3 ways to make your drums easier to live with

Nobody in my house ever said "please, more drums." That is normal. Drums are the loudest thing most people will ever put in a bedroom, and the person on the other side of the wall did not sign up for it.

The good news is you do not need a soundproof room, and you do not need to stop playing. You need three cheap things and about twenty minutes.

1. Towels and tape

This is the oldest trick there is, and it still works. A folded towel laid across the snare and the toms takes the ring out and drops the volume a serious amount. Tape on the cymbals does the same job up top - a strip or two, near the edge, and you can experiment until the wash calms down without killing the sound completely.

My honest words on it: "...there are so many different ways to quiet a drum set down with towels and tape..."

Fair warning, because I am not going to sell you something that is not true: a toweled kit does not feel like a real kit. You lose rebound and you lose sustain. That is the trade. For a Tuesday night when everyone else is asleep, take the trade.

2. Cardboard boxes

This one surprises people. Stack some cardboard boxes around the room, especially behind and beside the kit. They have ridges and air pockets in them, and that is exactly what soaks up sound.

"They absorb the sound. They're very good sound absorbers, and they're free."

Free is the part I like. Every house has boxes. Break a couple down, stand a couple up, put them where the sound bounces hardest - the bare wall, the corner behind you - and listen to the room go from a bathroom to a bedroom. It is not studio treatment. It is a real improvement for zero dollars.

3. An electronic kit with a volume knob

If the room is small, the neighbors are close, or you practice at night, this is the answer that actually solves it. "...find an electronic kit that you can turn the volume down or up on." Headphones on, everybody else keeps their evening.

One thing to check before you buy anything: hit the pad soft, then hit it hard. It has to respond. If every hit comes out at the same volume, walk away. "That's basically like getting a cheap piano that has no responsiveness. If you play the key, it plays max volume, versus a piano that has sensitivity, where, for practicing, it feels more real." A pad that does not answer you back will teach you bad hands.

That is it

None of this is fancy. That is the point. "You can do all these little subtle things to make maybe playing in your home environment a little more tolerable for your family."

Do all three and the argument mostly goes away, which means you get to keep playing - and playing is the whole reason we are here.

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Want the hour that turns this into actual drumming? I teach beginners in Austin, outdoors, and the first hour covers the three beats that unlock most of the music you already listen to. Come find me: book a lesson.