General Care and Maintenance of Drums

Transcription

1 General Care and Maintenance of Drums To insure the longevity and performance of our drum investment, all components should be cleaned, lubricated, and inspected periodically for signs of wear. If needed, perform necessary repairs to replace any worn or missing parts to prevent further damage. General Storage: Drums are able to withstand a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions. However for best care, they should be treated like any fine musical instrument and stored in a controlled environment. Snare Stands: If your snare stand has missing or worn rubber tips get new ones to prevent damage to your snare drum. Apply lubricant to the threaded parts of the stand to insure smooth and easy operation. Snare Strainers: Periodically inspect and tighten the bolts holding the snares. Lightly lube the tension adjustment screw and all pivot points on the throw-off to insure smooth action. Snare Wires: Inspect the snare wires for stretched, bent, or broken wires and replace as necessary. Inspect the snare head for cuts and tears and replace if necessary. Snare Cord or Plastic Straps: Periodically inspect and replace immediately if frayed. Tension Rods, Wing Bolts, Wing Nuts: Lube these parts with a general-purpose lubricant and wipe off excess with a dry lint-free cloth. Never use pliers to tighten wing bolts or wing nuts. Heads: Replace heads if they are dented, torn, or over-stretched. NOTE - Kevlar heads are bullet proof and time alone won t matter much wear from use will. If the head is being played A LOT (as in Top Secret drum corps), then there may be a life expectancy. The same is advertised for a Core-Tec head that comes on all Andante snare drums. The laminated and bonded layers of high density thermoplastic made for a responsive and durable playing surface" (per Andante). Core-Tec heads can last a while but usually get changed out in about a year, due to wear and tear or breakage, depending on how much the drum is played. A "played in" head is better than a new head, sound wise, so don't change it until it is necessary. ALWAYS have back-up heads in your drum case in the event it blows or rips - which tends to happen during play, just after play, or just after tuning. Jason Higgins recommends bands travel with a spare snare that is tuned with the others in case this happens. Jason also said it takes 2 weeks to fully tune and ready a new drum head so they should not be replaced any later than 2 weeks before a competition, unless one breaks/rips and we have no choice. With most pipe bands, heads will last longer than the drummer is in the band. Snares (the actual wire strainer) are a different matter they tend to snag, pop, and stretch, each a function of over stretching, not time sensitive. Unlike bagpipe reeds, drums and drum parts are generally made of inorganic materials, not subject to changes in moisture, so they can last a LONG time (years!!). The drum itself will suffer more than the head from poor tuning technique shells crush, hoops bend, tension rods and lug nuts get stripped. 1

2 Drum Tuning from Gene Okamoto, Pearl Corporation Tuning: When it comes to tuning drums, there's no right or wrong. If you ask 10 drummers how they tune their drums, you'll get 10 different answers. For drummers starting out, this can be confusing and contradictory. To make things easier ( HA! you say, "If he thinks this is easy, he's nuts!"), Gene describes how he tunes drums: Tuning in Opposites: Years ago a drummer friend, named George Rutter, and I were talking he mentioned "tuning in opposites." The proverbial "light bulb" went on in my head and the first chance I got, I tried it on my drums. Eureka, it worked! For the better part of my drumming career, I've used this method to tune drums with great success. This is how: Step 1 (optional) Start with a new head or take the existing one off your drum. With your thumbs, squash the rounded part of the head into itself all the way around. Do this with batter heads only, not snare heads. I don't quite understand why this works, but especially on two-ply heads, this makes them sound better. Step 2 Put the head on your drum and finger tighten the tension rods. Step 3 Using a criss-cross pattern (like the one shown at right), turn each tension rod 1/2 turn until the wrinkles are taken out of the head. Tighten the rods until a tone is produced. Note: Some feel this criss-cross tightening is obsolete. Step 4 To seat the head, simply press the center with the palm of your hand like giving CPR. Seating the head pulls the flesh hoop (the ring around the heads) into the channels of the rims and helps the head conform to the shape of the bearing edges of the drums. When you seat the head, you'll sometimes hear a cracking sound don't be alarmed, this is normal. After you seat the head, you'll probably notice that the pitch of the head is now lower. This indicates that the head needed seating. Retighten the head and seat it again. If it stays at the same pitch, proceed with Step 5. WARNINGs: DON'T press directly on bottom snare heads (2 to 3 mil*) unless you like to see your palm print permanently embossed in plastic! Even with 5 mil heads, you are taking a chance. You can pretty much seat thicker, professional-quality (new) heads (10 mil and thicker) with wild abandon, but it never hurts to start with light pressure and increase as your confidence grows. This is sound advice 2

