How Loud Are Drums?

If you are reading this article, then you are likely considering a drum set for either yourself, or your child. Great! I also gather you either don’t live on a rural property, or that you like your neighbours. Even if you hate your neighbours, you should probably love your hearing - and/or the hearing of your child - so this article can hopefully prepare you for what is an awesome instrument to learn - and provide some advice on how to protect your child’s ears as well.

So how loud is a drum set? The short answer is loud - drum kits typically range somewhere between 90 and 130 decibels, but averages 119dB. From experience, I also know that the bigger your child becomes, the closer to 130 db this will be. The longer answer is, it depends on where you are sitting. The loudest parts of a drum kit - the snare drum (90 - 125 db), and cymbals (100 - 115 db) - are also the highest pitched. This means their volume drops dramatically through walls, and/or with some well placed sound proofing.

To put that into perspective, if you are sitting at the drum kit a tom drum is about the same volume as a Boeing 737 a few minutes before landing, or a motorcycle idling 3 meters away. Whereas a cymbal is closer to a chainsaw, a thunderclap, or an oxygen torch.

This changes dramatically once you close the door to the music room. In fact, in our house the sound of a cymbal falls below 80dB in the next room. At that point, the bass drum has barely changed though, and remains closer to 90dB. From outside the house, you can still certainly hear everything, but cymbals, the snare, and toms are well below the neighborhood friendly 70dB mark. Great! this means we don’t need to worry about our neighbours suffering any long term hearing loss. The bass, however, is still a wall vibrating/picture frame dropping 90dB. As my kids say “Sorry Kerrie” (our neighbour closest to the firing line).

Instrument	Decibel Level	Comparison	Comment
Bass Drum	105 dB	Boeing 707 one nautical mile (6080 ft) before landing (106 dB)	Serious damage possible in 8 hr exposure
Toms	110 dB	Riveting machine	Average human pain threshold.
Snare	120 dB	Chain Saw	Painful
Snare Rimshot	125 dB	Oxygen torch	Painful
16″ Crash	113 dB	Turbo-fan aircraft at takeoff power at 200 ft	Average human pain threshold.
14″ Hi Hat (open)	114 dB	Steel mill	Average human pain threshold
20″ Ride	101 dB	Bell J-2A helicopter at 100 ft	Serious damage possible in 8 hr exposure
20″ Ride (bell)	115 dB	Riveting machine	Average human pain threshold

It is very VERY difficult to fully sound-proof an existing room, and this is a big discussion for another topic. Rather I thought I would dig more deeply into which sounds travel (and are more likely to annoy your neighbours), why this happens, and most importantly why your child should ALWAYS wear ear protection.

Why can you hear the bass drum from far away?

The Bass drum, while less noisy, about 105 decibels, tends to be the part of the kit that travels the furthest. This is why it tends to make neighbours the saddest - and the science behind this is quite interesting. I’ve done my best to summarise in a kid-friendly way below for those that are interested.

Sound is a pressure wave, or in its simplest description - the vibration of molecules. With drumming, this vibration starts when you hit the drumhead, or cymbal. This then pushes the air molecules around the cymbal or drum head at different wavelengths. It is these wavelengths that eventually hit your eardrum.

Sound waves are described by their Frequency, which is a measurement of how many waves there are per second. Higher frequencies (where there are more waves per second) produce higher pitched sounds, while lower frequencies (where there are less waves per second) produce lower pitched sounds.

The reason why my son’s bass drum can be heard from the top of the street, has to do with what “stops” these frequencies - or in the case of the bass drum, not stopping them.

There are two primary ways sound waves are stopped, attenuation, and reflection. Attenuation in simple terms is the loss of wave intensity (amplitude) through different mediums. Sound waves can travel through solids like metal, liquids like water, and gases like air. But they can’t travel through empty space which has nothing, not even air, in it. That’s why in outer space, there is no sound at all!

Depending on the material, the absorption of sound waves changes, and different materials will absorb different frequencies better than others. The rule to remember though is that low frequencies are not absorbed as well as high frequencies, in ANY medium. This means low frequencies will travel farther because they do not lose as much energy when travelling through things like walls, rocks, or air. Incidentally this is also why radio waves can travel much further than say your 5G networks - and why 4G/5G towers need to be so much closer together. The higher the frequency, the more easily absorbed the wavelength is into things like buildings.

