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How to Tune Drums

One of the most frustrating aspects of playing percussion is not knowing how to make your drums sound good. Learning how to tune your instrument is not overly difficult. It's simply a matter of applying basic principles and then practicing those concepts until it becomes second nature for you to be able to get a great sound.

A drum shell plays when a skin, or head, is fitted to the top of the instrument. The skin is held in place by a hoop which is secured with lugs. Lugs are a kind of bold that fit into a nut. Lugs are tightened with a tuning key. As the lugs are tightened, the hoop stretches the skin over the shell. This changes the tune as the pitch of becomes higher when the skin becomes tighter.

Note; it's a good idea to own two or three tuning keys. Tuning keys only cost a few dollars so it's wise to have at least two, just in case you misplace one. After all, if you don't have a tuning key you won't be able to tune the instrument. If you are playing at home or on other kits outside of your home, you can even put a tuning key on your key ring so you'll always have one on hand.

Regardless of what drum you wish to tune up, there are two methods that you should apply to tune: general tuning and fine tuning.

General Tuning

The aim of general tuning is to apply an even tension to the skin so that the tension that will give the approximate pitch that you are after. Once you have achieved this you can fine tune the percussion by tightening specific lugs to find the exact sound you want.

To start tuning you should loosen all of the lugs around the hoop to the point where you can loosen each lugs without the tuning key. When you can loosen all the lugs around the hoop with you fingers you want to then tighten each lug with your fingers as tight as you can. This will provide an even tension around the skin.

If you hit the skin with a stick you'll notice that the sound is very flat, almost dead. This is the pitch that you want to start with to tune.

Now you want to tighten each of the lugs around the hoop and remain consistent with the amount of tension on the skin. To achieve this tighten each lug with the same amount of turns of the tuning key. Apply two or three turns of the tuning key in a clockwise direction to tighten each lug. Then hit the skin again to listen to the pitch that the drum makes. Continue in this manner until you get a sound that is giving you a pitch and tone that you are happy with.

Just by using the above technique with general tuning you should be able to get a descent sound. You can always make it even better with fine tuning.

Fine Tuning

To fine tune you simply tighten or loosen a lug and hit the skin after that individual lug has been adjusted. You will hear subtle differences that the tuning has made. As you go around each lug you will more than often find that there will be one or two lugs around the hoop that have a greater effect on the overall sound than the other lugs. Tuning these lugs will make it easier to get to the sound that you are after quickly.

That's the best manner in how to tune a drum. Start with general tuning and then move to fine tuning. General tuning is simply as it is not based so much on sound as it is basic tension of the skin. Fine tuning is the element that you need to get comfortable with in order to be able to tune your kit well. The more you use the fine tuning technique, the better you'll become at tuning drums.