Drum Tuning - How To Tune Snare Drum
* This in-depth tutorial article written by Gregory A Hill (musician, audio engineer, producer) was a little too long for our blog, therefore I've split it into a 2-part article. Look for the 1st portion of this article, which was published
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The desired pitch for your snare drum
When all tension rods around the head have received your first 1/4 turn, you have made your first pass. Of course 1/4 turn on each rod is going to result in a very loose and lifeless head. In general four to six passes are required to bring a snares resonant head up to tension. This is where personal preference comes into play. If you want your snare to have more body and sustain, four passes should be plenty. If you'd like your snare to have more snap and snare wire response, really cranking down the hoop with five to six passes should suffice.
This is why I prefer starting on the resonant side of the drum. Here we can find the desired pitch we want our snare to be set at. There's no one correct pitch to tune your drum to, it's all dependent on the sound you're after and what is pleasing to your ears.
Now that our resonant head is at the desired pitch, let's make sure the tension at each rod is even.
One form of achieving this is tuning by ear. Simply stated, this is closely listening to the overtones that are sounded by tapping near each tension rod and matching those pitches around the drum. John Good of DW Drums has a method which I prefer. It involves using both pointer and middle finger together (like making finger pistols) and tapping over each lug so that the center knuckle of your middle finger hits directly on the hoop and the tip of that finger strikes the head. This results in a far more accurate striking position when moving around the drum rather than tapping at random with your finger, stick, or drum key. Listen to the overtones of each respective rod and find the one (or multiple ones) that you prefer. When matching the rest of the overtones remember this one simple rule- Always tune UP to pitch, never down.
If a tension rods overtone is too high, loosen it by 1/4 turn, tap with your "finger pistol", and bring it up to the desired pitch matching that of the other rods.
If you don't have perfect pitch, or would like to make this process a little easier on yourself, look into purchasing a drum tension watch. I personally use the Drum Dial. They make both an analog and digital version. My experience lies with the analog version and I love it for fast and easy fine tuning. On Snare, I find that a reading between 80-85 on the resonant head is just right, though this is entirely dependent on the drum head. With an Evans Hazy 300, a reading of 83 is perfect.
Keep in mind that the resonant side of the snare drum most likely has snare beds. These allow the snare wires to sit flush with the head and improve their response. The downside is, they make it difficult to accurately fine tune the resonant head of a snare drum. If you find that the tension is low near the rods located at the snare beds, don't fret. Just make sure the same amount of passes have been made for all tension rods and the overtones of the rods NOT at the snare beds are the same.
With the resonant head seated properly, at the desired pitch, and fine tuned, we can move on to the batter head. There are a couple of ways to approach the batter head.
- Batter head tuned at a medium tension (More body and sustain/ less pop and snare wire response)
- Batter head tuned at a higher tension (More "snap, crackle, pop" and snare wire response/ less body and sustain)
With either of these methods, just follow the previous steps we went over on the resonant head, making sure the bearing-edge is clean and the head is seated properly.
Begin tensioning with the same 1/4 turn passes in the star formation.
For a full-bodied snare sound, stick with three or four passes. You want to make sure the head is resonating but not cranked down too much. If tuning by ear, find a pitch that pleases you and match the overtones at each tension rod, just as we did with the resonant. If using a tension watch, aim for a reading between 80-85. Again, this really depends on the head you are using, but try to keep its pitch relatively low.
For a snare sound with more crack, use four to six passes. You'll know when your there as you hear the head cracking (This is a good sound if this is the style your after! Don't be afraid, it's just the head conforming to the bearing-edge of the shell). If tuning by ear, pay close attention to the overtones in the higher frequency range or the "ping" sound emitted at each tension rod. Match the overtones at each tension rod just as before. If using a tension watch, you want a reading of 90+.
Tension responds in an exponential manner. This means that at a lower tension a single pass can bring the overall pitch of the drum up several semitones, while at higher tensions, a single pass may only increase the heads pitch by a single semitone or less.
Remember, the goal is to find what sounds good to YOUR ears and not obsess over the minor details. Like any practice, the more you do it, the better your results will be!
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