My 12 year old plays violin (lessons, community orchestra) and recorder (self taught) and taps out a few notes on the piano.  My 10 year old plays piano (lessons) and is teaching my 7 year old and 5 year old to tap out a few notes.  My 7 and 5 year olds beat on coffee cans or buckets as makeshift drums in duets trios or quartets as the older ones lead, and both seem to have real interest in having fun with drums over other instruments.

Any recommendations for what to buy or how to introduce techniques and helpful advice for the younger two without formal lessons?  Bongos, tambourine, etc?

My wife plays the bagpipes and I took piano lessons a long time ago ... but neither of us are music experts or teachers.

Thanks!




Update:  We bought a Yamaha DD75 mini electric set and a couple of accessories from Sweetwater.  Reasonably priced and the right size for the 5 and 7 year olds.  All of us have been tapping on it the last few days.  Right now one is singing, one is playing violin, and one is tapping along.

Your house sounds noisy. But I’ve always said as soon as a kid is old enough to hold an instrument get them one. I’ve been playing since I was six.  That being said you can get a cheap smaller kit for cheap. Check e-gay for things   My first almost real kit was $25 at a garage sale. I had a partridge family kit before that but I destroyed it in an afternoon.  You don’t have to break the bank for a starter kit. But get any kit just to start.

My 3 year old Granddaughter goes to Guitar Center and Sam Ash with me all the time, at some point I sat her behind a drum kit and let her go for it, she fell in love with it and started asking to go all the time so she could play the drums. I bought her a Pearl Jr kit for christmas and she loves them. She's to young for lessons, but I can play a little bit and she just watches what I play then copies me. Both the Pearl and Ludwig kits seemed to be well made and come with everything you need.

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If they end up playing drums, invest in hearing protection.   It does make the nuances a bit tough to hear, but is worth saving the ears. I don't know any drummers who came up during the 80s who can hear worth a damn.  The serious drummers I know actually listen to their mic'd up kit through a PA and isolating headphones.

I bought my son a Pearl Roadshow kit.  I would recommend getting an electric kit that they can use headphones with.

I would consider a used electronic kit on Craigslist.
My grandson plays with my drums a little but I put the practice pads on the set.

That's awesome!

Remember the Chinese proverb: If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum.

Lol.

I own a nice digital piano in part for this reason.  Cant escape the noise of a violin, but that's portable enough to take upstairs or downstairs if more quiet is needed.

My goal is to encourage their interest.  Anything in particular to look for in the basic electronic sets?

I wish I could help you with the electronic drums but I know very little about them myself.

I'm no teacher but I believe it's important that the kid just has fun banging on a drum set. Hitting on a practice pad is not fun for a kid. I took drum lessons when I was 8 or 9 and gave up because I was bored doing basic sticking exercises on a practice pad. In 9th grade I got used Ludwig 3 piece kit for Christmas and I tortured my family with it. Even though I was in the corner of the basement, the whole hose shook.

I came up in the late 60s and 70s.  Quit and started again in the early 2000s.  Between that and shooting, my hearing is shot.   What?  

I agree completely.  However, unless the kid is very motivated to find and learn new techniques they may loose interest or not progress very far a fast.  We were fortunate to get a very good teacher that came up though the old school way and wanted nothing to do with months of practice pad rudiments.  I think any modern teacher that wants to retain students will take a similar approach.  While rudiments were baked into the lessons my son always had a song to play so he was "making music" from day one of lessons.  We went with the acoustic kit because unless you get a very expensive electronic kit, an electronic kit is somewhat limiting when you get into things like jazz with the subtle nuances.  Ear protection 100%.  The only time he didn't wear protection was when playing jazz or with the HS band.  Here's a gratuitous video of my son playing his HS Graduation:



And...  Percussion doesn't have to just be drums.  Marimbas are pretty cool too:

This is ARFcom they need a Tier one DW custom set.

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