The Ultimate Drum Tuning Guide - Circular Science printable pdf download

THE

It’s not hard

The first hurdle to overcome in obtaining a good drum

sound is that tuning a drum is not hard. Many books, arti-

ULTIMATE

cles, and videos have been written about it over the years,

but instead of giving you something else to learn, this guide

will let you apply what you already know to tuning your

drums, and you will soon agree that tuning your instrument

DRUM

is not hard.

Like tuning a guitar

Can you tune a guitar? Even most "non-musicians" can

recognize pitch differential. Tuning a drum is all about recog-

TUNING

nizing pitch differential. I strongly suggest getting any instru-

ment, like a guitar, and spending some time listening to the

pitches between strings. Practice until you can hear not only

if two strings are close, but if there is any wavering in pitch

GUIDE

as both strings sustain. Listen until you can tell which string

is high and low while both strings are resonating.

I recommend a few weeks of practice, not on a drum. I

know it may be hard to have the patience to wait, but get-

ting a good sense of pitches and their relationships, is cru-

cial to simplifying your drum tuning. You will learn through

Ten steps to

this process that very small adjustments made to a string

will cause a major adjustment in tuning. All of these prac-

better drum

tices carry over directly to the drum.

tuning

Simplify

Why did we start with a guitar? Believe it or not, a guitar

is easier to tune than a drum. Each string vibrates between

By Steven Volpp

two fixed fulcrums (the nut and the bridge) that are also in

a straight line. A drum has four to ten different adjustment

points as opposed to a guitar’s one. The head is round,

which can create a multitude of odd order harmonics.

So, how do we make all those variables simple? Easy.

Place your drum on a drum stool. This will dampen the bot-

tom head so we only have to listen to one head at a time. It

will also make tuning much easier. This is VERY important.

Tap the drum about one inch from the rim by a lug. Then

tap the drum at the next lug. You may or may not hear a

difference. Now place your index finger in the middle of the

head with a slight pressure (the pressure you would place

on a guitar sting if you where going to produce a harmon-

ic). Now tap one of the same lugs. Stop the head from

vibrating, and tap the next adjacent lug. Do you hear a

much greater difference? That is because by dampening the

head in the middle with your fin-

ger, you are now listening to

the head between your fin-

ger and the lug. This is

what makes tuning so

simple. Tap at each lug

and only listen to the

Dampen

Center

head resonate in that

area. Simply adjust the

two adjacent lugs so that

the pitches match, just like

P E A V E Y

M O N I T O R

The Ultimate Drum Tuning Guide - Circular Science

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