The full family of drums and percussion — acoustic and electronic kits, hand drums, pitched mallet instruments, and everything in between.
- 118 topics
- 506 articles
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
All news
Drums Notation for Beginners: A Complete Guide
Everyone finds a first drum chart baffling. Here's the handful of things you genuinely need to know before your first proper read-through.
Instruments Tambourine: A Complete Buyer's Guide
Headed or headless, steel or bronze, mounted or handheld — a clear-headed look at what actually matters when you're choosing a tambourine.
Common Snare Mistakes to Avoid
I've fixed more bad-sounding snare drums than I can count, and nine times out of ten it's one of a small handful of habits. Here's the honest fix for each.
The Best Cabasa Instruments for the Money
There's no single best cabasa — only the best type for what you're actually doing with it. Here's how to choose by situation.
Childs Electric Drum Kit Explained: Features, Types and Tips
Toy kit, roll-up pad or a proper compact rig with pedals? Here's what's really inside a child's electronic drum kit, and how to set it up so it gets used.
Natal Drum Kit: A Complete Guide
Natal drum kits deliver handcrafted quality and warm, characterful tone. Compare series from budget Element to premium Originals for your playing style.
Drum Amps: How to Amplify an Electronic Kit
An electronic kit makes almost no sound of its own. How you turn that signal into air is most of what your kit will sound like — and it is the decision people most often get wrong.
How to Set Up and Use Bodhran
Practical setup steps for bodhran: inspect the frame and head, tune for your hand span, position your underhand correctly, and develop relaxed striking technique.
Common Splash Cymbal Mistakes to Avoid
Snare Explained: Features, Types and Tips
A snare drum looks simple from the outside, but underneath is a genuinely clever bit of acoustic engineering. Here's how the pieces interact.
Common Mapex Drum Kit Mistakes to Avoid
Alesis Drum Kit: A Complete Buyer's Guide
A practical buyer's guide to the Alesis range — understanding what each tier delivers, what used kits to look for, and what else you need to play.
Audix Fusion Drum Mic Kit: A Complete Guide
Fusion drum kits balance jazz responsiveness with rock projection, creating versatile instruments ideal for professional musicians working across multiple contemporary genres.
Childs Electric Drum Kit for Beginners: A Complete Guide
No theory, no rushing — just the simplest possible way to start on an electronic drum kit, one hand-and-foot habit at a time.
The Best Dw Drum Kits for the Money
DW's range spans entry-level to full custom. Here is the best kit at each price point — Design Series, Performance Series, Collector's, and what to look for on the used market.
Common Alesis Drum Kit Mistakes to Avoid
Most Alesis drum kit problems come from a small number of fixable errors in setup, module configuration, and practice habits.
Percussion Instruments: A Complete Buyer's Guide
Skip the history lesson: here's a straight-talking walk through what actually matters when you're choosing and checking a percussion instrument.
Common Drum Kit Mistakes to Avoid
Alesis Company for Beginners: A Complete Guide
Thinking about starting out with Alesis? Here's a gentle guide to which range suits you, and why beginner-friendly pricing is the whole point.
Childs Electronic Drum Set for Beginners: A Complete Guide
Getting started on a child's electronic drum set involves more than unboxing — here is how to set it up correctly, configure it and give a young drummer the best possible first experience.
Common Electronic Drum Kit Mistakes to Avoid
The electronic drum kit rewards careful buying and setup, but attracts a predictable set of errors. Here are the ones that come up most often — and why they matter.
Kick Drum for Beginners: A Complete Guide
Setting up, tuning, technique, damping — here's everything a beginner needs to get started with the kick drum, step by step.
Drum Cases: A Complete Buyer's Guide
Choosing drum cases means matching the protection level to how your gear is actually handled. This buyer's guide covers every decision — from gig bags to flight cases, interior fit to hardware transpo...
Acoustic Drum Kit: A Complete Buyer's Guide
Room, budget and musical style are the three questions that determine the right drum kit. Here's how to answer each one before you buy.
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
A
B
C
D
- 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
