The Secret to Tuning Drums
By Ed Hartman
(c) 2001 By Ed Hartman. All rights reserved.
Are you tired of your drums sounding like dull thuds? Have you ever been in a music store where every other drumset sounds better than yours? Does your snare sound like a sick monkey? Do you have any idea how to tune a drum, really? I have seen literally hundreds of drummers and percussionists try to tune drums, rarely achieving satisfaction. There is very little information about tuning drums available in books or videos, except for the occasional article in a magazine like Modern Drummer. With so many people now interested in the world of percussion it is important to finally get the word out. Here it is, the article you’ve been waiting for, at long last, “The Secret of Tuning Drums”.
You ask, why does this guy know how to tune drums? O.K. I’ve been playing drums and percussion for almost thirty years. I have a performance degree in music that forced me to tune out of round timpani, and work on calf heads in Southern Indiana, IN THE SUMMER! I now own my own drumshop-where you really find out about tuning drums, along with the real question, tuning drums FAST!! It isn’t until you have to put together an entire drumset in an hour, including putting on all of the heads, that you separate the drummers from the drummees. Anyhow, between all of my experiences, I’ve tuned hundreds of shells from congas to timbales and tom-toms to bass drums, and they all pretty much follow the same rules. For the first time in history, I’m going to give away the actual secrets known only to little old men in ivory towers and in the back of music stores. This is it, right now, I’m not kidding this time.
1) Before you start to tune, you might ask yourself, is this drum worth tuning? I know this sounds silly, but trying to tune an out of round shell made of cardboard, ain’t my idea of heaven. If it’s the only thing you have, go for it, but don’t expect miracles. Also, think about what kind of tuning you’re after. In the last hundred years, drum manufacturing has evolved from simple rope drums to complex acoustics and shell resonance, with the latest designs in low mass lugs, suspended shells, and non-deadening mounting systems (RIMS, IMS). You might take a trip to your local drum shop and see these new designs, because as good as your tuning can be, it is only as good as the physics of the drum. On the other hand, many cheap drums can sound great! I’ve found over the years, that inexpensive snare drums when tuned well rival very pricey ones, mostly because drummers can be very confused when comparing the quality of the snare sound. Hey, a snare drum is a pretty sound. Which bring us to the first secret of tuning drums: Everybody else’s drum is better than yours! That’s right, everybody’s. That’s because you are quite used to your drums. Of course the other person’s set sounds great-your ears are so shot from listening to your tubs, that ice cream cartons sound better! Accept it, and get on with your life, or start your own drum shop.
2) Tune well and tune often. The more you tune, the more tuning will become a skill rather than an experiment. You practice your paradiddles for hours, don’t you? Well, tune your drums once a month, a week, or ONCE A DAY! If you really want to get it, help out your local drum shop, believe me, drum shop workers have HAD IT with tuning!
3) Visit your local high school, and find out what THEY do. They do probably nothing. At least, you’ll think your drums sound better. The local college will yield a wealth of information about traditional tuning of timpani and concert toms. This is important, because a lot of tuning is about TONE. You know, notes, like on the piano over there. That’s right, drums can have an actual note! In fact, the shell itself can have a resonant frequency, like an “A” or “C#”. Shells made of birch or maple have traditionally been the most resonant. If you’re a jazz drummer, you probably like “tonal” drumming. Literally, playing pitches on drums, like melodies, has been a great tradition in be-bop. Even orchestral rock in the 60’s and 70’s, when huge drumsets were in vogue, had drummers playing complete scales on their drums (long-tubular drums such as LUDWIG “Octa-Plus” or TAMA “Octabons”). Currently, new design and new materials like drums by REMO are reinventing drum resonance and acoustics.
4) Watch drummers on recordings, videos and live. Get some ideas about the many ways drums are tuned and muffled. Rock began traditions of power (deep shells) rather than resonance. The drumset became a loud thing. If big and deep is your taste, then don’t worry about tonal quality as much. Go for size. There’s nothing like a 24" bass drum to move those woofers! An 18" floor tom is a great way to get “bass” out of the toms. Bass drums have evolved from accompanimental low-end instruments, like the string bass, to the contemporary syncopated “THUD!”
5) To muffle or not to muffle. Guerilla mufflers: On your toms, use light foam, or try weather-stripping from the hardware store. It has an adhesive on one side. (Beware, after a few years, though, its tough to take off). Don’t muffle TOO much. Over muffling can make a drum sound like a 2 by 4 . A little bit of foam, in a few places goes a long way. On your snare drum, the wallet is a classic muffling tool, but be careful in clubs. You can buy external mufflers that work well-see below. I’ve never liked internal mufflers, because they push on the head, rather than simply deaden it. Also, you can forget they’re on when you replace a head. This can cause extra stress on the head as you tune. Also, internal mufflers get loose and cause rattles. Use ‘em if you want, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Commercial Drum Mufflers: For the toms and snare drum, I recommend using “RemO’s” or “Zero-ring” ring mufflers (inexpensive!). They are round plastic rings that fit on top of the head, and muffle the head by laying on it. Gravity does the work. For a snare drum there are also felt mufflers that clip to the rim, and are adjustable. For bass drums, I recommend Remo “Muffls”. They are foam inside a plastic ring, that fits in between the shell and the head. They muffle the bass drum evenly.
