Standard Kit Expansion – When is the Right Time?

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When starting to learn the drums, many of us dream far into the future. We want to be the best drummers with great technique and great speed. When we buy our first drum kit, we also want it to be the best possible. When we play for a while, we start to wonder what else we could do to make our game look even better and more interesting. Then we often come up with an idea to expand our percussion empire.

Such a classic standard drum kit used in entertainment consisting of a central drum, a snare drum, usually two cauldrons, a well and drum cymbals. However, before we start expanding our set with new elements, it is worth asking yourself a question from this psychological point of view. Would I be sure I won everything I had to win on this basic set? When we started learning to play, we first performed all the exercises on the snare drum. It is the basic workshop for us. Only when we mastered the snare drum, the individual figures of the exercise could be transferred to the individual elements of the set. A similar hierarchy should be used when expanding the set. Let’s do it wisely so that it doesn’t turn out that we have a lot of cauldrons around and not much comes out of it.

Where to start?

There is no strict rule on which element to start expanding the set with. Each drummer has his own specific preferences, so the most important thing is experience, which is gained over the years of playing. If, while playing on the basic set, we sense that we lack something in the music and we could play it even better, then it is worth analyzing what sound we need the most. If we miss a lower sound, maybe it is worth considering buying a second well. If, for example, we have a 16-inch well, we can buy a second 18-inch well. On the other hand, if during the passages on the cauldrons we feel the lack of a certain high tone, then you can consider buying, for example, an 8-inch cauldron, which would complement our basic pair of 10 and 12-inch volumes. In order to enrich the sound, you can also think about installing various types of percussion instruments, such as cowbell, chimes or tambourine. If you need a fast and dense foot, it is worth equipping yourself with a double foot or a second headquarters.

My personal suggestion for expanding the set is to start the expansion by adding individual cymbals, i.e. sheets. With a hi-hat, crash, ride as standard, it is worth adding, for example, an accent, splash, china or another, for example, a larger crash. Well-chosen metal plates can do a lot of effective work. Of course, there are a lot of these configurations, so it is worth analyzing what we really need.

When buying a basic set, it is worth checking immediately whether a given model has the possibility of expansion and, if so, what variants. It is rather not preferred to choose drums from other brands or even from other series of a given manufacturer, and it is not even about the appearance or other handles, but most of all about the sound. A drum from a different set, which is made of a different tree in a different technology, could completely disrupt the sonic harmony of the whole set. When expanding the cymbals, let’s also choose them so that the new ones sound well with the old ones. When buying plates from the same series, it will not be a problem, but when we mix brands and series, it is worth checking it carefully here.