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Drums & Percussion

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  • Acoustic Drums

  • Electronic Drums

  • Cymbals

  • Drum & Percussion Accessories

PDP by DW New Yorker 4-Piece Shell Pack With 16" Bass Drum
4.0 of 5 stars (1)
Product Price  $449.99
MEINL Loud Round Wood Shaker, Oak
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Product Price  $12.99
MEINL Soft Round Wood Shaker, Lime
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Product Price  $12.99
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Ludwig Black Beauty 8-Lug Brass Snare Drum
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Product Price  $849.00
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MEINL Byzance Dual China Cymbal
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MEINL Artist Series Amadito Valdes Signature Timbales
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Product Price  $729.99
Or $15.21/month^ with 48 month
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MEINL Pure Alloy Custom Trash Crash
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from  Product Price  $269.99
MEINL Pure Alloy Custom Medium Thin Hi-Hat Cymbal Pair
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from  Product Price  $419.99
MEINL Percussion Analog Stomp Box
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Product Price  $119.99
MEINL Byzance Dual Multi-Trash Cymbal
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Product Price  $309.99
MEINL HCS Bronze Trash Splash Cymbal
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Product Price  $74.99
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MEINL Byzance Dual Hi-Hat Cymbals
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Product Price  $569.99
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MEINL Byzance Dual Trash Crash
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MEINL Shaker Pandeiro
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Product Price  $129.99
MEINL Traditional Poplar Wood Pandeiro
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Product Price  $129.99
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Sela Harmony Handpan D Amara SE202 With Bag
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Product Price  $1,799.00
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$1,439.20
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Sela Harmony Handpan Stainless Steel D Kurd SE201 With...
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Product Price  $1,799.00
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Paiste Formula 602 Classic Sounds Paperthin Crash Cymbal
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Product Price  $605.00
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Paiste Formula 602 Medium Crash Cymbal
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from  Product Price  $389.00
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LP 3D Cube String Cajon with Bag
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Product Price  $269.99
LP World Rope-Tuned Circle Djembe, 7 in.
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Product Price  $49.99
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LP Matador Whiskey Barrel Conga, with Black Hardware
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from  Product Price  $509.99
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Toca Player's Series Black Sparkle Wood Bongos
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Product Price  $105.99
MEINL Low-Pitch Percussion Block
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Product Price  $49.99
MEINL High Pitch Percussion Block Black
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Product Price  $39.99
MEINL Classics Custom Brilliant Effects Cymbal Pack with...
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Product Price  $339.99
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Dixon Classic Hybrid Maple Wood Hoop Snare Drum
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from  Product Price  $189.99
Sabian Mini Monster Stack
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Product Price  $286.99
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Dixon Cornerstone Steel Snare Drum
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Product Price  $245.99
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Dixon Artisan Blue Titainium Steel Snare Drum
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Product Price  $589.99
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MEINL Alpine Synthetic Djembe in Barnwood Finish
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Product Price  $129.99
MEINL Face Shaker
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Product Price  $7.99
Stagg Genghis Duo Series Medium Crash Cymbal
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from  Product Price  $169.99
Stagg Genghis Duo Series Medium Ride Cymbal
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from  Product Price  $319.99
Pearl Compact Traveler 2-Piece Drum Kit With Bag
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Product Price  $460.99
MEINL Mike Johnston Signature Groove Cowbell
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Product Price  $64.99
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Gon Bops Bucket Shekere
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Product Price  $164.99
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Sabian HHX Complex Medium Hats
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DW Design Series Acrylic Snare Drum
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Product Price  $399.00
Sabian AAX Heavy Crash Cymbal
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from  Product Price  $339.99

About Drums

Drums and percussion are likely the second oldest musical instruments, beaten only by the voice itself. Percussion instruments produce sound by being struck, shaken, scraped or rubbed. Drums are just one member of the percussion family. They refer specifically to instruments with head or skin stretched over a shell. The technical term for the drum head is a membrane, making the drum a membranophone.

When you think about drums and percussion, your first thought might go to a drum set with a snare drum, rack toms, floor toms, bass drum, cymbals and cymbal stands. Perhaps you're a hand percussionist and drums to you are bongos, congas, timbales, cajons or even djembes. This just goes to show the wide variety of instruments within the drum and percussion category, and with such a long, rich history it’s easy to see why there are so many variations and types of drum in world.

Drum History

Drums and percussion instruments are the oldest musical instruments in history and haven’t changed much in the course of a few thousand years. One of the oldest discovered drums was made with an alligator skin and dates back to as early as 5500 B.C. Every culture on every continent used drums in some form, whether it was for musical purposes, communication with distant neighbors or relaying commands on the battle field. We've all seen the paintings of the Revolutionary War drummers marching on the front lines, or the ancient hortator keeping time on the Viking longship. However, as technology evolved, so did the drum.

Drum Construction

The basic principal of every drum is the same: a round cylinder with a drum head—or a drum skin— that you strike with your hand or a drum stick or mallet. The head is held down by a hoop or a rim, and tension rods or rope thread into a lug. The distinction made between drums and hand drums is somewhat obvious. Any drum you play using your hands is a hand drum or hand percussion. Acoustic drum heads vary widely depending on the type of drum they're on. A typical drum set drum uses a drum head made of mylar on the top and bottom of the drum, while hand drums often only have a calfskin head on top. To tune the drum up or down, you tighten or loosen the drum head.

The drum shells are constructed from a myriad of materials including wood, metal and plastic, and the different wood species or metals can produce special sounds. Many companies such as DW, TAMA and Yamaha create hybrid drum shells which utilize different tone woods or metal and wood to achieve a unique sound. Wood drum shells are constructed in several ways but the two most common ways are multi-ply construction or stave construction. Multi-ply drum shells are constructed using anywhere from three to 20 thin pieces of wood that are glued and pressed together. Stave drum shells are built using one piece of wood that is typically steam bent into its cylindrical shape.

Electronic Drums

Electronic drums originally started out as simple metronome machines and evolved in the early 1970s into something closer to what they are today. Companies such Roland, Yamaha and Simmons produced the first electronic drum sets. They became popular and commercially successful in the early 1980s as technology and samples became better and more advanced. Electronic drum kits or e-kits have a very similar design to acoustic drum sets. There's a snare, toms, bass drum, cymbals and you play it using drum sticks. However, electronic drums utilize rubber or mesh heads and the cymbals are rubberized pads. The biggest advantage to electronic drums is the amount of drum and percussion sounds you can program, as well as the built-in, complete drum sets.

Drum Set Cymbals

A typical drum set or percussion setup utilizes cymbals. A drum set includes a pair of hi-hats, a crash cymbal or two, and a ride cymbal. However, experimenting with different cymbal sounds has become very popular and many drummers often have effects—or FX—cymbals in their setup, including china cymbals, splash cymbals and cymbal stacks. Most cymbals are made from bronze alloy and are either machine or manually hammered into their final form.