6) The snare from HELL! Well, if there ever was a mystery to rival setting up a home television system, the snare drum is it. Most tuning problems with a snare drum are really snare mechanism failure, or improper set-up. The snare really can work ON and OFF. The trick is to get the fine adjust (the turning knob) to be right in the middle of ON and OFF. The most reliable way to get your snare to work is: A) Tune the top head first, then the bottom. B) Tune the fine adjust to its loosest position. C) Put your snare strainer across the bottom head, and place the string or plastic strip in both holders. D) Tighten the far side first, centering the strainer, and MOST IMPORTANT pull the strainer fairly tight against the head. E) Tighten the screws. Again, the key is to pull it tight against the head. It will naturally loosen as you tighten the snare throw off. This will give you the most adjustment, and tightest snare sound. Of course, you’ll have to do this process 2,000 times to get the idea. Better yet, bring it to my store!
7) To tune or to tone. Before I give you the killer secret of them all, here’s the academic approach. In general, tune the top heads first. There the ones that you really hear. The bottom heads resonate along with the tops. Also, think about the tone of the bottom as compared to the top. To check for pitch, I deaden one head while listening to the other. It’s too confusing to the ears to hear all of the overtones (those ringing sounds from the drum-like after a heavy metal concert), and tell the pitch of the top and bottom head. You might even take the bottom off, when your tuning the top. Stretch out the heads as you put them on. Really push on them as you add tension. I use my full strength to stretch them out. Just like CPR! This is gutsy stuff. But, actually, you will break a head on VERY rare occasion. Those head manufacturers are very good at what they do.
8) Let your fingers do the tuning. Tuning with your fingers rather than a stick is easier. The pitches you’re looking for are very subtle. The stick is way too loud. Put your finger in the middle of the drum and check the pitch of each tuning point (lug & rod). By deadening the middle of the drum, you can really hear whether the drum is in tune with ITSELF. For melodic players, this is essential. The drum is just like a marimba or vibe bar. The area around the edges is where there is more “pitch” tonality. The center is where there is more bass and “thud”. Ask a conga, dumbek or a tabla player where the “DUM” or bass tone is on a drum.
9) The bottom head people. There has been over the years, a movement to make drumming sound non-ACOUSTIC! Year’s ago, weird spacey sounds invaded the industry, especially as electronic drums were invented. It is rumored that aliens actually created the first electronic drums, but this is just a rumor. It is also rumored that, if you tune the bottom head LOWER than the top head, you will get a “glissando” or a changing pitch. The pitch will seem to go down after you hit it, like “Dooooaaaaaahhhh!” Those early electric drums are to blame. Modern rock drummers, especially with deep power drum-shells still go for this sound, although I feel it went out with disco in the 70’s (shows my age). If you really want this sound, tune the drums to different pitches. It really doesn’t matter which one is higher or lower (big controversy here). What’s going on, is that lower pitches generally have longer decays. The high pitch head is actually fading into the lower pitch head. The result is a kind of “dip” in the pitch. Experiment, and check it out!
10) Tune UP, in and out. Tune from the lowest pitch. For some reason, it is easier to glide up to the pitch of a drum. Ask a timpanist about tuning mid-way through a piece. It is easier to go from underneath the pitch, rather than tuning down to it. When tuning, take the head all the way off. Clean the lugs with rust remover, use extra fine steel wool, and lubricate with oil or WD-40. Use your fingers to screw in the lugs and find the first moment of tension (the drum, that is). Make sure that the tension you feel is NOT dirt or a flaw in the tension rod threads. Then check the tuning with your drum key on top for the next point of tension. Start to evenly tune the drum, checking for pitch as described above, with your finger in the middle of the drum. Tune up and into the pitch, stretching the head as you go. If you overshoot your pitch, stretch the head, rather than tuning down, if possible. If all else fails, start over, don not collect $200. You’ll get it one of these days. O.K. Master, please, now tell us, what is the secret?
11) THE BIG SECRET TO TUNE DRUMS! This secret will cost you about $2.00. Go to your local drumshop, go up to the counter, and BUY A SECOND DRUM KEY!!! It is unbelievable that people tune with just one key. Confess, you still get lost doing all of that back and forth tuning across the drum. Our brain may be able to put a man on the moon, but it cannot keep track of eight lugs on a drum. There’s something about the diagonal crossing of the drum that blows our minds. By using TWO KEYS you can sit the drum on your lap. Put a key on each side, and tune around the drum, completely and SYMMETRICALLY! I’m not kidding. This trick is the NO-BRAINIER of them all. It cuts your tuning time in half, AND makes it easy to hear pitches (you only have to listen to half of the drum!) Timpanists know this trick because there are T-rods on many timpani. Some timpani don’t even have pedals. You have to tune entirely by hand! If you tune often, it will become a skill. Tuning, like playing is a SKILL!
We’ll that’s it, “The Secret to Tuning Drums” is out. Frankly, it’s a big deal off my chest. If I can just be one lug on the shell of life, I’ll be happy knowing that you can tune your snare drum. Remember, after the 50th tuning this month, that it’s not your ears that are ringing, but the neighbors next door, yelling about that midnight practice with the band. Go out and tune. Tune boldly where no drummer has tuned before and remember to take two keys and call me in the morning.
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(c) 2001 Ed Hartman. All rights reserved.
