Do you play an instrument? Have you ever played an instrument?
When I was in elementary school we were given the opportunity to play an instrument. We have many options to choose from. For me there was only one choice – the drums! I wanted to learn how to play the drums. I begged my parents to let me take up drums. Sadly, they didn’t share my enthusiasm for the drums and instead signed me up to learn how to play the Viola. Sigh…
I took lessons for about a year then I told my parents it was not for me and I quit. Thankfully they didn’t purchase a viola for me so they were not out hundreds of dollars.
Fast forward to when my kids were offered the opportunity to play an instrument in school.
Our daughter chose to play the clarinet. In fact, she was so adamant that she was in it for the long haul that we did purchase a clarinet for her. Sadly, two years later she lost interest in it. We ended up donating her clarinet to the school for a child who wanted to play but couldn’t afford to rent one.
When it came time for our son to choose he wanted to play the drums. Yeah!!! I could live vicariously through him. I was just as excited for him to play the drums as he was.
Unbeknownst to us, before the school lets you lose on REAL drums, you have to learn how to play on a drum pad. I guess there is a process you have to go through.
I was equally as disappointed as our son when we had to purchase a drum pad and some drum sticks for him. It’s not what we had in mind. We were thinking he would learn to play on real drums.
A drum pad doesn’t really make much noise. All you hear is tap-tap-tap when you hit it with a drum stick.
Our son was able to play a real drum during a school concert, but it was just a lone drum and all he did was hit it with a stick a few times during one song. He was so disappointed. So much so that he told us he no longer wanted to play the drums. I didn’t blame him one bit. It wasn’t what we had in mind. We both thought he’d learn how to rock out on a real drum set.
Years have gone by and our son has often talked about how he wished he kept up with the drums at school in hopes he would learn to play on a real drum set.
A couple of months ago I was sent information from Yamaha about their electronic drum kits. I told them how our son really wanted to play, and how I wanted to play the drums too (something I have held on to since I was a kid). The company was kind enough to send us their Yamaha DTX400K electronic drum kit to review.
I don’t know who was more excited – me or my son.
Here are some features that really stood out to me.
Keeps the noise down: Hook up your child’s DTX kit to a set of headphones so you and your neighbors will be undisturbed while he/she practices quietly.
We live in a condo complex. We have neighbors next to us, across from us and below us (we’re on the top floor – thankfully). I am pretty sure our neighbor would NOT be too happy listening to the banging of drums throughout the day. Our neighbors are not necessarily quiet people – so they deserve a “taste of their own medicine” – but we wouldn’t do that. Not only that, we didn’t want to hear it from the condo board.
This drum set is SUPER quiet. In fact, you barely hear a thing. You can hear the tap-tap-tap of the drum sticks hitting the pads, but that is about it. The person playing the drums hears a totally different thing. When you are wearing the headphone while playing this drum set it sounds like REAL LIVE DRUMS!!!! It’s amazing! More on that later.
If you have concerns about disturbing your neighbors, or you simply do not want to listen to the drums day and night, this is the PERFECT option for your wannabe rock star.
Expand the kit with your iPhone: Use the DTX400K Touch app (free at the App Store) for iPhone to create new kit configurations, select preset kits, access tempo and metronome settings, and much more.
There are free apps (there are more than one) you can download for your phone that can help you to change up the drum set to make totally new sounds. There is also an app that can teach you how to play the drums. It’s like having your own personal music instructor right at your finger tips.
I love how you can change up the sound, tempo and other details of the drum set so you are not stuck with just one way of playing it. You can jam like a rock star or kick it with some jazzy beats. It’s like having multiple drums all in one set.
The apps not only teach you how to play the drums, but it also gives you more ways of enjoying the drum set and there is less of a chance your child (or you!) will get bored with it.
There is a built in “dashboard” (for lack of a better description) that allows you to change the sounds of the drums, change the tempo and more. There are 169 sounds to choose from so you can truly customize this set.
There is even a spot on top to house your smart phone when using the apps that you use when playing with these drums.
Built to last:The Yamaha DTX400K line offers quality and durability at an affordable price; your child’s kit can take a lot of punishment and still maintain a solid performance level for years.
Yes! I have to agree with this. The set is made very well.
The frame is made from a strong, plastic pipe. Maybe a PVC type pipe? All I know is that we have banged on these drums a lot over the past couple of months and they are still in perfect condition.
I LOVE that this drum set is very light weight. You can easily pick it up and move it to another location.
Originally the drum set was supposed to go in the corner of our son’s room, near the window. The problem with that was the cats looked at it as a “jungle gym” and something fun to climb on to look out the window at the birds and anything else happening outside. That was not what we wanted for the drum set. So we ended up putting it in the corner of the living room. It’s still by a window, but the cats don’t bother with it much there.
Whenever we want to play with the drum set we simply lift it up and carry it into the living room. When we are done we put it back in the dining room. It sounds inconvenient, but honestly, it’s not that big of a deal.
We need to rearrange a few things in my son’s room so that we can put them in a place where the cats are NOT going to look at them as a “jungle gym” to climb on.
The drum set is electronic, so you need a play to plug it in if you want to play with it.
Overall I think this drum set is THE BEST SET you can purchase for your child (or yourself) if you have an interest in learning to play drums.
This is NOT some cheap set you can pick up at the local toy store. This is NOT a toy! This is a legitimate drum set, with the only difference being you don’t hear the music you are making without headphones and the drums are pads, not real drums.
This set gives you the real drum experience, from the realistic clashing sound of the cymbals, to the beats you get when you step on the foot pads.
Yamaha thought of everything when it came to this drum set. They even went so far as to include Velcro straps so that you can have the wires hug the drum set frame so that they are not dangling and in your way.
I should mention that set up is a breeze. My husband had the drum set put together and ready to rock out in about a half hour (give or take). Yamaha even took great care in the packaging of this drum set.
I cannot rave enough about this drum set. I love it. My husband – who didn’t really have an interest in drums – plays with it often and our son (before he got his first girlfriend) played with it almost daily.
I honestly feel like I’m playing real drums when I play with this set. I can live out my rock star fantasies I had when I was a child. It’s awesome!!!
If you, or your child, has interest in learning to play the drums, this is the way to go. Forget about those silly drum pads that don’t make real drum sounds. Skip those and go right to the real deal (well, almost real) with the Yamaha DTX400K electronic drum kits.
If you are interested in learning more, visit THIS PAGE on the Yamaha website. There you’ll find a great video that explains the kit a bit more (including how it really sounds!) as well as a video about the apps.
You can also go to www.USA.Yamaha.com to learn more about other products the company offers. The brand is also on social media. You can find the links on the bottom of their website.
What do you think about this drum kit? Does it look like something you, your child/grandchild would enjoy? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts. I always love to hear from readers.
Kimberly
*I received a free sample to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.