Percussion Props

Stuff for Snare Drum

Hopefully your school or other place of practice will have a good snare drum and stand for you to use.  As a beginner, it is not practical to purchase your own stand and snare drum, but you should invest in a practice pad.  You can probably get one at your local music store. They tend to be $20-30.  

STIX! STYX!  STICKS!

For classical/concert playing:

Vic Firth SD1 Generals

NO EXCEPTIONS!  DO IT!  

http://www.vicfirth.com/products/stick-selection-guide.php

Don't pick a stick that is too thick!

Marching sticks are too thick for concert playing. 

The SD1 Junior is smaller and has the same characteristics of the SD1 Generals, but it is made for smaller hands.  

A good book for snare drum technique is Stone's Stick Control.  All drummers should have this book, regardless if classical, jazz, or marching focuses.

NOTE: As with Snare Drums, it makes little sense to purchase a pair of cymbals, a bass drum, or a mallet instrument until you are at a professional level.  Most likely your practice area/school will have these things and you will be able to use them for practice and performance.

Buying Bass Drum Mallets

There are a wide variety of bass drum mallets but the major ones are:

1) The longer, skinny mallets with lots of felt on them produce a longer sound

2) A mallet with a round head (very standard)

• This mallet comes in a variety of sizes, the smaller and with more leather, the more articulate the sound

3) A pair of "rollers."  These usually come in packs of 2 and are medium sized and used for rolls.

They can be found and purchased at www.vicfirth.com/products/soundpower.html

Keyboard Mallets

For keyboard instruments, you must choose wisely your mallets (word order indicates Yoda) depending on each instrument.  Detailed here is a guide to choosing the appropriate mallet.  However, the general rule is to not hit a keyboard instrument with anything harder than the keys.

Vibraphone--The vibraphone (made of soft aluminum) uses the softest yarn mallets of the three instruments

Marimba--A marimba uses a variety of sizes based on octave (a bass marimba will use a large mallet), but these mallets are also made of yarn, slightly harder than those for a vibraphone though

Xylophone--The hardest of the mallets, usually made of rubber

This website provides an easy way to shop by type of instrument:

http://www.lonestarpercussion.com/Sticks-Mallets/Keyboard-Mallets/

And this is the Vic Firth website for mallets:

http://www.vicfirth.com/products/multi-application-series.php