitely worth looking for a cheap hand-me-down set on Craigslist or eBay or something. I got mine for just over 200 and have slowly been upgrading it ever since until I had a fully fleshed out set. Plus, if you do make a purchase and you end up not liking it, chances are someone else will take it.

Other than that, I don't know what to tell you other than welcome to drummer-hood. Oh and also, if you do get a drum pad, I'd suggest this one. I've had it for over 3 years and I love it.

Thanks for the reply- Those were super helpful answers already, though they were only illustrative examples of many more questions I have.

The best resource like this I've found so far is in the book "The Addiction Formula" https://www.amazon.com/Addiction-Formula-Captivating-Commercial-Songwriting/dp/9082391309/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1525713259&sr=8-1

It has one section on rhythm which touches on the "why" of drums. Though the basic concept of the book is kind of cringey with the whole "get rich writing pop songs" vibe, it actually does have practical information in it- Just curious what other similar resources people are aware of that get deeper into drumming.

I realize simply listening to a lot of good drumming and focusing on the drum work is probably the best way to figure this out, but since I'm an American I was hoping there would be some kind of easy shortcut :)

I'm a self taught drummer also, but I think the main thing to remember is you never want to stop learning new stuff. Start with the basics and move up from there. Like others said YouTube has great tuts. Every new drummer wants to play fast, but speed is nothing without control. Your job is to keep time, that's the main thing to remember, I sometimes forget that! This is probably one of the best books to help you: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1892764040/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don't know about the pro, i bought this one:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004NMN8MS/ref=pe_175190_21431760_cs_sce_3p_dp_1

It's... okay

I've been drumming for about 6 years on a Pearl Export EX kit, not the nicest in the world but it uses real heads and so the sticks bounce on them as they would any other drum set. I bought the DM8 when i moved into an apartment building. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be as nice as some of the other electronic kits i've tried at Guitar Center, but the few reviews i could find seemed like it would be a fairly good purchase. But i just can't enjoy the feel to the bounce of the DM8 pads. It's just too much and i can't play for more than 30 minutes without feeling underwhelmed by the whole set up.

The way the hi-hats react to the pedal is kind of a joke, the pads don't register my hits fairly often, the ride has trouble differentiating when i hit the bell, and worst of all, i've had two pads fall apart on me with only moderate use, probably less than 10 hours of play. The pads are poorly constructed, the actual sensor is just stuck on to the plastic mounting plate with a little glue. Oh, and the hardware for the actual stand is held together by plastic clamps that have trouble clamping firmly enough to keep everything in place.

Things i did like: Some of the drum sounds it has built in sound pretty nice. It's fun to hook up an mp3 player to the AUX In and play along to songs. It hooks up easily to my mac and garage band. It was easy to assemble and set up.

Sure thing buddy.

Here's a good drum throne

Standard sticks

And pretty decent Bluetooth headphones. Although I haven't figured out how to use these headphones wirelessly with my kit, they're still really comfortable, with great sound. If you're on a budget, there's a set of wired headphones on that website for $19.99 that are supposed to be pretty good.

In-ears plus over-ear protection is a good combo, but over-ear protection attenuates different frequencies by different amounts, muffling the highs too much and making the lows "boomy" and unnatural-sounding in my experience.

Most USB mics are not going to have the needed range to handle the volume of a drum set without clipping.

The setup I used was as follows:

Etymotic MC5s which give a good balance of isolation, sound quality, and cost-effectiveness.

A used Shure SM58 for the overhead mic. SM58s are legendary mics, basically indestructible, and an industry standard. They're also plentiful so finding an affordable one shouldn't be too hard.

A Behringer Xenyx 802 mixer. Quality on these is just average, but they're affordable (again, buy used if you can). You'll want one with at least two XLR mic inputs for reasons I'll explain in a bit. You'll also need something like this to plug an audio source into the mixer.

I was mostly happy with the above but wanted more bass drum (owing to the "boominess" I mentioned earlier). I ended up getting a dedicated bass drum mic, though there are cheaper bass drum mics out there, and another SM58 would probably work just fine. Your son might not end up needing it, but I recommended getting a mixer with 2 inputs just in case. You won't spend much more for a mixer with the additional input.

Hi,

I´ll recommend to keep your "main focus" on comping, fills will come out easily & naturally, even those tasty ones, when you have good control over technique .

