Ultimate Guide to Electronic Drums For Beginners in 2022

Many professional and semi-professional drummers despise electronic drum kits as if the devil himself was behind the invention of the things. Even though many scholars and educated music teachers recommend electronic drums for beginners, they are often frowned upon by the pros.

In many ways, these pros are similar to a father who takes his kids out on a rowboat on the lake and tosses them overboard with the fatherly advice, “Sink or swim boys. It’s up to you.”

In a similar fashion, percussionists are inclined to view learning to play the drums as an “either you are good enough to play drums with the pros,” or not. The cream rises to the top goes their thinking, and to hell with the rest.

But talent can be learned, and though they may play with acoustic drums on stage, electronic drumsets can be a terrific aid in building that talent.

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Top reasons that electronic drums are perhaps your best option

The sound problem with normal drums

Unless they are true music lovers, perhaps musicians themselves, there is hardly a parent alive that encourages their son or daughter to learn to play the drums.

How about a nice piano they might say, or a saxophone. Acoustic guitars are also nice.

Or they might respond by buying you a parka and a pair of mittens. “What’s this,” says their 12-year-old future drummer.

“It’s to keep you from freezing when you practice in the garage because you can be sure until the day you turn 18 and we kick you out of the house faster than we use a roll of toilet paper that you’ll never have a drum set in our home over our dead bodies. And oh, by the way, we love you, sweetie.”

The plain fact is, an ordinary set of acoustic drums are loud. So loud that unless you own your own house, you practically are guaranteed to get kicked out of your apartment by your landlord.

Besides garages, most would-be drummers sometimes resort to storage units for practice space. They are just so loud.

With electronic drumsets, you can plug them into a set of headphones, and while they will still make noise, it will be minimal. To parents this is potentially the most important argument as to why Electronic Drums are ideal for beginners.

Endless amounts of drum kits

Electronic drum kits come with dozens, even hundreds of electronic sound effects that extend your drumming reach far beyond an acoustic set. You don’t need to buy a set of conga drums for an additional $300. Just dial it in on your electronic drum set.

A good electronic drum kit will enable you to customize the sound of your drums in a way that would take you perhaps days to do with an acoustic drum set.

Learn technique

Let’s face it, despite the occasional drum solo you’ve heard by a band, people don’t flock to see drum solos. They go to concerts or clubs to hear music.

The drummer keeps the beat and the tempo throughout the song being played, but with the best drummers, it’s so slick the audience doesn’t even recognize the technique.

And no guitarist will be kicked out of the band if he doesn’t relate to and play a certain kind of music, such as one that reverberates with say disco of the 70s.

But the drummer needs to play all styles of music and techniques, and if he or she can’t do that, the band will soon get a better drummer who can.

An electronic drum kit comes with all kinds of sample musical styles, and if there is

one or two missing you can easily record your own.

Can anyone learn to use an electronic drum kit?

The answer is, of course, yes – Electronic Drums are, in fact, perfect for beginners. One way is to use a set of recorded lessons, and then

play them on an iPad or computer device, while playing with your electronic drums.

This will enable you to follow the lessons and build up your drumming skills, just as if you had an actual acoustic drum set.

There may be a slight variance in the sound, but essentially, everything is the same.

Electronic drum sets are a way to broaden your musical styles and abilities, in a way that acoustic drums don’t.

All in one shop

Using an electronic drum kit, you can experiment by taking loops of songs, adding others, trying one sound and see how it blends with the music and playing the same sound and deciding it’s partially discordant.

You can also easily integrate music from your cell-phone playlist, into the mix.

Consequently, electronic drum kits are very versatile.

Playing songs

Drummers are often so fixated on filling the sound, first the snare, then the cymbal, then the bass drum, that they thing rhythmically, not melodically.

With an electronic drum kit, there are often many non-drum samples that encourage ou to play with the music, rather than being the center of attention.

Learning to tone certain sounds down is just as important as knowing when to really beat it out. Electronic drumsets will make you a better musician.

Difficulty of recording acoustic drums

Many drummers would rather get shave their beard with a rusty razor blade than go through the experience again of trying to record their acoustic drum tracks.

You may need a sound studio, several mic’s, a complete turning up of your drums and even a sound engineer.

With an electronic drum set, recording yourself, which is really fantastic, not only for critical review, getting the opinion of other drummers, or practice is a snap with an electronic drum set.

Low Maintenance

Would be drummers often underestimate the amount of maintenance required. Drums and cymbals have to be cleaned regularly and drum heads often need replacing. With a good electronic drum kit, you’ll rarely have to do anything other than a minimal wipe down.

And this, on its own, can be a tremendous advantage.

Prevent Hearing loss

Many drummers have hearing loss by there early ’20s and hearing protection is sadly considered not cool. By their 50’s and 60’s, many are practically deaf.

In 2009 drummer Phil Collins announced his intention to retire, and did so not long afterward, partially because of hearing loss.

With a set of electronic drums, you can simply turn down the volume.

How to buy an electronic drum kit?

Expert musicians and those who play both acoustic and electronic drum kits suggest you answer the following questions:

#1. Is the kit affordable

Have a reasonable idea of what you can afford. And don’t buy a more expensive kit with features you are not likely to use.

#2. Have enough inputs for your needs.

You really should have a minimum of 10 inputs. For example, one input for a kick drum, one for a snare drum, 3 for toms, 3 for cymbals, and one for a hi-hat.

#3. Is the unit expandable for future needs

Can you add additional elements to your drumkit in the future? If not, will you feel stifled, or is the unit be okay, as is?

#4. Do you like the sound quality?

After the salesman has demonstrated some of the features of the unit, ask for 10 minutes alone with the kit. Determine whether the sound quality is just okay, quite decent, or exceptional. But do this alone, without pressure.

If your budget allows, test out the sound quality of slightly more expensive units to see if there is a noticeable difference.

Being content with the sound quality is just about the most important thing you can do.

Bring along a pen and a piece of paper if you find a unit with great sound quality, and write down the exact model number. Then go online, and determine if you can’t save $100 bucks or more.

But never buy a unit online without hearing how it sounds in person first.

Also, if possible, bring along an experienced drummer buddy if you have one.

#5. Can I add my own soundtracks?

This is also a key element you need. Most kits do allow it.

If so, ask exactly how you can do it.

Check out how easy the controls are to use. If it’s too confusing, do you have the patience to figure it out? Does another model have simpler, more natural controls?

#6. Can I connect the module to an iPad or cell-phone?

Again, this is an important feature, and you want to know the answer to this, but determine if it comes with free software, or is that something you need to pay extra for.

#7. Can I listen to the playback on headphones?

This is another feature that should come standard. Without it, you really don’t have the opportunity to operate in silent mode.

#8. How many outputs does it have?

Can I split outputs into snare drums with one output, cymbals with another? Know what your drum kit can do?

#9. How easy is it to set the gain, the volume, and other controls?

Again, you are looking for easy-to-use controls.

#10. How sensitive are the pads?

If you strike one pad, does another vibrate? Can you build up the volume up or down?
Are the drum heads, single, double or triple zoned?

There are many other things for you to consider but you get the idea. When you buy, make sure you have everything you need, which is why, although you might pay a little more, we recommend you buy from a reputable music store. You want to make sure you have a complete kit, and not be required to buy something else before practicing.

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