I've been a hobbyist for 12 years and still can't tune my drums. I do struggle with pitch differentiation though, but have never had anyone show me how to tune and haven't found the method that works for me or my drums
. One day I hope to understand
If you don't mind, I'm gonna give this a shot. This is one way to do it. This is just for toms.
Put the drum on a carpet. Lay a fingertip dead center of the head (important!) and lightly tap the head, about an inch in front of a tension rod, with a stick tip. This will produce a harmonic sounding tone. Without moving your dead center fingertip, tap near
every rod and just listen. Listen to the harmonics. Notice which ones are higher and lower. Select the purest best sounding rod. Notice the note it sings. Remember where that rod is by noticing the relationship to the head logo. Use that rod as a reference and tune all the other rods to it. Once they all sing the same tone, that's called clearing the head.
Once the head is clear, or in tune with itself, now you have to determine if your head pitch is too low for that drum, too high, or just right. Adjust if necessary and re-clear. I like to get the drum head even at a very low tuning, then bring it up slowly from there. Getting it even is key.
After that's done flip the drum and repeat.
OK both heads are cleared. Not done yet.
There is the pitch relation thing going on between the batter and reso. This is where the real fine tuning of the drum happens. Basically, there's 3 general roads to take, you can tune the reso head lower, the same as, or higher...than the batter. That's a whole discussion unto itself, and it is mostly personal preference.
OK pitch relationship tweaking....mute with your fingertip and tap the cleared batter near a rod, remember the note, even better try and sing it, and flip it over and do the tap thing on the cleared reso near a rod.... and evaluate if you like the pitch relationship. Does it sound like part of the same chord? Or is it dissonant? Do you like it? You kind of have to know whether you prefer the /lower than/same as/higher than/ relationship. This is where the real hours get burned up learning to tune drums and where your personal preferences lie.
Once your heads are cleared, and they are at the correct pitch for that diameter drum, and in addition, you have a complimentary pitch relationship between the batter and the reso going on...you're done....with that drum.
Now you have the rest of the kit to tune, and getting a pleasing relationship between all the drums adds to the task. With experience, you know where you like your toms pitch-wise and naturally go right to it.
Piece of cake. Walk in the park. Falling off a log. Shooting fish in a barrel....are all easier than tuning drums lol.
Phase cancellation involves two heads, you can't get phase cancellation on a concert tom. It's where the 2 respective pitches.....there's a zone where those pitches cancel each other out and the drum sounds castrated, hollow. There are multiple zones where you can get phase cancellation. The good news is that a good tone is pretty close. Adjusting one head will do it.
In my experience, tuning the reso lower sounds boingy. Tuning the reso the same as the batter is real nice, but reso higher than batter is what I go for, sometimes a full octave higher, sometimes a fourth or fifth higher. Sometimes I tune both equally, especially on the higher toms, but I stay away from tuning the reso lower on any of my drums.
Tuning the snare and bass drum are 2 separate discussions. Too broad to even tackle.
A few other notes, no more than a 1/4 turn when adjusting rods, small moves. I use 1/8 turns. Using 2 opposing keys really gives you a pretty good feel for even-ness. Rods that are lubricated tune easier, a sticking rod or anything that binds a rod makes it almost impossible to tune by feel. Think in terms of "pairs" of opposing rods. Like to me an 8 lug drum is 4 pairs of rods. 4 tuning planes. When I check tuning, I tap a rod, then I tap it's opposite rod. I do that with all 4 pairs, comparing pairs to each other. If a drum is out of tune, one of the tuning "pairs" doesn't sound like the others, and adjusting that pair of rods clears it. The 5 lug tuning on Gretsch rack toms was the only reason I'm not playing them now. That's not anal at all. I had some nice Renowns.