West Seattle Drums

The list below includes products that we use in our lessons or recommend. Also included are links to purchase each item online.

	Vic Firth American Classic 5B Drum Sticks A nice solid stick made from hickory wood. Great for snare drum and drum set. The tear drop tip sounds great on cymbals too.
	Vic Firth American Classic 5A Drum Sticks Same basic stick design as the 5B, but slightly thinner and lighter.
	Vic Firth American Classic 7A Drum Sticks A little thinner, lighter, and shorter than the 5A sticks. Great for smaller hands or a lighter touch.
	Evans 12 inch RealFeel Two-Sided Practice Pad Practicing on a pad is much quieter that playing on a drum, so you can practice anytime without bothering anyone. One side of this pad has natural gum rubber which plays somewhat like a real drum and has good rebound qualities. The other side has a harder rubber surface which has less of a rebound so you get more of a wrist and finger workout when you play on it. This diameter is about the same as a snare drum and fits nicely in a snare drum stand.
	Pearl S930 Snare Stand A sturdy and inexpensive stand that will provide a stable platform for your practice pad or snare drum.
	Remo 10 inch Practice Pad with Stand This practice pad includes an adjustable height stand with a tilt adjustment. The feel and rebound action is more like a drum than the rubber pad, and the drum head is coated which is similar to a real snare drum and works nicely with brushes. The pad can be removed to use on your lap or other surface, or it can be used on any threaded cymbal stand. It is a good bit louder though and a little smaller than the rubber pad.
	CAHAYA Folding Music Stand It is nice to have a music stand for your lesson notebook and drum music. This stand folds up small and includes a case for easy transporting. It also has wire clips to hold music books open, rubber feet, and a tilting music tray.
	Ear Plugs Do your ears a favor and protect them while you're playing the drums. These ear plugs are soft and comfortable.
	Wittner MT50 Metronome Using a metronome while you practice is great for learning to keep time as well as working at various speeds. This model has an easy to use tempo dial, a loud "tick" sound which you can hear from the built-in speaker or included earphone, and a flashing LED beat indicator.
	Pro Metronome App This is a metronome app that can run on a smartphone, tablet, or iPod Touch. It is free for most features, and offers extras like subdivisions and polyrhythms as in-app purchases. iTunes Store link - Google Play link
	Boss DB-60 Dr. Beat Metronome This metronome has many nice extras including a wider tempo range, multiple time signatures, a variety of rhythms from quarter to sixteenth notes including triplets and rests, accented downbeats, polyrhythms, memory functions, and auto power-off.
	DW Padded Stick Bag A stick bag is a great place to keep your sticks when you're not using them. This bag can store lots of sticks in sectioned slots, and it has an outside pocket for carrying your metronome, drum key, and other accessories. It also has adjustable hooks so you can attach the open bag to your floor tom for quick access to extra sticks while you're playing.
	Elementary Snare Drum Studies by Mitchell Peters This book is a well balanced collection of basic studies in reading and technique, intended to provide the beginning drummer with a strong foundation in the essential fundamentals of drumming.
	Intermediate Snare Drum Studies by Mitchell Peters A collection of 43 intermediate studies for snare drum in two parts. Part one emphasizes basic technique; Part two is a collection of studies with emphasis on dynamics, phrasing and control.
	Advanced Snare Drum Studies by Mitchell Peters A collection of advanced studies for snare drum, with the emphasis on control, touch, phrasing and style.
	Stick Control for the Snare Drummer by George Lawrence Stone The ideal book for improving control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution and muscular coordination, with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand. Includes hundreds of basic to advanced-level rhythms, moving through categories of single-beat combinations, triplets, short roll combinations, flam beats, flam triplets and dotted notes, and short roll progressions.
	A Funky Primer for the Rock Drummer by Charles Dowd Progressive encyclopedia of rock/funk patterns for all tempos utilizes a new contemporary teaching style for independence, rudiments, styles and more.
	The Drummer's Cookbook by John Pickering & Frank Briggs Topics covered in this book are: the rock feeling, the variations and development of a basic figure, rhythmic improvisation, solos, and cymbal variations with the right hand. An audio CD with performances of some of the exercises is included.
	Advanced Techniques For The Modern Drummer by Jim Chapin This book focuses on jazz rhythms, independence, and coordination. Individual rhythms lead up to solo and melodic exercises. Includes two audio CDs with performances of all of the material in the book, as well as some jazz bass lines to play along with.
	Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed Great tool for teaching drummers syncopation and strengthening reading skills. This book includes many accented eighths, dotted eighths and sixteenths, eighth-note triplets and sixteenth notes for extended solos.