Tuning your drums to notes A,C,E..etc...???

I am also a member on Gearslutz, so yes you can ask me questions about mics, miking a drum set and the best preamps to use. Anyway a few posts on GS suggest that they tune their drums to different notes. No one ever told me this? I have asked fellow drummers when first getting into drumming (around '00) and they said just tune them to your liking. I even live near a guy that played the drums for Heart in the 80's and he said the same thing, tune them to your liking, but when recording, tune them low and almost dead, his words not mine. So whats the deal? Do I tune my snare, toms, and bass to different notes according to the tuning of my guitar tracks?? thanks

Well, of course you tune your drums to notes, it just depends on the style of music you play as to how much of the pitch you let your kit speak.

You'll see jazz drummers tend to tune their toms to notes that compliment each other down the kit and let them ring out.

Rock drummers tend to just have their toms, obviously tuned high to low, but deadened a give more of a percussive thud. They may not necessarily tuned to any particular note... or they may well be.

Personally I tune my toms D, G, C, E but muffle them a bit so the tone is still apparent but it doesn't ring out interfering with the other instruments.

Snare drums can be a bit different because the point of the snare drum is that the wires rattle and give a sound that makes it stand out, but with the snares disengaged, I guess you can treat it like a tom and tune it to a pitch you think sounds good with the rest of the kit.

This has been asked before and here is my same answer. I don't tune my drums to particular notes, but I do tune them with each other. In other words, I start with my 8 inch tom and get it at its best sound. then I tune my 10 so that they sound good together. Then my 112 he same way, and the 12 has to also sound good with the 8 inch. Then I tune my 14 so that it is is tune with the other toms. In essence They would be a four note chord. They wouldn't be tuned with a piano or other instrument but in tune with each other. I hope that helps.

I dont tune to notes because theyll start going out of tune from the moment you start hitting them.

I tune so that they sound powerful and respond well.

Evenstevens280 said:

Personally I tune my toms D, G, C, E but muffle them a bit so the tone is still apparent but it doesn't ring out interfering with the other instruments.

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Evenstevens (Steven?), I'm curious about this. If you're effectively tuning your toms to a C9 chord as you do, wouldn't that be a problem if the band played a tune with lots of sharps like C# or F#?

I tune my drums to intervals between each other but not specific notes (Evans G2's over G1's). Right now from floor to high tom (18,14,12,10) they are 3,2,4. This forms a minor triad (1-3-5-1)with the highest tom an octave higher than the lowest. These are not specific notes but the intervals are around where the drums get the most resonance.

I don't ever tune my drums to intentional pitches, unless I'm in the studio. When you're playing live, you want your drums to sound good, regardless of the key, but in the studio, it sounds great (especially on ballads) to have your drums tuned to the key of the song. I don't even tune my drums to each other, most of the time. I find where the drum sounds best, and tune to THAT. Of course, with my DW kit, the drums have such wide sweet spots, that I'm able to tune them to any key with no problems. On my Ludwig Downbeat, on the other hand, the drums have a couple of sweet spots each--one high and one low. That allows me to tune lower for rock or higher for jazz, and they sound great both ways!

The problem comes when you try to tune drums to a note that's out of their "sweet spot" range. Then they just sound awful!

Also, you can tune your drums with a pitch-bend, so they really don't have a definite pitch, but rather a sweep of them, but that's if you want that effect, of course...

Hope this helps!

Tune my drums for feel and the room...work towards the 1st four notes in "Here Comes The Bride"....4 piece set. No overlapping tones. Denis

Like others have said, I also tune my drums to feel rather than pitch. There's one or two spots in each shell that sound fullest at a particalur tension. That's what I look for. If using only two toms, you don't need particular intervals.

Another issue you can ponder over is how the top and bottom heads interact. Here's what I came up with:

RACK TOMS
Remove top head. Tension bottom head as high as possible without choking it. If it has an annoying, high pitched, metallic ring, you tuned too high. This gives you the highest pitch where the durm sounds full.

Now add the top head. Push your hand palm in the middle of the head. You'll see wrinkles at the edges. While pushing with your hand, tension the head until the wrinkles are gone. This gives you the lowest pitch where the drum holds its tone. You can increase the batter's picth from there if you wish.

The high reso gives a nice, round and clear tone. To keep the overall tone from being too high, the batter must be tuned low. This also creates a full, fat attack.