But to your question. I highly recommend -Future Sounds-
by David Garibaldi. (Tower of Power drummer)

Check these out

https://youtu.be/pGWBqGa44ZU?t=4m5s

https://youtu.be/TsiYKOTmv1I

And here´s the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Future-Sounds-Contemporary-Drumset-Concepts/dp/0739019120

https://www.scribd.com/doc/258774093/PDF-Drum-Book-Drum-Lesson-David-Garibaldi-Future-Sounds



for example those permutation studies most likely challenges even more advanced drummers.


Good Luck!

Firstly, get used to playing swing with the right hand while keeping 2's and 4's steady with your left foot. Once you've got that down, grab a book like Syncopation and practice playing the rhythms on the snare while keeping your right hand and left foot as solid as a rock doing the same thing as before.

I used an Erskine book that does exactly this, but also goes into hand-foot combos, taking it to the next level. It also goes into triplets and such, but that's for when you're good with the basic patterns.

This sets you up for being able to comp using any rhythms you want but keeping your left foot steady on the up beats, essentially the core of jazz drumming.

This is a really condensed explanation, but I hope it helps.

Good Resources to Use

• Drum Concepts and Techniques
  
  
• Syncopation
  
  
• Art of Bop Drumming

I guess a great place to start would be the Vic Firth website. For each of the 40 basic rudiment it has a bronze, silver, and gold challenge. Treat it like a game, where you're trying to get that third star for each level.

I like to stick some tunes on and play (for example) 16 bars of paradiddles, then doubles, then singles in time with the music.. It's important you be able to seamlessly move between rudiments while keeping tempo and dynamic constant.

My book of the moment is Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed. For £1.50 it's a steal, and really can help you get started.

Have you tried getting into Moeller method for your doubles and triples? Also, getting creative with stick control patterns on the drum set makes for better grooves

Edit: As for books, I think you'd get a kick out of Keith Copeland's Creative Coordination for the Performing Drummer. The book covers Jazz, Latin, Fusion and Rock in a way that deconstructs the harder grooves and makes it easy to put them together. Whenever I'm jamming with people who play rock I tend to sneak in some of the Samba from this book and it makes for a more interesting session.

Link:
https://www.amazon.com/ATJ304-Creative-Coordination-Performing-Drummer/dp/0825803861

It's like buying it, but instead of buying it all up front, you make small payments over a long course of time.

also, thanks for the suggestion!
edit:
i looked that up on amazon and it came up with 2 very similar looking things, one of which is at 500, and the other of which is a number 1 best seller and is on sale for 300 down from 400.

500 drum: https://www.amazon.com/Alesis-Forge-Kit-Eight-Piece-User-Loaded/dp/B01BDMKH2Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506315568&sr=8-1&keywords=Alesis+Forge+kit

300 drum: https://www.amazon.com/Alesis-Nitro-Kit-Electronic-Cymbals/dp/B0187KO8X4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1506315568&sr=8-2&keywords=Alesis+Forge+kit

The Yamaha EAD-10 picks up the whole kit, sounds decent, and connects directly to an iPhone, automatically replacing the audio in your phone's video. It has a bunch of effects as well if you're into that sort of thing. A flexible tripod is a good place to start for holding your phone, as they wrap around drum hardware quite nicely. Good luck!

This book is great for better stick control http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1892764040/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
You can learn from books if you the type of person that likes to

Since you can already read music, you have a huge advantage - books. I would try this one out, it will help with your snare/bass issues: https://www.amazon.com/Drummers-Cookbook-John-Pickering/dp/0786692855/

The Drummer's Cookbook. I use it with all my students.

Stick Control and Syncopation for the Modern Drummer

Two of the greatest.

The Art of Bop Drumming is a great place to start http://www.amazon.com/Art-Bop-Drumming-Manhattan-Publications/dp/089898890X

For this stuff I would start with stick control ( http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040) but apply techniques as seen in Jojo Mayer's Secret Weapons for the Modern Drummer. He has the definitive insight into how a stick can be held and controlled. Coupled with Stone's book there are infinite ways to build your technique and maximize speed and comfort without injury.

I would suggest buying the Jojo DVD and the Stone book, but there are bits and pieces of both all over the google / YouTubes.

So far everyone has replied with an incorrect answer.

The correct answer is

STICK CONTROLLLLLLLLLLL