How to Tune Drums

Video Transcript

"All right, let's talk a little about tuning and tension of your heads. Now, when I see people tuning once in a while, I don't know, they have to structure their tuning. There's a couple formats, but let's just go over the parallel format. So, you got your key, and you should have, if you're tuning your snare, your snare should be off. And you should go parallel to the lug across the drum, so you tap and listen for the sound. About a drumstick head away is what you kind of want to tap. Now I hear on this one it's a little bit lower, so I'm going to go ahead and just to a teeny quarter inch turn. Very small. And that's going to influence my sound in a great way. So, and the other thing you need to really realize is also if you're going to tune something you should almost dampen the head on the bottom also. And with the tension of your heads, it's really a lot of personal preferences, but I like to have my top heads a little bit tighter than my bottom."