Tuning Drums

One of the hardest parts of changing your drum heads is tuning drums afterwards. This simple method of changing your drums head will not only give you a great sound afterwards, but it will also make maintaining the pitch and later tunings much easier.

For those new to tuning, let’s go over the parts of the drums you’ll be using when tuning. And for those who just want the lesson on tuning, skip to the bottom of the page. Thank you and I hope this lesson helps you.

The hoop (or rim) holds the head down over the bearing edge of the snare. Your washers and tension rods (shown below) will slip through the holes of the hoop and screw into the lugs(also below) on the shell for tuning. Learn more about Drum Rims.

The lugs are connected to the shell of the drum and receives the tension rod. As the rod is screwed into the lug, the hoops presses down on the head, making contact with the bearing edge of the shell, tuning the drums.

The washer and rods work together. Insert them through the hoop and into the lugs, while you screw them in you will start tuning drums and be able to hear a difference in the pitch. Learn more about tension rods here.

Evans Genera HD Dry Coated Snare Drum Head

And finally, there is of course the head itself. There are two types of heads, Batter and Resonant.

The resonant head is the side placed on the bottom of the shell. It is what gives the drum it’s sustain and overtones. It is also greatly responsivle for the pitch and timbre of the drum.

The batter head is what you will be hitting and replacing most often. It influences the sound and feel of the stick hits and is mostly responsible for the initial pitch and projection of the drums. You can learn more about the drum head here.

You’ll also want to get a good tuning key. Click here to see tuning key options for tuning snare drum.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the parts of the drums, you’re ready for the lessons on tuning drums.

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