If You Buy an Electric Drum Set...

A True Story About the Importance of Being Content with What You Have and Overcoming the Insatiable Desire for "More"

Introduction

A few years ago I bought an electric drum set for a few hundred dollars from the local music store. I thought this would be a fun new thing to try. Two years and many upgrades later, after getting obsessed with buying new cymbals, new drums, and everything else that goes along with them, I realized that the constant desire for "more, more, more..." was emptying my wallet without bringing contentment. There was no finish line in sight for this incessant desire for more. What follows is a true and simple story. It took me a few thousand dollars to learn that happiness and contentment come from within and not from without. I hope that others may learn from my story and find contentment - both with your drum collection and you life.

Story

If you buy an electric drum set...

• Alesis Nitro Mesh Drum Kit ($350). Total = $350

You're going to need a drum throne to go with it.

• Donner Drum Throne ($80). Total = $430

You're also going to need some drum lessons so you can learn how to play. Online drum lessons are good value for the money.

• 1-year subscription to online drum lessons ($240). Total = $670

Eventually, you're going to hate your cheap, plastic cymbals and you're going to wonder what real ones sound like. So you'll buy some real cymbals and some stands.

• Low volume cymbal pack and hardware set ($540). Total = $1,210

You'll also be hearing about how much better drums sound with a better speaker, so you'll pick up one of those:

• Studio monitor/speaker ($100). Total = $1,310

You already have cymbals and stands. You'll start to realize it's only a couple hundred dollars to buy a cheap, acoustic drums to go with them. You might as well get some to try...

• Used acoustic drum set ($360). Total = $1,670

And since you don't want to keep moving your seat between the two drum sets, you might as well buy another drum throne:

• Another drum throne ($70). Total = $1,740

You probably won't like how your acoustic drums sound. You'll need to get a drum tuner to try and tune those darn things.

• Electric drum tuner ($100). Total = $1,840

And when you still don't like how the acoustic drums sound, you'll go back to your electric set. You'll realize that some computer software can make your electric drums sound amazing.

• EZDrummer ($70). Total = $1,910

But the acoustic drums still don't sound good. You'll try some new drum heads, moon gel, and maybe some gaffer tape on them to improve the sound.

• Drum heads, moon gel, gaffer tape ($150). Total = $2,060

They still won't sound good. So you'll just enjoy playing your electric set. Eventually, you'll start wanting to upgrade it to something a little bit fancier...

• New electric drum set ($2,300). Total = $4,360

Now things are sounding great!! Let's tweak our setup a bit. Let's get a computer interface that lets us output stereo sound to the amplifier and listen in on headphones if we want to.

• Computer audio interface with new audio cables and better headphones ($160). Total = $4,520

Let's also try some new drum software that everyone says sounds better than what we have.

• Addictive Drums 2 ($120). Total = $4,640

Wow! That sounds great! Let's try a few different add-on packs and see how they sound:

• Add-ons for Addictive Drums and EZDrummer ($100). Total = $4,740

You've been on this drumming journey for a year now. Time to renew the annual subscription for your online lessons:

• Annual renewal of online drum lesson subscription ($240). Total = $4,980

The electric drums are amazing, but the acoustic set just sits in the corner of your room looking lonely. Maybe it would sound better if you got it professionally tuned.

• Drum tuning at the local drum shop ($100). Total = $5,080

Now they sound like drums! (In hindsight: I should have taken them to get tuned immediately after buying them.). They're actually fun to play now. But I bet they'd sound better with some cymbals that I saw at the drum shop...

• Name brand cymbals: hi-hat, crash, and ride ($1700). Total = $6,780

After a few months, you start to realize those cymbals don't sound quite right. You decide to try some new ones. Let's not go name-brand this time since we now know that you can get good sound for less:

• High-end cymbals, not name brand ($820). Total = $7,600

The cymbals are sounding great, but it doesn't seem right to have this collection of high-end cymbals on your cheap, entry-level drum set. Let's upgrade to something a bit nicer...

• Ayotte Custom Drum Set, used ($1900). Total = $9,500

And let's get a new snare drum to go with it since it didn't come with one.

• Sonor AQ2 Steel Snare Drum ($170). Total = $9,670

And then let's try out a new cymbal:

• Crash cymbal ($110). Total = $9,780

Nope. Not that one. Let's try another:

• Another crash cymbal ($300). Total = $10,080

Now I have so many cymbals, that half of them just sit on the ground and don't get used. It wouldn't be that much more money to get another drum set to go with them. I could get that one with the big bass drum and the big floor tom and mix them with my main kit if I want:

• Another acoustic drum set ($900). Total = $10,980

And now I'll need another snare drum to go with that nice new set:

• Another snare drum ($415). Total = $11,395

The End?

