Practice @ Home: Play the drums quietly

Reduce the volume on the drums with SoundOff products!

In order not to get out of step, as a musician and especially as a good drummer, you should hone your technique every day . After all, the drummer, together with the bassist, is considered the backbone of every band and holds the rhythm and ultimately the song together. In order to always cut a good figure with fast hi-hat figures and fiddly intonations with the right timing, the saying “practice makes perfect” fits like a glove. So that annoyed neighbors don't go up against the barricades because of the late practice times and thwart your plans together with the public order office, we would like to show you today what options you can use to reduce the volume when playing the drums so that the practice hours - in now more quiet little room - nothing stands in the way.

How can I play drums quietly?

In our easy-to-understand step-by-step tutorial video , Moritz from the Evans / Daddario company and Fredrik from the drum department in Frankfurt show you how to reduce the volume on your drums and almost completely turn it off using simple and inexpensive options!

SoundOff – Method 2: Practice pads

Another way to practice quietly on the drums is to use a practice pad . This method is not about playing the entire drum kit, but rather using individual components, such as the snare drum or the floor tom. Moritz and Fredrik recommend simply placing the pad in front of you on the snare or floor tom. This way you can practice at the usual distance and sequence of movements.

Practice pads are particularly suitable for honing your own playing technique or warming up before actually playing the drums. Practice pads are available from various manufacturers in different sizes , designs and price ranges . The practical thing about these exercise pads is certainly their easy handling and their small dimensions. Small pads fit in every backpack and are therefore a welcome companion for drummers when traveling.

SoundOff – Method 4: Mesh Heads & Low Volume cymbals

The only way your drum set can be even quieter is by using so-called mesh heads . Mesh heads are fabric heads where the entire playing surface is made of fabric and where you actually only notice the impact of the sticks. Most of you probably know mesh heads from electronic drum sets. They are probably the quietest way to take the volume out of your drum set and - similar to the damper mats - they are available in regular skin sizes.

If you choose mesh heads, you have to replace the regular heads on your drum set with the fabric heads. This method is therefore not particularly suitable for a spontaneous practice session. Once you change the skins, you get used to the new feel and rebound behavior of this skin variant after just a few hits. Although the volume of your drum set is reduced by over 95% here, you can still hear the different tones of the toms, snare and bass drum through the resonance heads on the underside of the individual drums and distinguish them from one another.

The great thing about mesh heads is that they can be easily combined with triggers and, in conjunction with a drum module , transform your acoustic drum kit into an electronic one. With this upgrade to a hybrid drum kit, endless worlds of sound and modern performances are available to you.

Quiet cymbals and hi-hats

For a little more silence when playing the drums, we have now gone one step further in our video and replaced the regular cymbals with so-called “low-volume cymbals” . As the name suggests, these are low-volume cymbals . The volume reduction in these cymbals is achieved through many small holes in the finish . With the L80 cymbals from Zildjian the volume is 80 percent less than with regular cymbals. However, differences in sound between the different cymbal sizes can still be heard.