Reflection refers to how different sounds bounce off materials and objects. Sound waves can reflect off surfaces. We hear sound reflections as echoes. Hard smooth surfaces are really good at reflecting sounds – this is why empty rooms produce lots of echoes, and is also why we add funny shaped foam squares on the walls of studios - after all there is nothing worse than an echoey recording studio. Reflection, like attenuation is very frequency dependent. High frequencies are better reflected whereas low frequencies are able to pass through many objects.

This is why we can hear my son’s bass drum from the train station, but not hear the snare or cymbals until we get to the driveway.

Drum Volume and Your Child’s Hearing

When the human ear perceives any sound around 120 decibels, it can result in pain or significant discomfort. At this volume, you are almost guaranteeing some form of hearing loss, especially when exposed for long periods, or over multiple sessions. The most dangerous to young child’s hearing though is prolonged and unprotected exposure to higher pitched sounds - like the snare or cymbals described above.

The reason why this is especially critical in young children is that their ears, while not necessarily more sensitive to loud sounds, are more susceptible to ear damage primarily because their skulls are thinner and less developed than those of an adult.This development does not finish until late teens, to early 20’s.

Most Occupational Health and Safety boards suggest an 85 dB threshold to avoid long term hearing issues, and young drummers are at an even higher risk if they do not take the correct precautions. I cannot emphasize this enough - Your child will start damaging their hearing within minutes or seconds of exposure to an acoustic drum kit, and a number of studies have shown that a significant number of professional drummers experience tinnitus (ringing in their ears).

This can easily be prevented with a number of noise reduction devices. For children though, I only recommend two options Noise Reduction Ear Muffs, and Drummer Headphones.

Foam ear plugs are just not suitable for young children - as they are prone to falling out, and you cannot ever be sure that your child has put them in correctly. We learnt this lesson at the Formula One Grand Prix.. nothing but annoying.

I would also caution against noise cancelling headphones. While we do use these ourselves, we have done a significant amount of testing and research to see what works well. Even within brands, you will have a great deal of variation between sound cancellation. We find the Bose QC35s, and the Sennheiser Momentum Over Ear headphones do the best job, but they are expensive. We do not use these for their digital noise cancelling (although the Sennheisers do a good job when jamming), but rather as passive headphones that just happen to block-out a lot of the higher-end frequencies. We also use these headphones in the audio purest sense, for listening to music.

For drumming though, I would not recommend you start with these. Instead I would pay the $100 to get a pair of Drummer Headphones, or a $20 pair of noise reduction ear muffs.

Noise Reduction Ear Muffs

Pros :

Inexpensive (~$20)

Available in child sizes

Cons:

Not headphones (not electronic)

Sometimes bulky

Easy and comfortable to wear

Pay attention to sizing

Do not confuse these with noise cancelling headphones, or even just plain headphones. These noise reduction ear muffs are essentially the same type of headset worn by gardeners, machinery operators, and anyone who is frequently exposed to high volume environments.

These aren’t headphones in that they don’t have speakers or can’t be plugged in, but are singular in function: they provide safe and effective noise reduction at a relatively low price. They do a really good job of knocking down the higher end frequencies, that are typically associated with hearing loss. These noise cancelling ear muffs also come in various ratings, so be careful to balance protection with sound quality. In our experience you will need a class 4 rating ear muff.

This option is great if whoever will be wearing them doesn’t have to listen to music or a metronome through the headphones. They can also be great for kids who aren’t comfortable with putting foam ear plugs into their ears.

Drummer Headphones or Earphones

Pros

Hearing protection and headphones in one!

Under $100

Easy and comfortable to wear

Cons

Educate Your Child about Hearing Safety

Education plays a huge role in protecting your child’s hearing. You need to stress the importance of always wearing their hearing protection - right from the very first lesson. This means more than just talking with them about the long-term effects of loud volume on the ears, but also modelling behaviour. Your drum teacher should also be strict on the use of ear protection, and also model best practice.

The act of putting ear protection on should just become a part of a pre-practice/pre-jamming ritual. We for one leave the headphones on the hi-hats. Why? Because good luck “forgetting” if they are the first thing you see.