How to tune drums

The three ideas behind all of it

1. Even tension is the whole game. A drum sounds bad mostly when the head is tighter at some lugs than others. The pitch wobbles, the sustain warbles, the drum fights you. Even tension first, then pick how high or low.
2. Two heads, one sound. The batter (top) head sets feel and attack; the resonant (bottom) head shapes sustain and pitch bend. They interact. Most "my toms sound dead" complaints are a neglected resonant head.
3. The drum has opinions. Every shell has a range where it sings. Tuning is finding that range, not forcing a pitch the drum hates.

Step by step: any drum

1. Seat the head. With a new head, set it on the shell, fit the hoop, and finger-tighten every rod until snug. Press down firmly in the center of the head with your palm a few times; cracking noises are normal, that is the head conforming to the bearing edge.
2. Bring it up evenly in a star pattern. Half-turns at first, then quarter turns, always crossing the drum: tighten a lug, then its opposite, working around. This keeps the head centered and tension even.
3. Clear the head. Tap with a stick about an inch in from each lug. Each tap should ring the same pitch. Nudge the low lugs up (small turns, an eighth at a time) until they match. Muting the center of the head with a finger while you tap makes lug pitches easier to hear.
4. Find the sweet spot. Take the whole head up or down in small even passes until the drum opens up and sustains. Too low sounds flappy and dead; too high sounds choked and thin; the sweet spot rings.

Toms

Tune the resonant head the same way as the batter. The relationship between the two sets the character:

• Both heads same pitch: pure tone, longest sustain.
• Resonant a bit higher than batter: the classic choice. Slight downward pitch bend after the attack, controlled sustain. Start here.
• Resonant lower than batter: bigger bend, fatter and shorter. Harder to keep clean.

Pitch the toms relative to each other, roughly a third to a fourth apart, high tom to floor tom, so fills sound like they belong to one instrument.

Snare

The snare likes tension. Batter head medium-high to high: crack comes from tension. The resonant (snare-side) head is thin and should be tight, well past where it feels reasonable; a loose snare-side head is the most common cause of a mushy drum. Snare wires snug until the buzz cleans up, then stop: over-tightened wires choke the drum and kill sensitivity. Expect some sympathetic buzz when you hit the toms; that is physics, not failure.

Kick

Lower is not automatically better. Take the batter head just above wrinkle-free, where the beater gets a clean punch and a little rebound. Resonant head similar or slightly higher. For the modern controlled thump, use a pillow or blanket lightly touching the batter head, or a head with built-in damping (see drumheads explained for the Powerstroke and Emad families). A felt strip or small port hole in the resonant head tames boom without killing the drum.

When tuning will not fix it

Heads are consumables. A batter head with a visible dent pocket, a cloudy coating worn smooth in the middle, or years of stretch will not tune clean no matter what you do. Stock heads on entry kits are usually the first thing to replace; it is the best $60 upgrade in drumming. Old resonant heads count too, they just age slower.