The full family of drums and percussion — acoustic and electronic kits, hand drums, pitched mallet instruments, and everything in between.
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Inside Drums & Percussion
All 118 topicsThe 12 most-searched of 118 topics. The full index is at the foot of the page.
Electronic Drum Kit
Electronic drum kits for quiet practice, recording and adaptable modern drumming.
5 topics
Xylophone
Xylophones are tuned wooden percussion instruments with a bright, articulate sound for schools, ensembles and performanc...
1 topic
Drum Kit
Choose a drum kit for practice, recording or live work, with acoustic and electronic options to suit every drummer.
14 topics
Claves
Bright, compact rhythm sticks that deliver a clear click for Latin grooves, ensemble work and classroom percussion.
Glockenspiel
Glockenspiels deliver bright, bell-like tuned percussion for orchestral, educational and studio use.
4 topics
Drum Sticks
Drum sticks shape feel, tone and control, with options for practice, performance and different playing styles.
1 topic
Chimes
Orchestral percussion for shimmering accents, dramatic swells and atmospheric colour in live or studio settings.
1 topic
Bongos
Add lively hand percussion to your setup with bongos for Latin grooves, teaching and live performance.
2 topics
Tambourine
Find tambourines for bright accents, rhythmic lift and versatile hand percussion across many styles.
2 topics
Tubular Bells
Tubular bells are pitched concert percussion instruments known for resonant, bell-like tones in orchestral and theatrica...
Maracas
Maracas add bright rhythmic texture and easy-to-use percussion colour for studio, school and live performance.
2 topics
Drums
Drums for every player, from complete kits to upgrade parts, with options for practice, recording and live performance.
26 topicsArticles on Drums & Percussion
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China Cymbal Explained: Features, Types and Tips
The inverted cup and turned-up edge give a china cymbal its trashy, aggressive character. Here is what you need to know about how they work and how to use them.
Vibraphone Explained: Features, Types and Tips
How a vibraphone is built, how its motor creates that shimmering vibrato, and how it went from a 1920s invention to a jazz essential.
Drum Throne for Beginners: A Complete Guide
Setting up your first drum throne correctly matters more than you might think. Learn how height, stability and padding affect your practice and how to choose the right throne as a beginner.
Agogo Bells: A Complete Buyer's Guide
Classroom set or handmade Brazilian bell? Here is how to match agogo bells to how you actually play, what to check on the weld and beater, and the pitfalls to avoid.
Brushes Drum for Beginners: A Complete Guide
Learning drum brush technique is systematic. This guide takes you from first sweep to a working jazz pattern with practical advice at each step.
The Best Istanbul Agop Cymbals for the Money
The best Istanbul Agop cymbal depends entirely on your context. Here are the standout picks from entry-level through to professional, with honest reasoning for each.
Sonor Drum Kit: A Complete Buyer's Guide
Configuration, shell size, hardware quality and whether cymbals are included — here's how to navigate each decision before buying.
Djembe for Beginners: A Complete Guide
A complete beginner's guide to djembe: what you need, how to hold it, learning the three basic tones, simple first patterns, practice tips, and resources for continued learning.
Brushes Drum Explained: Features, Types and Tips
Drum brushes produce sounds that sticks cannot. Here is how they work, what the types are, and the key techniques that define them.
Common Drum Key Mistakes to Avoid
Most drum tuning problems trace back to a handful of predictable drum key mistakes — here is a clear look at what they are and exactly how to avoid them.
Common Bongo Drumming Mistakes to Avoid
The most common bongo drumming mistakes are habits, not talent problems. Here is what to catch early, and the simple fix for each one.
Agogo Bells for Beginners: A Complete Guide
No music reading required: here is a gentle, encouraging way into agogo bells, from the basic grip to your first simple pattern and a realistic practice routine.
The Best Drum Kits for the Money
Common Steel Pedal Mistakes to Avoid
Because a steel pedal guitar is mechanically unlike anything else, it creates its own specific pitfalls. Here are the ones I see most often.
The Best Steel Tongue Drums for the Money
Not a single winner — a straight, use-case-by-use-case guide to which steel tongue drum actually earns its keep.
