I had to remove the existing drywall. I did this so that I could fir out the existing 2x4 walls to 2x6, in order to get the correct depth for the insulation.

Here is the room after removing the drywall. In the first picture, you can see that I didn't strip all of the drywall off. This (east) wall is only partially in what will become my drum room. Where the rock was left up, there will be a utility closet.

Interestingly, one of the walls had fiberglass insulation in it. It turns out the previous owners of the house had a son who played drums and they insulated his bedroom to reduce the noise from the drum set. I'm sure this worked fine for them, but as you'll see, I have something more robust in mind. As to why I didn't use the room which as already insulated and augment its sound isolation capabilities, I have already claimed that room for my office. Seeing as how I work out of my home, I can't go without the office. Besides, as this page will make clear, I needed to strip down to the studs in order to do the sound isolation work.

One wrinkle was the steel beam running down the length of the house, supporting the first floor. This proved to be a problem for the previous drywallers, as it stuck out an inch or so past the previouly insulated wall. As this was a utility room, they did what I would have done, and left it kind of rough. This beam did not prove a problem for me, since I increased the depth of the wall enough (for insulation room) to enclose the beam.

Here are some photos of the walls after the fiberglass insulation was removed.

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