Do you look at your drum kit and think doesn’t look or sound as good as it should? Are you one of those drummers who consistently puts off caring for their drum kit. Do you constantly treat your drum kit like garbage and find that its quality is deteriorating a lot quicker than you ever thought it would? Well I am going to give you a list of do’s and don’ts when it comes to drum and cymbal care.

Not caring for your drums is just as good as throwing your money away. If you have spent a large sum of money on your drum set, you will not want to see it sound just the same as any entry level drum kit after a few months do you? What a waste of money that would have been. If you do not care for your drums you will find the sound quality and overall look and feel of the drum kit will start to spiral in a downward motion.

Dos and Don’ts Do – Replace your heads often. One of the most common reasons drummers don’t have a nice sounding and looking drum kit. They are playing with skins that are nearly as old as themselves. Besides the awesome look a new set of skins will give your drum set, it will also make it sound a hell of a lot better.

Don’t – expose your drums to extreme temperatures. The main example of this is leaving the drums packed away in your car on a sunny day. The car will heat up quickly meaning your drums will too, not good at all for your drums, this causes the heads to loosen up and can be a real trouble to tune afterwards. If you are need to leave your drums in the car, try to cover them with blankets or use some drum bags. Any extreme temperatures, hot or cold, will harm your drums.

Do – Regularly polish and clean drums and cymbals. This does a lot for drum sound, especially with cymbals. Removing that layer of grime and grease every few weeks can restore a lot of sound in your cymbals. Try some polish or some other cleaning product on your drum shells, it will increase their look by a great amount.

Don’t – Angle cymbals away from you. Doing this can greatly reduce cymbal life, causing cracks and dents very quickly. By angling the cymbals away from you, you are creating a bad angle of impact on the cymbal from the stick. And yes, all the pros do this. But the thing is they have the money to replace these broken cymbals. For maximum cymbal life, try angling them towards you a little.

Do - Tune regularly. Regluarly tuning your drums will be beneficial for both the sound and the overall health of the drum. Not tuning a head for a long period of time can cause pressure differences of the head whihc can harm the drum shell. Try and tune at least once every couple of weeks.

These are just a few of the dos and don’ts of drum care. Try to make an effort to clean your drums and cymbals, and make sure you use actual drum cleaning products as a lot of household cleaning products can harm your drums and cymbals. Remember, the better you look after your drum kit, the better it will sound and feel when playing.