FLOOR TOMS
Do the opposite: remove the bottom head, tension the top head to its highest pitch you like, then tune the bottom head to its lowest and fullest pitch. You can increase the reso's pitch from there if you wish.

Larger batters need higher tensioning to a) open up and b) rebound sticks The low reso keeps the pitch low and creates a low rumble. If you have the reso low on small toms, they will sound muddy and undefined. This tuning builds a nice bridge to the kick.

KICK
Tension both heads to the lowest pitch like described above (pushing with your hand to see the wrinkles).

SNARE
Tension both heads to the highest pitch without choking the drum, starting with the bottom head. Then tensioning the wires to the point the don't rattle and not higher. Do this by starting with a low wire tension, increasing the tension while hitting the head.

When I first became a member of DW, I read some posts about note tuning. I remembered my High School Band days and my short term experience with Timpani's. I borrowed an electronic tuner and I experimented with different tunings, of different drums, to different notes.
I soon learned that if your drum didn't want to be the note that you wanted it to be, It wasn't going to be that note! Meaning that the drum wouldn't sound good at that frequency.
I finally did manage to get them tuned to notes. I then realized that if I hit the drum hard a few times, it wouldn't make the note that I tuned it to. I did like the sound at certain notes and I settled on some of the notes and I tuned to them. I thought that I had this tuning to notes thing down!
I then moved my drums up the street to band practice. I began to play with the band. 5 mins later I had my key out and I was tuning by ear again! LOL!
I guess that it just wasn't in the stars for me!

Pollyanna said:

Evenstevens (Steven?), I'm curious about this. If you're effectively tuning your toms to a C9 chord as you do, wouldn't that be a problem if the band played a tune with lots of sharps like C# or F#?

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It's actually Cadd9 but that's beyond the point.

Like I said, I muffle my toms enough so they don't ring out and impose on the song - no matter what key.

DamoSyzygy said:

I dont tune to notes because theyll start going out of tune from the moment you start hitting them.

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Well, this would be true no matter what method you used to tune, no?

Pollyanna said:

Evenstevens (Steven?), I'm curious about this. If you're effectively tuning your toms to a C9 chord as you do, wouldn't that be a problem if the band played a tune with lots of sharps like C# or F#?

Click to expand...

As it happens, the audience doesn't really hear the pitches as such. They just hear high tom, medium tom, low tom. I have tuned to nearly every conceivable combination of notes and it never interferes with a song.

Also, consider this: even if you don't tune to pitches on purpose, you're getting pitches from your drums anyway! No one asks if those pitches interfere with the song.

Keystone said:

I am also a member on Gearslutz, so yes you can ask me questions about mics, miking a drum set and the best preamps to use. Anyway a few posts on GS suggest that they tune their drums to different notes. No one ever told me this? I have asked fellow drummers when first getting into drumming (around '00) and they said just tune them to your liking. I even live near a guy that played the drums for Heart in the 80's and he said the same thing, tune them to your liking, but when recording, tune them low and almost dead, his words not mine. So whats the deal? Do I tune my snare, toms, and bass to different notes according to the tuning of my guitar tracks?? thanks

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Some drummers do, most don't.

I find it handy for several reasons.

1. Tuning to notes helps you get a handle on the intervals between your toms, and lets you explore different tunings in a systematic way. How do perfect fourths sound between the toms? How about thirds? How about a combination?

By tuning to notes you can keep track of stuff and replicate a tuning you liked without having to reinvent it.

2. It also makes tuning quick and easy for me. All I need is a pitch pipe and my ears. I'm done with the whole kit before most guys have begun their second drum with the drum dial.

3. It's a way to easily replicate a previous tuning when it's time to rehead.

4. It's an easy way to make sure any two adjacent toms sound good when struck together. If you just tune toms to "where they sound good" you can still end up with a nasty interval (such as a tritone) between drums--you can even get beating between them. Oftentimes it's an easy matter to turn that tritone into a nice fourth or fifth without going outside the best range for each drum.

If you want to try tuning to notes, here are a few suggestions:

1. First, you must find the range where each drum sounds its best. It's usually a spread of 3-4 semitones where the drum really sings. No matter what you'd like your tuning scheme to be, you must adapt your scheme to what notes the drums themselves want to play. Otherwise you'll probably end up with some drums louder than others, some choked, some flappy, etc. Note that everyone should do this no matter what method they use to tune.

2. Chromatic tuners are pretty much useless. Drums are so rich in harmonics that they often fool the tuner into reading the wrong note. I just use a pitch-pipe, carried in my pocket. I usually tune at home and then touch-up at the gig.

