As a drummer, you need to remember that playing the drums is not just about hitting and banging the drum heads and cymbals. Well, for the most part it is, but if you really want to produce great music, then you need to know how to accurately tune your drum kit. You have to remember that nothing can make the drums sound better than by tightly tuning the drums first.
With an accurately tuned drum set, even the average drummer can sound really good. This is why you have to learn how to tune your drums. By doing so, you will eventually increase the level of your performance.
As you may already know, the basic drum set will include a snare drum, a bass, tom-toms, and cymbals, such as the hi-hats, crash, and ride cymbals. When tuning your drum set, you may want to start with the snare drum. Tuning the snare drum is considered to be very precarious as the heads of this drum is known to bust easily.
To tune the snare drum, start by tuning the top head. Turn the lug with your drum key clockwise to increase the tension, and counter clockwise to release the tension. When you tighten the tension, you will produce a higher pitch and vice versa. To test the sound, tap on the drum about two inches from the lug you just tightened or loosened. The second lug that you should tighten should be the opposite lug to the first one you just tightened. When you hit the drum near the second lug you tightened, it should sound similar to the first one you turned. The third lug you should adjust should be the one next to the first lug you tightened the next should be the opposite lug and so on up until you have tightened the entire lugs.
You can tune the tom-toms next if you want. You need to remember that the toms have the most noticeable rendering of pitch, which means that it is very important for you to really do a good job in tuning these types of drums. Use the same alternating technique you used when you tuned your snare drum. After you get the bottom head to have equal tension, you can now tune the head, which is how you will adjust the pitch of the sound. Try to match the pitch with a piano, a pitch pipe or you can also match the pitch with a guitar.
After tuning your tom-toms, you can now move on to the bass drum. You have to start by tuning the head. The pitch can be tuned by adjusting the lugs on the back head. The sound of the bass drum will vary on the style of music you play as well as the other instruments your friends play with you, such as the guitar and bass.
Knowing how to tune your drums will definitely improve the way you play your drums. It will progress the way you sound and it will also increase your performance when you are playing with the band.
So, try to learn how to tune your drum set early on and you will be able to sound like a pro when playing the drums.