4 Amazing Air Drumsticks That Make Noise On Their Own!
Posted by Mike Schuck
A drumset you can play anywhere!
Imagine this — you are on a park bench in your college campus and you want to jam out a bit before having to catch your next class. You don't have a drum kit in your dorm, but you do have seemingly tons of extra time that you could use to practice drums if you only could.
Air drumsticks make it possible for you to practice playing the drums without a drumset.
With air drumsticks, you can pull out your drumsticks from your bag be able to practice your grooves on a park bench or in a thin-walled apartment.
Apart from practicing, many of these sticks will let you jam with a band or even compose music!
For this list, we've picked out the best air drumsticks that we have seen on the market today. Unfortunately, the market isn't teeming with great innovation in this area. However, a couple of companies have really excelled and made excellent products at a range of prices.
Want to take the plunge into getting your first drumset and practice PDF?
Finally, we drummers can practice drums without a kit! So without further ado, let's check out the best air drumsticks on the market today!
1. Free Drum
Price: $125
These gadgets are a set of motion-sensitive sensing units that you slip onto a set of drumsticks and allow you to play a virtual drum set anywhere you like. In my research, these have been my favorite air drum I've come across, namely because it lets you use your own sticks.
You also get sensors for your feet so you can play kick drum and hi-hat patterns. Each unit is connected by means of Bluetooth to your phone where you connect it to an app.
Check out their video to see how they work!
2. Aero Drum Sticks
Price: $199
These ingenious electronic sticks represent a substantial advance in the field of pretending to play the drums, as you don't require an accompanying drum set to start knocking out a few cool beats.
The best thing about these sticks is that they actually look like wooden drum sticks, unlike some competitors.
These sticks are both similar and unlike physical drums to play. They do appear to have been designed by a drummer, so they try to keep the aesthetics of using wooden sticks and they keep the layout of a traditional drumkit. I love the design, since playing on wooden sticks is a million times better than plastic ones.
Latency is a huge issue you must be careful with cheaper electronic drum sticks, however with these I haven't found any delay issues.
When my friends take a look at me playing these drums its almost unreal to them. The sounds are great but it is almost like an optical illusion to not see any drums being played.
3. PocketDrum: The Most Portable Drum Set Ever
Price: $169.00 USD
From the makers of Aerodrum come PocketDrum, the most fun and professionally useful air drum sticks we've ever seen!
These drumsticks are sleek and require no extra cables for playing. They are Bluetooth-enabled so you can hook them up to your headphones (or speakers).
Simply pull out your phone and hook onto the pocket drum mobile app to customize your kit sounds. These work perfect for practicing in the park or killing time at a bus stop.
Then when you're ready, slip them into your backpack and enjoy the cable-free hassle.
One of the coolest things about these sticks is that they can even interface with Garageband so you can record yourself or compose your own track!
Unfortunately, these sticks haven't come to market yet. But they are getting close! Check out their indie gogo page to see the updates in how close they are to shipping off.
4. Mi Jam Pro Air Drummer (these drumsticks light up!)
Price: 59.99
Apart from the plastic-y sort of look these really do sound like a real drum set. Also, the latency is great, and the sticks are very responsive.
This were not the sticks we were most impressed by during our research, however they are at a low price point. These sticks kind of feel like a cross between cheap air drumsticks for children and some of the more professional models we've reviewed.
Nonetheless, you can also plug it into iPods and then plug our headphones to each unit which allows you to play along to all your favorite bands.
These work by motion sensors as well as buttons that alter the sound from snare drum to tom-tom to crash cymbal.
They require a bit of practice to play complicated patterns but simple beats are very intuitive. Much better still, the sticks come with cool bright LEDs meaning you can play in the dark.
Although not as portable as some of our others, they are still fairly free of cables, which is huge plus.
There is a great feature called 'Follow' which lets you play the same sound on both sticks. Now you can do a drum roll wail into the toms.
There is a learning rhythms device that is built in so you can learn different beats, which is excellent if you are new to drums. They allow you to slow down the tempo so you can nail the beat you're working on.
Learn drums with or without sticks!
If you end up picking these up or just want to know how you can get started playing drums even without a drum kit check out some of our articles from the Pros at Jam Addict!
Is it Possible to Learn to Play Drums Without a Drum Set?
How to Learn Songs on Drums By Ear ?
The Jam Addict team is a revolving door of writers who care about music, its effects on culture, and giving aspiring artists tools and knowledge to be inspired and keep on creating.
If you have any questions or concerns or just want to drop us a line, don't hesitate to contact us! We always appreciate the feedback.
