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James Rawson - Drums : Sessions -  Tours - Cruises - Residencies - Deps - Tuition

This is the student area, a resource for all my current and prospective students. Here you’ll find helpful information and links to sites and products that may be of help to you.

Choosing the right drums

If you are at the stage where you are looking to buy drums, then this information should be helpful to you.

First decision is acoustic or electric, both have advantages and disadvantages. Don’t forget if you are short of cash both electric and Acoustic kits can be bought second hand especially from places such as ebay.  - If this is the path you choose to take, feel free to give me a ring or an email an I can take a look online and help you decide if it’s worth going for or not. As a very basic I idea, look to pay around 1/2 the retails price for 2nd hand drums a few years old.

Acoustic kits will always feel more natural and respond to playing more precisely, they are usually cheaper for a starter kit, but can create a very loud sound which can be annoying for neighbours (tell me about it!!!) also need tuning and quality heads to obtain a good sound. For gigs acoustic are great  because you rarely need to amplify the drums in small venues meaning there’s no messing about having to plug into a P.A system or speakers.

Electronic kits have the massive advantage of being near silent when used with headphones, need no tuning and have a massive choice of sounds which you can usually assign to any pad meaning that you can have a drum sound for all occasions. Add to this that most leading kits have a stereo input so you can plug in almost any music source (such as mp3 players, cd players, radio’s, etc.) and then play along with the songs using headphones or speakers. Which my current students will know from their lessons. You may think that “electric is fine until they get a gig, but then what am I gonna do”. Well the kits that I recommend below are gonna sound great on a gig aswell as through headphones. The sound quality is very good (often better that an acoustic kit)  although the kit will need to be wired into a P.A system or used with a high power amplifier and speakers to be heard properly. A lot of venues already have these, especially when someone is heard talking through a microphone. The quality of the PA system especially speaker and amplifiers can make a big difference to the sound.

The choice is yours.......(or you kids if they have that much influence!)

Here are some good suggestions:

Acoustic

Good brands to look out for are Pearl, Mapex, Yamaha, Premier and Tama. All these companies have being making drums for the pros for years and can be relied on for quality and value. Be aware that all these companies make budget kits aswell as top of the line kits, so you’re not necessarily gonna get a pro drum kit just cos it has one of these brand names on it, you get what you pay for.  There are always loads of budget brand kits in stores and on the internet which are usually made to a budget but can provide a good starting point and can be as little as £250 including everything you need. Stagg, Millenium and Black Rat do such kits which I arn’t the best but if money is tight they can be great especially with decent heads such as remo pinstripes. I can highly recommend Pearl drums from personal experience, every piece of gear has been fantastic and I’ve never been let down.

Great starter kits to look out for are: Pearl Forum & Export (my 1st kit!!) Mapex V & M series. Yamaha Rydeen & Stage custom and Tama Swingstar & Superstar kits.

 Pearl Export                        Yamaha Stage Custom       Tama Superstar                  Mapex V Series

Cheaper budget kits around £250 are Black Rat, Stagg Millenium and many other kits.

The quality of cymbals you get with your kit can vary a lot. Some kits come with top brand cymbals from a lower range such as Zildjian ZBT’s or Sabian B8 Pro’s, other with cheap non branded cymbals, and a lot of kit’s come with no cymblas at all so you can choose your own. The quality of the cymbals will really change the sound of drums. Lots of people start with the budget cymbals their kit came with (the unbranded ones often sound terrible!!) then move up to a brand name cymbal when they get more serious, then onto top of the line cymbals such as Zildjian and Sabian which can often cost £200 a cymbal. - (Cheap eh? bet you wished you played guitar!!??!)

Electric

 Roland and Yamaha both make excellent electric drums with Roland having the edge technology and sound wise. Good kits to for beginners are Roland TD-3 or TD-6’s and Yamaha DTXplorer kits, you can’t go far wrong with any kits from these brands. For 2nd hand electric kits, look out for Yamaha DTX’s the DTX2 is a pretty good kit and can be found on places like ebay for around £200. The TD-12 the kit I use is also an amazing kit but usually retails for over £2000!! Try to steer clear of the SPD range of Roland drum pads and Yamaha DD range as a main kit, as they don’t have adequate foot controls for learning drums properly, Although the Roland SPD range can be a great addition to any kit.

 Roland TD-3 KW          Roland TD-6 KW            Yamaha DTXPlorer

 Kits to be avoided are cheap brands which don’t give much information about the specification of the drums. These kits do not give a realistic feel, and can have a terrible sound in my opinion. Stick to the brands above!!

It’s a good idea to get some good quality headphones with electric kits, a good pair can make a kit sound amazing, whereas a cheap walkman style pair can make them sound thin tinny and generally rubbish. Get some over the ear type headphones, Roland and Sennheiser make some great ones and Behringer also make some pretty good ones for a great price, domestic brands such as Sony, JVC and Panasonic can also be good.

Where to get your kit

Whichever kit you decide to choose there are many places to get your kit from including High Street and Online retailers. I can highly recommend the guys at Professional Music Technology (PMT) In Birmingham. They always have a massive choice of kits and cymbals on show including electric kits which can be demo’ed before buying. They also have any accessories you may need including sticks, skins and cables, all at great prices with award winning service.

PMT megastore.136 Lawley Middleway, Birmingham, B4 7XX. Tel drum dept: 0121 3333220. - Loctaed in central Birmingham at the end of Curzon street near to Millennium point. www.pmtonline.co.uk

If you require an audio cable to plug a music source into electronic drums, PMT can probably help, or try Maplin electronics you can order online or in person at their stores in Erdington and Central Birmingham. It’s known as a stereo minijack to minijack lead, some kit’s or audio sources sometimes require a 6.3mm stereo adapter which can be gotten separately and often come with the audio lead.

This link should take you straight to the right page maplin - 3.5mm stereo lead:

www.Maplin.co.uk

Choosing the right sticks

There are loads of different sticks to choose from, I tend to play Vic firth sticks because they are great quality and are weight and pitched matched to get the perfect pair.

Lots of different sizes are available, from fancy artist series sticks to good ole 5A’s which are probably the most common stick, so usually a good start. For younger players and lighter players 7A can be a good stick as it is light short, and quite thin. For you rockers out there 5B is a good stick and is quite weighty - great for Rock and playing loudly!! Brushes and “Hot Rods” can be be great for an altogether lighter sound and for jazz.

Graded Exams

If you are interested in doing graded exams on drums, I use the Rockschool syllabus which uses modern well written songs aswell as well chosen rudiments, technical exercises, aural exercises and tests. If you are interested in doing an exam speak to me about it and I can recommend the right grade to start at. You buy the book, (for around £15) then we’ll spend time learning the pieces and exercises before entering the exam which costs around £30 - £40 depending on grade. For more information go to the rockschool website www.rockschool.co.uk From their site you can view prices, examination periods, example pieces and order exam books. The books are also available at music shops, although some grades can be out of stock at times!