How to Tune a Drum
Why should you tune drums?
Before learning how to tune a drum, it’s important to know why and when to do so. Drums, just like any other musical instrument, will go out of tune if neglected. If your drum heads aren’t tuned on a reasonably regular basis (assuming you’re playing them quite a bit), they’ll begin to sound out of pitch and dull.
Untuned heads become damaged faster. Every stick strike loosens the batter heads which settle over the shells and become baggy as time goes by. If they aren’t tuned up on average every few weeks, the heads will gradually become un-tunable and will need replacing more often. (And of course your drums won’t sound as good).
I couldn’t believe the difference a proper drum tuning session on my first Pearl Export made to their sound. It wasn’t until someone actually showed me the right way to do it that I realized that my drums weren’t supposed to sound as bad as they did!
When should you tune drums?
On average, drums should be tuned every few weeks, depending on how much they’re played. Of course this is a generalization, so if you’re uncertain, the following signs should indicate that a re-tune or replacement is in order:
- When the batter head coating starts to wear off
- When the head cannot be tuned no matter how hard you try
- When the batter head is dented
- When it’s holed!
- When the drum starts buzzing when struck
Categorized Under
About admin
