You have to remember that nothing can make the drums sound better than by tightly tuning the drums first. With an accurately tuned drum set, even the average drummer can sound really good. This is why you have to learn how to tune your drums. By doing so, you will eventually increase the level of your performance. A regular kit will only consist of a floor tom, which basically sits on the floor, crash cymbals, the bass drum, toms, snare drums, ride cymbal and the hi-hat. These are the only things that you need when you are just learning how to play the drums. You have to start with the basics. After you ve improved your skills, you can start adding more accessories to your drum set. Although most bands today will have a more elaborate setup for their drum kit compared to the basic setup, you will find that you really won t need such an elaborate and expensive drum setup when you are learning how to play the drums. As you start improving your drumming skills, this is the time where you will start buying more drum kit pieces. If you are just a beginner or an intermediate drummer, you really don t need a full professional drum set. In fact, all you need is the basic 5 piece drum set along with the basic cymbal set up. The basic drum set will include a bass drum, a snare drum, two mounted toms, and one floor tom. For the cymbals, you will only need the hi-hat, the crash, and the ride. The first is the bass drum. This is the big drum that sits on the flower and offers the low pitched sound that goes boom when you hit it with a foot pedal. You also have the tom-toms. In a drum set, it comes in a set of three. You have the floor tom, the medium tom, and the high tom. In any drum set, you will also find the cymbals. You may be tempted to go for an off-brand cymbal set because it will allow you to save a few bucks, but you will soon find out that this will be a waste of money. Stick with recognized quality manufacturers of cymbals, such as Paiste, Zildjian, Istanbul, Meinl, Sabian, and UFiP. A good drummer will need no more than 3 different types of cymbals that will accompany the drums when they play.