Bo Eder
Platinum Member
Now that I've been playing for a while, I look back on the purchases I made as a beginner, and the purchases other beginning drummers are making, and I realize how pointless they are for a beginner.
For instance, Cowbells, Chinas, mounted tambourines(Really? I'm the only one that did that?....okay....). Beginners often spend there money on this stuff before they even invest in new drumheads to replace their stock ones.
So post what stuff you wasted your money on as a beginner and the stuff you see beginning drummers waste their money on to amuse us, and advise beginning drummers to stay away from.
I'll post the items that are most commonly listed as being "a waste of money for beginners" here, for a easy reading list so beginners know what to stay away from.
1.Double pedals(eh... arguably? )
2.Cowbells
3.Rem-O's or Aquarian Studio-X rings
4.Extra tom drums.(I would personally say a second snare is unnecessary too.
I've probably been at this longer than most people here and I agree. You don't need a double pedal, or extra drums. The rings (I usually use one on my snare), get made from old heads.
The cowbell, I don't know. I've played alot of music that requires it. You can't play latin beats for the dancers without one, and of course, you can't very well play "Honky Tonk Woman" without one, so I would say that you need one to work. It probably doesn't have to be that huge megabell they sell to the rockers, but I think you should have at least one that's 5 inches.
Cymbals are a sort of a different thing. Yes, I only use a ride, crash, and hats on most of my jobs. Maybe I'll add a china as a secondary ride because it just sounds dumb if you ride behind every soloist with the same sound - but this is a musical judgment - you can easily ride your crash or hats when people are soloing too.
But at the same time, the only reason you walk into a music store today and see all this cool stuff to buy is because people are buying it. So, if stores and manufacturers dictated to us what we should buy, the industry would be alot less exciting, don't you think? It's good for business.