Already Have the Drum Method?

Thank you for supporting our small business! We hope you’re having fun working through the 10 Drum Lessons for Kids and, most importantly, having fun making music together!

We’ve put together a few additional resources and some of our favorite products that have helped make learning the drums a little easier for our own family.

Don’t Have the 10-Lesson Program Yet?

If you found this page from a friend, a QR code, or one of our other resources, welcome!

Our 10 Drum Lessons for Kids introduce rhythm and coordination one step at a time using simple, kid-friendly symbols and progressively more challenging beats.

It’s designed for parents and teachers—even if you’ve never taught drums before.

https://creeksidecreativelab.etsy.com/listing/4603512239

How It Started

This started with a 5-year-old, his dad, and a whiteboard.

I’ve been playing music for most of my life, including guitar, bass, and singing in rock bands, along with piano, upright bass, trombone, and choirs. But when I sat down to teach my 5-year-old the drums, I discovered that knowing music and explaining it to a 5-year-old are two very different things.

So we grabbed a whiteboard. He helped me come up with the symbols, and the teaching tips throughout the lessons came from the things that actually worked for him. As we worked on learning the drums together, we found that traditional notation could be a little overwhelming for a young beginner. So we started creating our own simple symbols to show what to play. The teaching tips throughout these lessons came from the things that actually worked for him.

We hope this simple approach helps your child build confidence, learn to keep a beat, and—most importantly—have fun making music.

🥁 Our Favorite Drum Gear

Drum Set
A good starter drum set doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s the one we recommend for getting young kids started.

https://amzn.to/4qhBOtD

Drum Sticks
The right size sticks can make a big difference for little hands. These are the ones we’ve found work well for young beginners. The rods (group of thin wood rods) actually lower the volume a bit but still teach the right grip and feel, so we let our kid play with these without headphones.

https://amzn.to/4qjN5tF

Here’s a mix pack of stick types and we make him put on headphones when he plays with the regular maple 5A sticks.

https://amzn.to/4xOnOKI

Hearing Protection
Drums are loud! We recommend properly fitting hearing protection to help protect little ears, especially when playing with standard sticks as mentioned above. These ones have worked great and have fit comfortably for our kid.

https://amzn.to/4cMsJ6z

Drum Throne

The thrones we found were actually too high for my kid when we started teaching him and it made the foot pedal work on the high hat and bass drum a little more difficult. We tried out a kids chair instead and it worked much better for us. Here’s the ones that we already had for a folding table that we wound up using for the early days of drum set lessons.

https://amzn.to/4zlLNlX

Envelope for the Printable Lessons

We chose a clear envelope with a small velcro latch which can fit the whole printed 10 lesson plan. They come in a pack so you can keep the teacher guides and kids beat pages in separate envelopes to make things more organized.

https://amzn.to/4gZawFo

Hi Hat Setup

To get a good hi hat tone without involving the left foot, try loosening the screw on top of the top cymbal. Once sliding free, press down slightly with your foot about 1/4” and then tighten. This should give a pleasant hi hat sound when hit without using their foot.

Bass Drum Pedal Setup

Many bass drum pedals have an adjustable spring that controls how much resistance you feel when pressing the pedal. This is typically a small thumbscrew under the pedal at the bottom of the spring. Try reducing the spring tension to make the pedal easier for little feet to press down and move the beater forward. This can help young drummers generate enough power for a full beater motion without straining. Make small adjustments and test the pedal until it feels comfortable and the beater returns reliably after each hit.

For a more detailed instruction on adjustments see your manual or this sweetwater page: https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/dialing-in-your-bass-drum-pedal/

🥁 Now go make some noise!