Common Dw Drum Kit Mistakes to Avoid
A DW drum kit demands more careful ownership than a budget instrument. These are the most common mistakes new DW owners make and how to fix them.
Ride Cymbal: A Complete Guide
The ride cymbal is the rhythmic backbone of a drum kit. This guide explains how it works, what the specifications mean, and how to choose one for your playing context.
Guiro Explained: Features, Types and Tips
The dry, ratchety scrape behind salsa and son, explained: how a guiro is built, the main types you'll find, and where it earns its keep.
How to Set Up and Use Drums Notation
There's a reliable order for tackling a new drum chart. Follow these eight steps and even a busy-looking page stops feeling overwhelming.
The Ultimate Guide to Metal Snare Drum Comparison
Metal snare drums deliver cutting attack and strong projection prized in rock, metal and funk. This guide explores different metal types, tonal characteristics and how to select the perfect instrument...
The Best Hi Hat Stands for the Money
From the Pearl H-930 at the mid-range to the DW 9500 at professional level, these are the best hi-hat stands across every budget and what makes each one worth buying.
Tubular Bells for Beginners: A Complete Guide
A gentle, step-by-step route in for anyone standing in front of a set of tubular bells for the very first time, with no experience assumed.
Common Drum Pad Mistakes to Avoid
From a soundcheck perspective: the drum pad mistakes I see most often, and the quick fix for each one before they cost you on stage.
Childrens Electronic Drum Set for Beginners: A Complete Guide
The first session sets the habits. Here's how to get the setup right, start with the metronome, and make the first few weeks actually useful.
What Drums & Percussion Covers
Drums & percussion is the broadest family in music: it covers every instrument that produces sound by striking, shaking, scraping or setting a surface in vibration. The category divides into membranophones — instruments with a stretched skin or synthetic head, such as a snare drum or djembe — and idiophones, where the solid body of the instrument itself produces the sound, as with a xylophone, cowbell or claves.
Drum Kits: Acoustic and Electronic
The acoustic drum kit — bass drum, snare, tom-toms, hi-hats and cymbals — remains the foundation of rock, jazz and pop. Every component has its own page here, from choosing drum sticks and replacement heads to selecting the right cymbals for a given style. Electronic drum kits and percussion pads use triggers and sampled sounds, and are increasingly popular for practice, home recording and smaller venues where volume matters. Hybrid kits combine acoustic shells with electronic triggering, giving players the feel of real heads alongside the flexibility of on-board sound libraries.
Hand Percussion
Hand percussion spans dozens of world traditions. Congas, bongos and claves draw from Afro-Cuban music; the djembe comes from West Africa; the cajón from Peru; the bodhrán from Irish folk. Frame drums, goblet drums and shakers appear in folk, classical and popular music alike. When choosing a hand drum, the key considerations are playing technique, head material, tuning range, portability and whether it is intended for solo practice, ensemble playing or live performance.
Pitched Percussion
Pitched percussion instruments play identifiable notes and sit at the intersection of rhythm and melody. Xylophones, marimbas, vibraphones, glockenspiels, tubular bells and the celesta are all mallet instruments, found in orchestras, concert bands, musical theatre and studio production. The handpan — a relatively modern bowl-shaped idiophone — has attracted a dedicated following for its resonant, meditative tone.
Accessories and Smaller Percussion
The tambourine, triangle, cowbell, shaker and chimes might not anchor the rhythm section, but in the right moment they define a recording. This section also covers the accessories that hold everything together: drum sticks and mallets, beaters and brushes, mounting hardware, cymbal stands, drum pedals, replacement heads, cases and triggers.
All 118 topics in Drums & Percussion
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- Djembe
- Double Bass Pedal
- Dream Cymbals
- Drum Bags
- Drum Cases
- Drum Hardware
- Drum Hardware
- Drum Heads
- Drum Key
- Drum Kit
- Drum Mutes
- Drum Pad
- Drum Rack
- Drum Rug
- Drum Shells
- Drum Sticks
- Drum Throne
- Drums
- Drums & Percussion (General)
- Drums & Percussion — Other Brands
- Drums & Percussion — Pearl
- Drums & Percussion — Tama
- Drums & Percussion — Yamaha
- Dw Drum Kit
