Tune your drums!
If you are playing on an acoustic snare drum or drum set it is well worth your time to learn how to make your instruments sound their best.
you’ll enjoy the sound of your playing more
your sticks will respond better, and playing will feel easier
you’ll be able to get more musical depth your playing
you’ll get an up-close understanding of how the instruments work
There are about a million YouTube videos with tutorials on drum tuning, some better than others. I won’t go into great detail on HOW to tune in this post, but I like this channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo6TJR4giQyL_qcxnWKPE6w
I’ll just give a few quick tips on tuning your snare drum that you could try right now, to give you a sense of why it’s well worth the time to learn more about drum tuning. And then if you’re inspired, you can dive into YouTube and really become an expert!
There are many ways to tune a snare drum, depending on the style of music you want to play, and the sound you are going for. This is a bare bones approach that will give you a good starting sound:
turn off your snares
start with the top head
loosen all the tension rods
tighten the tension rods gently by hand until they are just contacting the counter-hoop
using both hands, tighten two tension rods on opposite sides of the drum as much as you can. Repeat for all the tension rods.
using a drum key, tighten each tension rod by one half turn (rotate the key 180 degrees). Repeat several times
measure the distance from the top of the counter-hoop to the head at each tension rod with a small ruler (this will be only a few millimetres. Pick the most common measurement, and adjust any tension rod that doesn’t match - if the measurement is too small, loosen the rod a bit. If it’s too large, tighten it.
tap the drum with a stick. If the stick responds well and you like how it feels, you’re done! If not, tighten each tension rod another quarter or half turn, and try again. Repeat until it feels good.
repeat this process on the bottom head up to the measurement stage
tap the TOP head. If the drum rings nicely, you’re done! If not, tighten the bottom head another quarter or half turn at each lug, and try again. Repeat until the drum sounds and feels good.
Loosen your snare tension all the way off, and turn on the throw off. While tapping the drum, slowly tighten the snares until they sound crisp.
You can put a small piece of cloth or tape on the top head if you want the drum to ring a bit less.
You may have to work with this process a few times in order to get a feel for it, and there are many nuances that you won’t be able to learn from a blog post. But if you try this method out, and then dive a little deeper on YouTube, you will begin to get some excellent sounds from your drums, and your playing will become much more satisfying!
