the thing i hate the most about drumming is the fact that I cant practice at night because of my neighbors.
I was thinking of spending some money on a nice electric drumset, I played on them and they sound good enough for me, and itll be cool to be able to jam with people with it because of the option to play at much lower volumes.
I was wondering however, would practicing on an electric drumset hold me back? do you think it may make me worst at playing on a regular set? could it be possible that I develop bad habits on the electric?
hey chris!
it is basically a drummer's curse (alongside with many others like finding sufficient space to set up, storage and transportation is a pain in the butt etc) to be interested in such a noisy instrument, but it is also somehow makes this instrument so unique and easy to fall in love with.
being an e drum user effectively for a couple of years now, i can assure you it has countless advantages and it sure is an excellent practice tool. so it definitely
does not affect your playing in a bad way. on the contrary it affects your playing in a positive way. there are some very good reasons to own an e drum set, those are:
- an e drum set is almost silent compared to an acoustic set (no risk of frustrated neighbors for apartment drummers)
- it is always ready to go with a single on/off switch and good for home use
- the fact that it is always ready to go encourages the user to sit behind it and practice more frequently so that is a big plus
- most sets have a lot of fun and educational functions and very precise built-in metronomes so you can always practice with a click track. yamaha has a rhythm-gate and groove check function that is a lot of fun to work with.
- you can play along to your favorite song or the songs of different musical styles that come up with the module or sequences, or play along to their bass guitar tracks only to learn how to respond to a bass player without hearing the other instruments in the groove
- it is called a drum set but it could be used in a totally different way. a percussion set, a synth etc. so it helps ignite your creativity/imagination. because basically it is whatever you want it to be
- since it's a switch away to get ready to go, you don't have to worry about tuning or sound-checking (you would have to learn that on an acoustic set anyway)
- further you progress, you can use it to record your drum parts on an actual project with assistance of a computer and a sound editing software using the good old midi technology (most drum modules in the market have midi connectivity as a standard)
- most importantly if you are only planning to use it for practice purposes it is a hell of a lot better to practice hearing an actual drumset sound rather than taps on a practice pad that gives you no idea how it would sound for real
those are the most obvious ones that i could come up with in a heartbeat. if the feel is a big worry for you (fact of the matter is you can always adjust to it pretty quickly) you can choose a set that comes up with mesh pads (roland, pintech) or buy a module only and set up your actual drumset equipped with mesh practice heads and acoustic drum triggers connected to the module. the rebound and overall feel in mesh heads is very close to the real deal.
if you have further questions i would gladly be of assistance.
cheers!