Maybe a better question would be-How would it be like to play drums on the International Space Station ?
It has already been done, at least using sticks and pad, but before telling about it, lets look at playing out in Space, in the vacuum.
Floating zero G space drummers need to use triggered electric drums because of the aforementioned lack of air to conduct sound waves. Of course playing is made difficult by the space suit, but with special adaptations designed by NASA engineers, the fingers, wrists, and ankles would be quite nimble, and you would have had lots of mission prep back at Houston mock-up. NASA would have built a floating rack system to hold the drums secure, complete with jet pack, so you could thrash away hard, clipped in to the throne. When you break sticks you'd just toss 'em, they could become just another piece of space junk, eventually burning up on re-entry, a little flash of light visible from Earth.
Just imagine! Playing while tethered to the Space Station, floating in Space, inspired by the immensity of our beautiful blue planet, traveling 17,500 miles per hour, going around the Earth every 1.5 hours!!!
Back on board the Space Station there has been lots of music made. Guitars, electric piano, Native American flute, didgeridoo have all traveled there and been played by the astronauts. Of course they are floating in zero G so that adds a certain gaiety to playing, but sound is there in the artificial atmosphere, accompanied by the hum of machinery.
Astronaut and Shuttle Commander Jim Wetherbee, an accomplished drummer, brought drum sticks to the International Space Station. He told me that it is not so very different from playing on Earth. The sticks are secure in the hand and when you strike a surface the rebound is dictated by the same physics as on Earth, the effects of gravity are negligible. I suppose he secured his feet so he himself would not float around.
