How to Make Drums Quieter for Practice, According to The School of Rock

Let’s say that you—like a significant, nonzero percentage of adults—impulsively bought yourself a drum kit during the pandemic, hoping to hone your chops or learn a new instrument. But let’s say you also just saw the Oscar-winning film Sound of Metal and are filled with newfound concerns about potential hearing loss. Or let’s say your neighbors, who are recording their podcasts from their improvised home studios, or trying to take work calls without waking the baby, are complaining about the noise.  

You just want to play drums. But you want to do it without bothering the podcaster next door or damaging your hearing.

Well, you’re in luck, because Stephen Kennedy has a unique perspective on these problems. Kennedy is owner and managing partner at both School of Rock Greenwich and School of Rock Dublin (scheduled to launch this summer). He knows the best gear for kids who are learning to rock out on drums. And he needs to address parents’ concerns, and sometimes—okay, always—that means protecting young ears from too much loudness. Kennedy’s primary location is in suburban Connecticut—not exactly the grungiest of locales—so he’s put some thought into not annoying the neighbors.

I put the problem before him recently, and Kennedy came through: he recommends low-volume cymbals, noiseless drum gear, silent-stroke drum heads, and isolation headphones.

First, a quick rundown of the School of Rock mission. The organization, which bills itself as “the most revolutionary music school in the world,” and which has locations all over the globe, sneaks music education, leadership training, and performance experience into the hearts and minds of unsuspecting kids, who think they’re just getting really good at guitar, bass, drums or keyboard.

It works; Kennedy says it’s amazing how quickly kids improve when lessons are combined with playing music in a group setting alongside their peers.

“But you want to protect their ears,” he says, especially with drums. “In the space, for the students who are taking drum lessons, it can be very loud.”

He says Zildjian silent-stroke cymbals and Remo silent-stroke drum heads make a huge difference. “It’s amazing what they’ve done for our drum room, and for the noise level in the building generally.”

And his drummers are happy with the low-noise kits.

“I was skeptical,” he admits. “But there is still the feel that you get when you play the drums. It isn’t exactly like the feel of a regular drum head, but it’s very, very close.”

“Our drum instructors, and the professional drummers that play here, they say the feel is pretty good. Because you’re looking for a specific bounce,” he explains. “That’s important to feel that as a drummer.”

That goes for students too, since the feel is part of what reinforces the right technique: “It’s not just hearing the sound that you’re making. When you’re playing the drums, or learning the drums, you’re looking for a specific feel. And it’s dead on.”

As for ear protection while playing along to music, Kennedy recommends inexpensive (at least compared to wireless) Vic Firth noise-cancelling headphones: “We have a lot of students coming through, and a lot of young drummers, and that’s important to the parents, to protect the kids’ ears from the loud music.”

“So you can put these headphones on, plug them into your iPhone or whatever, and you can play along to the music with the headphones. And that’s where the feel comes into play: you’re not really hearing your own drumming so much, but you’re learning by feel. You’re getting the feel of it, and when you feel the balance of the drumstick, of the snare, of the tom, and of the cymbal, and you feel like, ‘I’m making the right crash sound’ – that’s when it really starts to click” for young drummers.

“I think it’d be perfect for someone who needs to cut the volume down when they’re practicing in their house, you know?” says Kennedy. “I mean, whether it’s School of Rock or home, sometimes the noise is a problem.”