If you’re a beginner drummer, one of the first things you need to learn is how to tune a drum set. Fortunately, it’s not as difficult as it might seem. In this article, Fidlar will walk you through the steps of tuning a drum set, so you can get started making music as soon as possible.
Why Is Tuning Your Drums Important?
A standard drum kit has a snare drum, a kick drum, a hi-hat, tom drums, and cymbals. Except for the cymbals, You can tune all of these instruments to different, non-fixed pitches.
Regular tuning is essential if you want to avoid annoying overtones or play a style of music that requires a certain pitch.
What You Need To Get Ready To Tune Your Drums
You only need a few simple things:
A drum key. It is the first thing you’ll need to tune your drums. It is a small tool used to tighten or loosen the tension rods that control the drum’s pitch.
When you tighten the tension rods, the drum’s pitch goes up, and when you loosen them, the pitch goes down. You can also adjust hardware like hi-hat stands and kick drum pedals with keys.
A drum stick. To tune the drums, you’ll need drumsticks to tap on the heads.
What A Drum Is Made Of
Drums are percussion instruments. The sound comes from hitting the drum head by hand or with a stick or mallet. People have been playing drums for thousands of years, but the drum set we know today didn’t come about until the 1920s.
When the kick drum pedal and the hi-hat were invented, drummers finally had all the tools to drive a band. The heads of the drums used to be made of animal skin and tied on with rope. Now, they are made of many different parts.
Before fully understanding how drums work, you need to know what each part is and what it does.
Drum Hoops
The drum heads are attached to the drum by a round piece of metal called the drum hoop. Wood is sometimes used to make the hoops for snare and kick drums. Each drum usually has two hoops, one on top and one on the bottom, one for each drum head.
Drum Shell
The shell is the drum’s wooden body. Drums are often made of maple, birch, oak, cherry, or mahogany. Each type of wood makes a tone that is a little bit different.
Some drums are made of natural, stained wood, while others have a “wrap,” a colored, very durable synthetic material. Metal can also be used to make the shells of snare drums. This makes their sound louder and more clear.
Tension Rods
You put the tension rods through the hoops and tighten or loosen them to get the sound you want. The tension rod has a threaded end and a square head on the other end.
As you might expect, the tension rods hold the drum heads in place. When tuning drum heads, you have to ensure that this tension is the same on all the tension rods. If one part of the drum is loose and another is tight, the drum won’t sound good.
Lugs
The lugs are attached to the drum’s shell, and the tension rod’s threaded end goes into the lug. The majority of drums have eight or ten lugs. Some older vintage drums may have six lugs. The number of lugs can affect how well the drum stays in tune and how it sounds.
Claw Drum
Drum claws are on bass drums. The claws are pieces of metal that go over the hoops and hold them to the shell. The tension rods are put through the claws’ holes, threaded into the lugs, and then tightened.
Bottom (Resonant) Drum Head
The resonant head is the bottom head of the drum. The resonant head affects the drum’s overtones or resonance. Resonant heads that are thinner are more sensitive, while resonant heads that are thicker sound darker.
Since the resonant head isn’t hit directly, it can last longer than the top heads, but it will wear out and need to be replaced.
Top (Batter) Drum Head
The batter head is the name for the top head. It controls the drum’s attack and “ring,” which are the sounds you don’t want to hear. Batter heads can have one or two layers.
Single-ply heads are louder and brighter than double-ply heads, but they don’t last as long. You can also coat or not coat batter heads. Coated heads usually have a “drier” and darker sound.
Vents
It’s easy to forget about vents, but they are essential when you think about how drums work. These tiny air holes are built into drums. When the drums are hit, they let the air out of the shell.
This lets the drums “breathe” as the heads vibrate and make sounds. The vents also make the drum easier to play with a stick.
How To Tune Drum Set
There is no right or wrong way to tune a drum set, and each expert has their way of doing it. You can use these step-by-step tips for any drum set to get a general idea of how to tune drums.
Purchase a drum tuner
Since drums don’t have a set pitch, many experienced drummers tune them by listening. But if you’re starting as a drummer, you might want to buy a drum tuner to help you out.
Take the drum head’s tension off.
The batter head (top head) and the resonant head are the two most common types of drum heads (bottom head). Turn the tension rods on the side of the drum counterclockwise until the heads are free.
Clean the heads and the bearing edge with a rag (where the edge of the drum shell meets the skin). After cleaning, put the drum heads back on and tighten the tension rods.
Pull the head back.
Tighten the rods on the side of the drum with a drum key. Turn each tension rod the same number of times, a half turn, a full turn, or more. It would help if you tuned the lugs to cross each other.
For example, if you start at 12, the next rod you need to tighten is at 6. Then go to three o’clock, then nine o’clock, and so on. Once the drum heads are in place, you can change the pitch by making the tension rods tighter or looser.
Tighten the rods clockwise to make the pitch go up. Loosen the rods counterclockwise to make the pitch go down. Use the drum tuner to figure out how tight each lug should be.
Check the drum’s pitch and make changes
Most likely, you’ll have to fiddle with the tension rods and fine-tune them until you get the pitch you want. After turning each tension rod, hit the drum head in the middle and about an inch from the edge. Adjust the tension rods until it sounds good to your ears.
Dampen your drums
You can get a more pure tone without any unwanted overtones or pitches by dampening or muzzling your drum sound. You can do this by putting a dampening gel on your snare head, floor tom, or other drums.
You can also use a cloth, an old drum head, or a pillow for your bass drum.
Repeat
Follow these steps for each drum in your set.
How to Tune Each Kind of Drum
All drums are different, as we said earlier in our step-by-step guide. There is no right way to tune a drum, so you may have to try a few other things.
To help you understand how this works, we’ve taken three of the most popular drums and broken down how they are tuned. Let’s get into it.
How to Tune a Snare Drum
What makes a snare drum different from other drums is the sharp, clear sound it makes. It sounds different from everything else in your set, making it an important part. Some players put a dampening gel on the snare head to make this sound louder and clearer.
To tune your snare heads correctly, make sure that all lugs are as tight as possible around the outside. Then, use a key to tighten each tension rod until the sound is right.
You want the drum’s surface to be tight, but not so tight that it has no give. You can test this by putting your thumb on it.
How High Should Your Snare Drum Be Tuned?
You should aim for a pitch between 3E and 3A#. As we said before, try a tuner if you can’t figure out what this is. These tools can help you figure out what range you’re playing in when you hit the head.
How to Tune a Bass Drum
Since bass drums can be used in more ways than most other drums, tuning them can be complicated. It all depends on the type of heads, dampened, and how tight the tension rods are. Performance and tuning can also be affected by the size of the shell.
Conclusion
Drum tuning can be straightforward and enjoyable if you follow these guidelines. You need to set aside some time to learn how drumheads produce sound and how they function, put what you’ve learned into practice and pay attention to how the modifications you make affect the sound. With a bit of planning, you’ll be a pro at drum tuning in no time!