At this point, I've been playing drums for two years. I'm getting pretty good. All together, I've probably spend $15,000 on equipment and lessons. The drum sets sound amazing. I spend a lot of time online watching videos and reading reviews about different types of drums and cymbals. I love the feeling of ordering a new snare drum or cymbal, knowing it's on the way to me in the mail. I love the thrill of seeing it on the doorstep, of unpacking it, adding it to the kit, and rocking out with it for a few hours. I'm wishing I had an 18" floor tom to go with my set, but I just can't justify the cost. (It costs as much as the entire drum set I just bought!) I start to wonder if I should try an acrylic set - or maybe just an acrylic snare drum. Would it be crazy to have three acoustic sets (and one electric) in the basement? Would I use them?

Instinctively, I know that this is starting to get crazy. In fact, it might have been crazy for quite some time already. I fight the urge to buy that 18" floor tom or the acrylic drums. They stay on my watch list. I occasionally get emails or ads for them, but I know I don't need them. I look at my drum setup and feel a little bit silly. A little bit guilty. Is this too much? Did I really need all this?

I mainly play the large, acoustic set these days. I use the smaller set when I'm practicing a lesson from a book. I do enjoy the different feel of it, and having less toms helps me focus on the basics when I'm learning. The electric set doesn't get played as much as I'd like. It sounds great and is fun to play. I can also play it at night when the acoustic drums would be too loud. But if I have the choice between the two, I go for the acoustic set almost every time.

I probably could have been happy with just the electric drums - the good set, not the tiny set I started with. I've learned along the way that the acoustic drums just don't sound as good as the electric drums that are preprocessed, mix-ready, and provide a variety of drum sets and sounds. But there is something about the acoustic sets and cymbals that helps bring out the inner, aspiring rock star. It feels great to get behind the big set and bash away at those drums and cymbals. I'm sure the neighbors love it too. But there is always something that sounds just a little bit off - maybe a tom that could be tuned differently or a cymbal that could be changed out. The electric set is perfect every time.

I hate to say it, but as I go into my third year of drumming, I'm not playing nearly as much as I used to. I still play once or twice a week, but it's not the daily obsession that it used to be.

I love my drum collection. But more importantly, I've learned to be content with what I have. I know that buying a new tom or a new cymbal isn't going to make that much of a difference, really. It might be fun for a day or two, but after that I'll find the next thing that I think could send a bit better and be chasing after that. The desire to constantly buy new drums, new cymbals, new software, new tools was really taking me over for a while there. It consumed me. And after many months and several thousands of dollars, I started to realize that it would never be enough. I would never feel like I had the perfect drum set because there would always be something that could sound just a little bit better, or perhaps there'd be a new set or upgrade that would catch my attention. It wasn't until I realized that and learned this lesson, that I could truly be content with what I had and stop chasing after that next new thing. I realized that the desire for "more" never goes away. You will never feel that you ever have enough if you are always chasing after "more."

For most people, contentment is a choice. Most of us already have so much. Especially if we have enough free time to play drums for fun and enough money to buy a good starter set. If I were to start again, knowing what I know now, I'd suggest budgeting $2,000 for your drum set. You can buy a great electronic drum set for this price, or you could buy a $1,000 acoustic drum set and still have $1,000 to spend on cymbals. You probably don't need both acoustic and electric drums, but if you can afford them (and have room for them), it can be great. If I only played electric, I'd always wonder what "real" acoustic drums sound like. But once you have an acoustic set, you'll realize how difficult it is to get that perfect sound that comes so easily to the electric set. In fact, it's impossible, since the electric drums are processed and sound better than any acoustic set will without that same processing. Acoustic drums were the most expensive part of my journey by far. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who didn't have the time, money, or guidance to play around with different sets, try different cymbals, and buy, sell, and trade until things get close to what you have in mind. And realize that they will never sound exactly the way that you'd like - at least, I haven't gotten there yet.

Whatever you choose, be careful when you buy that first drum set for only a few hundred dollars. There are likely to be a lot more costs, a lot more learning, and a lot more temptations after that. There will be plenty of online websites and retailers encouraging you to empty your wallet in chase of that "perfect" sound. At some point, you just have to learn to be happy with what you have. It's an important lesson not only in drumming, but also in life. And the sooner you learn it, the less costly that lesson will be.

Music and Life

I love my drums. I love rocking out and playing along with some good music. I love my family. I love my life. And I've found that I'm much happier when I learn to be content with what I have. Instead of chasing "more", I try to appreciate everything I have and to be thankful for it. I try to practice this in life too, and I find that I am happier appreciating what I have instead of wondering what more I could have. Just like music, you need to be present in the moment, to immerse yourself in the now. Take whatever you have around you, and find a way to make music with it. Find a way to express whatever it is that is deep down inside of you, wanting to find its way out. Music, love, contentment, and passion come from within. When you realize this, you can make music with practically anything. Life becomes your instrument, ready to help you express yourself and find yourself in that expression. Without this realization and perspective, you will always be chasing the next new thing, hoping that it will finally bring you happiness, peace, and contentment. But... it will never be enough.