Electronic drums on the cheap

I have been thinking for a while about trying to play the drums. I have done some African drumming and still have my djembe, but kit drums are a bit different. Those involve your feet as well as you hands. I did not want to splash out on anything too expensive, so I found this little drum mat on ebay. It has nine pads with pedals for hi-hat and bass drum. There is no brand name anywhere on it, but you can find various people selling this and similar kits online.

The built-in speakers are not too bad, but it has a headphone output as well as an input for whatever you want to play along with. It does sound much better with decent speakers. It is powered over a USB cable and has an internal battery to allow you to roll it up and go play in the park if you like. The USB connection carries MIDI (musical instrument digital information) data that allows you to plug it into a computer and record what drums you hit and use whatever sampled sounds you have. It can also record and play back your drumming.

It comes with drumsticks, but they are not great. The accompaniments built in are not great in my opinion. They are a bit complex for a beginner in my opinion. Despite these shortcomings I am pretty happy with it. It lets me try out my skills.

I have been inspired lately by a series called The Art of Drumming on Sky Arts. The guys on that are amazing, but meanwhile I can find lots of simple lessons on Youtube to get me started. I even found a guy on there with the same name as me, so I had to check him out.

Rock on!

▶️ 3Speak