6 Best Drum Sets For Kids That Are Fun to Play!

The Best Drum Set For Kids Buying Guide

Buying a drum set for your child is a fantastic opportunity for them to explore their creativity through rhythm and to learn essential skills!

Drumming is incredibly rewarding and fun and offers a huge number of benefits for young children.

Drumming is not only great fun, but it is also scientifically proven to boost brainpower and develop coordination in young children. Drumming utilizes all four limbs in order to play the whole drum set, developing motor skills, rhythm, and timekeeping.

Drumming also provides the framework for children to develop vital skills such as communication, sharing and listening.

Buying the right kids drum set will ensure that your child has the opportunity to enjoy playing the drums hassle-free and without any equipment issues or breaking.

There are lots of very cheap and tempting drum sets for kids available online, but most of these are poorly made toys and will either break quickly or don’t fulfill their purpose of a drum set.

All of the junior drum sets featured in this product guide are fully functioning kids drum sets that are designed to withstand lots of bashing and to be easy and fun to play.

What’s Included In The Best Drum Set For Kids?

Each of the drum sets within this product guide includes everything your child needs to begin playing the drums. All of the drum sets within this guide will include the following components:

• Drums (5-Pieces)
• Hi hat & crash cymbals
• Hi hat stand
• Cymbal stand
• Snare drum stand
• Bass drum pedal
• Drum throne
• Drum sticks
• Drum key

Is The Best Drum Set For Kids Easy To Set Up?

Kids drum sets are easy to set up and all of the components will generally be shipped in one large box. All of the drum kits in this guide will include drum setup instructions or potentially a DVD.

This is a picture of what all of the components will look like together out of the box. To set it all up should not take longer than one or two hours, but the drums will also require tuning with the provided drum key to sound as good as possible.

The likelihood is that the drums may not come with the drum heads attached. This means you will need to place the drum heads on the drums with the drum hoop and screws (known as tuning rods) provided.

The hardware will also arrive in boxes, and you will be required to put the pieces together. This shouldn’t be too difficult, it will involve attaching the steel tubes together and opening up the tripod legs so it remains sturdy while playing.

How Important Is Sound For A Kids Drum Set?

Because children are not the most discerning listeners, the drum sounds might not be that important to them. However, how good a drum set sounds will matter more over time, and it will also matter for your sanity as parents!

The provided drumheads with kids drum sets are not of good quality, but they can sound acceptable with good tuning and dampening.

I would strongly recommend placing an old towel or pillow inside the bass drum to give it a more punchy and focused sound. You can do this by removing the resonant bass drum skin with the drum key provided.

If a child is showing a lot of enthusiasm and interest in playing the drums then I would suggest eventually upgrading the cymbals to a better quality cymbal pack.

How good a kids drum set sounds is going to be reflective of its build quality and also its durability. The reasons why a kids’ drum set might sound bad will be because of poorly crafted shells, with uneven lugs and malformed bearing edges.

The best sounding junior drum set by far is the Ludwig Questlove Pocket Kit, which is far superior to its rivals in terms of sound as well as design and functionality. The quality of this drum set is like a smaller sized adult drum set!

Other Considerations When Buying a Kids Drum Set

You Can Improve The Sound

When your drum set arrives, you’ll need to build it and tune it to allow the drum set to sound as good as possible. Don’t be too alarmed, this won’t be too difficult.

Basic tuning simply requires you to tune all of the lugs (by using a drum key on the tension rods around the drum) to roughly the same pitch.

You can also greatly improve the sound of the kids-sized drums by adding dampening to the drums. First off, throw a pillow or some blankets inside the bass drum to add muffling and help it achieve a better tone. You can also put some tape on the snare drum and toms to reduce the annoying or ringy overtones.

You Will Likely Need To Buy Better Quality Drum Sticks

Again, no need to be alarmed – good quality drum sticks are inexpensive, yet they will be much better than the cheap drum sticks provided with the kids’ drum sets.

Look for either Vic Firth, Pro-Mark, Vater, or Zildjian drum sticks. These are the best quality options available and they will be comfortable and durable to play with.

Also, you can buy specific kid-sized drum sticks from each of these brands, but if there are none available then choose to buy 7A sized drum sticks.

Encourage and Inspire Your Child to Learn With Online Materials

There are so many great resources online you can use to your advantage to help your child on their drumming journey. You can introduce them to lots of new types of music and show them different types of drum beats.

There is a huge volume of awesome content on YouTube geared towards beginner drummers, including instructional videos and how-to guides.

You can also show your child videos of the best drummers in the world to help inspire them to want to pick up the sticks and play like them! Check out some drummers including Travis Barker, Ringo Starr, Tre Cool, and Keith Moon.

Acoustic Drums Will Make Some Noise

When buying a kid’s drum set, you ought to consider that it might be somewhat of an inconvenience for neighbors or other residents. It shouldn’t present too much of an issue, but it’s worth considering the time of the day your child will be playing, and for how long.

If you live in an apartment or smaller living space (where noise might be an issue) then I would suggest taking a look at buying an electronic drum set for your child. I’ve put together a comprehensive list of the best kids’ electronic drum sets for you to check out, too.

What Is Important For Kids?

For kids, the most important thing is to simply be able to experiment and have fun bashing away on the drums! Drumming is incredibly satisfying; it is expressive as well as being great fun!

Kids drum sets should be comfortable to play with, and all of the hardware should be fully adjustable to be easy-to-reach for children. All the components should be fit for their required purpose within the drum set.

What Age Is The Best Drum Set For Kids For?

Most junior drum sets are advertised to be suitable for children aged 3-8 years old. All of the drum kits on this list are suitable toddler drum sets that will still function suitably up to the later years. The optimal age for most kids’ drum sets is between the ages of 4-7.

The reason why kids drum sets are best suited for this age is that the drums and cymbals are much smaller. After this age, all of the components will be too small to play on comfortably.

If you are looking for a drum set for a 10-year-old or older, then I would suggest you check out my top recommended full-size beginner drum sets!

At What Age Should My Child Begin Drum Lessons?

Children can begin having drum lessons from any age, but it is important to remember that older children will receive more out of drum lessons than a toddler.

There are children from as young as 3 or 4 that possess excellent rhythm and you can watch videos online of young prodigies playing the drums showing enormous promise.

But most children will not yet possess the ability or willingness to practice at such a young age.

I would advise that aged 7 or older is the best age to begin learning the drums with a professional drum tutor, and children of this age will get far more out lessons than younger children.

Generally speaking, children of 7 and older will have the cognitive ability to retain, process, and learn information more so than younger children. Older children will also have the emotional intelligence required in order to be disciplined with practice and have the capability to read drum tabs and sheet music.