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How to Make a Drum Set From Scratch

When it comes down to it, a drum set is simply a collection of things that make interesting and varied sounds when you hit them with a stick. By combining pots, pans and other odds and ends from around your house, you can create your own drum set and save the hundreds of dollars it would cost you to buy one.

Things You'll Need

  • Buckets
  • Paint cans
  • Boxes
  • Crates
  • Chair
  • Trunk
  • Suitcase
  • Drum pedal
  • Hat racks
  • Wooden board
  • Tape
  • Pots
  • Pans
  • Baking sheets
  • Drill
  • Twine
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Instructions

    • 1

      Find empty paint cans and buckets. Ask for empties at restaurants, grocery stores, recycling centers and painting supply stores. Place the taller ones in a semicircle around a chair. Place shorter ones on top of boxes or crates to get them high enough off the ground to play comfortably. These will be your toms and snares.

    • 2

      Open an old drum or suitcase so that the top of it faces toward you. Place weights inside of it to hold it in place. Buy an old drum pedal and set it up in front of the suitcase. When you stomp on the pedal, it will hit the trunk and make a sound like a bass drum.

    • 3

      Tape a board between two coat or hat racks near the top. The board should be at or above head level when you sit down. Use this rack to hang your pots and pans from to use as cymbals.

    • 4

      Collect items to use as cymbals. Find lids from pots. Use baking sheets you don't want to bake with anymore.

    • 5

      Tie the cymbals on to the stand you made in step four. For pieces with holes or handles, such as pot lids and most pans, tie twine from the hole to the horizontal member to hold the cymbal in place. For baking sheets and anything else with no hole, use a heavy-duty drill bit to make a hole in it, then tie it on.

    • 6

      Find a thick glass pint bottle or a metal flask. Tape it to the side of your cymbal holder. This will serve as a cowbell.

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