3. As you get close to the pitch you want on a given head, use your lug-to-lug touching up to get there. That is, if you're a little low, only bring up the tension rods that are low; if you're a little high, bring down the ones that are a little high. That way you improve the lug-to-lug tuning as you arrive at the pitch you want.

4. If you play out miked you can go for close intervals (say, major or minor thirds) and a low overall tuning. If you play out unmiked you'd be better off with wider intervals (fourths or fifths) and a higher overall tuning. In either case, do not go outside the range where each drum sounds good.

5. I have had good results with consistent intervals between all the toms, and also with varying intervals. It often gives good results to tune the largest toms (particularly if you use two floors) to wider intervals and then close up the intervals as you go up. A nice tuning for my kid's kit was (from the bottom up, 16-14-12-10-8) C-F-Bb-D-F. Though currently he's using C-F-Bb-Eb-Ab, and that sounds great, too. It's fun to mess around.

6. As I mentioned before, don't worry about the notes clashing with the song. They won't. Some producers have a fetish for tuning toms to the notes of the song being recorded, but several million recordings have been made without doing that and they sound just fine.

Thanks drumtechdad, I may get a pitch pipe and give note tuning another try! I may have someone with a better ear than me help until I get the hang of matching pitch better. I'm only pretty good at distinguishing accurately.

Wavelength, , a longtime member here, passed on the following info to me after I purchased my DW's. It works for me, but tuning is such a personal and emotional thing for most drummers. Kinda like telling someone how to prepare their favorite sandwhich. lol Anyway, here it is:


"This is one of the most common five-tom tunings: Perfect fifth between 16" and 14", perfect fourth between 14" and 12", major or minor third between 12" and 10", and finally, perfect fifth between 12" and 8". You'll end up with a root-fifth-octave-third-fifth melody on the toms, which is quite usable and melodic. Check out some Steve Smith videos for an example of this particular tuning."


I ended up loving this tuning, so I still use it. Also helped as I played along with Smith's US Beat dvd, knowing the expected sounds. I tuned to C, so starting with the 16 ... C, G, C, E, G.
Joey

Wow some really good responses. I think I will go out an purchase a pitch pipe. I only play a three piece kit but its really going to help. I am going to experiment and find out what sounds best for the recordings I do. Thanks guys.

Last night during sound check I realised my mounted tom tuning needed to be changed to suit the room. I was going around the pegs and our bassist and guitarist were playing away - yet I'd been quiet for them when they were tuning!

I said, "Hey guys, could I have a bit of quiet so I can tune?" and they apologised and looked kind of embarrassed because they realised they'd been musical fascists (you know, drummers don't matter as much) and they are nice guys, I then told them how good it felt to say that to a guitarist - after all these years of being forced into silence by the stringed ones hehehe

I probably should have asked them to play me a C

Everyone tunes their drums to notes, its just what happens.
Weather or not those notes are in a specific order, or the tuner knows what note they've tuned to is another matter entirely.

I do think this thread will get tuned to the Sticky: Tom tuning
section though, that's where it belongs.

I dont tune to notes because theyll start going out of tune from the moment you start hitting them.
Well, this would be true no matter what method you used to tune, no?

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Correct. The difference is that when you tune the drum to where it wants to be tuned, there is a RANGE where itll still sound quite decent. Therefore, as the drum detunes, youre still generally ok for a little while. Also, with this method the sound of one drum isnt as dependant on the others in order to 'work'

Tuning the drums to notes may require choking or flattening one drum to a pitch it doesnt really want to be in, and as soon as it starts to go out, the effect is lost.

Thats my experience with it anyway. My first album was recorded with the toms tuned to notes, and I wish to God Id never done it!

Pollyanna said:

Last night during sound check I realised my mounted tom tuning needed to be changed to suit the room. I was going around the pegs and our bassist and guitarist were playing away - yet I'd been quiet for them when they were tuning!

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Verticals noodle. It's what they do.

DamoSyzygy said:

Tuning the drums to notes may require choking or flattening one drum to a pitch it doesnt really want to be in, and as soon as it starts to go out, the effect is lost.

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That's why you should never tune to a note outside the range where the drum sings. The drums tell you where they want to be tuned, then you arrange a tuning scheme to suit.

i always try and tune to what rings best in the shell. I dont tune to specific notes, but i try and get the notes to relate to each other, so they usually form an arpeggio.