3 to prevent damage to your heads, shells, yourself or others. *1 mil =.001". Your typical plastic kitchen wrap is.002" or 2 mil thick. NEVER tune by the tightness of the bolts - they may be tighter or looser for a myriad of reasons unrelated to the tension of the head at that position. This implies you should never use the commercially available drum dial, which is a type of torque wrench. DO be aware of the distance between the top tension hoop and the bar underneath it. This gap should be nearly constant around the drum. Variations in this gap will cause hoop bending. Small variations are allowed for final tuning by ear. Step 5 Put the drum on a clean surface, like a rug or bath towel, with the head to be tuned facing upwards. This does two things: 1) it muffles the other head so you can hear just the head you're tuning and; 2) it allows you to spin the drum to get from lug to lug without marring the floor. Step 6 Tap the head at each tension rod and listen to the sounds produced. Drum sticks are the obvious "implement" to hit the head, but to "hear"* better, some drummers prefer to use their drum key, timpani or vibe/marimba mallets, "dowel" rods, etc. Me, I use my finger.** I play a (light***) rimshot with my finger at the second "notch" which allows me to hear the harmonics better and to hit the head at the same distance from the rim every time. *Some drummers apply light and consistent pressure with their finger in the center of the head to make "hearing" better. **If you try this yourself, make sure that your rims don't have any sharp edges. ***Hard rimshots are painful. Step 7 Make a mental note of where the pitches sounded high and where they sounded low. Usually, if a lug is "high" (or "low"), the one directly opposite it will also be equally "high" (or "low)*. *Except on drums with odd number lugs. Step 8 Now for the good part! Loosen every rod (turn counterclockwise 1/8 turn) which were "high" and tighten every rod (turn clockwise 1/8 turn) which were "low." This means that if your drum has 6 lugs, you'll make 6 adjustments; 8 lugs, 8 adjustments; and so on. This is what I mean by tuning in opposites: you're bringing the "highs" down and the "lows" up until they meet in the middle. Step 9 Seat the head again as in step 4. Step 10 Repeat Steps 6 to 9 until the head has the same pitch all the way around; or is "in tune with itself." Heads that are "in tune with themselves" don't have "funny" overtones that require muffling and, in many cases, can be played "wide open." Step 11 Turn the drum over and follow Steps 1 to 10 to get the other head tuned evenly or "in tune with itself." Step 12 Now you can now tune either head up or down by turning each rod tighter or looser by the same amount. This works much like a zoom lens on a camera: once it's in focus you can "zoom" in or 3

4 out without affecting its focus. Being human, however, it's not always possible to be this precise, therefore, you may need to fine tune after making these adjustments. Step 13 Do Steps 1 through 11 with the rest of your tenors and bass drum(s). Save the snare drum for last WE'RE NOT DONE... YET! Tuning the Top and Bottom Heads Now it's time to tune the top and bottom heads relative to each other. The bottom head is also called the "resonator head" and it plays a vital role in controlling resonance (or sustain) and pitch of the drum. There are only three ways to tune double headed drums: 1.Tune the top and bottom heads to the same pitch. This gives a pure tone and long sustain. 2.Tune the bottom head lower than the top. This allows the drum to sound deep with good sustain while still maintaining good stick response. It also produces a "pitch drop" or "growl" sound. 3.Tune the bottom tighter than the top. This also produces a "pitch drop" or "growl" sound, but with a "shallower" sound and shorter sustain. Pipe Bands tend to use whatever method is designated by the Drum Sergeant, but it s one of those described above. The top snare may be tuned for the crush rolls unique to pipe bands. The top snare can be looser, in this case, to have a 'wet' sound or tighter to have a 'dry' sound. Again, 'chef's choice,' AKA Drum Sergeant. Tenor/bass tuning is currently done with a midsection tuner by Ty Fry. Tenor Drum Step 1 Start with your smallest tenor (actually, you can start with any drum - I start with the smallest one first). Tune the top head close to the pitch where you "hear" it. Don't tune this drum too low, otherwise your lower tenors will subsonic. Many drummers like to tune their drums a 4th apart. If you sing the Wedding March, "Here Comes the Bride," the interval between "here" and "comes" is a 4th. Step 2 Tune the bottom head using any one of the three methods described above. Remember to seat the heads after each adjustment. If you're trying to tune both heads to the same pitch, try tuning in opposites. Example: if the top head is higher, loosen it and tighten the bottom head; and vice versa. Step 3 "Tweak" the tuning of the top and bottom heads until the pitch and resonance/ sustain are to your liking. Step 4 Repeat Steps 2 and 3 on your remaining tenors. Try to get the intervals between the drums a 4th apart (or however you like them). Also, try to get the resonance/sustain to be as similar as possible.* *You want them to sound: boom, boom, boom, boom, etc.; not boom, boom, blat, boomþ 4

5 Bass Drum Your bass drum is like a (big) tenor laid on its side, therefore the above tuning techniques also apply.* *I tune the "audience-side" head lower than the playing side. However, unlike tenors, bass drums usually require muffling and/or holes cut into the front head to achieve good sound. (Egads! Please check the part about cutting holes with some judges first!) Muffling can be in the form of pillows, blankets, foam, clamp-on devices, or self-muffling drum heads. Which type of muffling and how much you use depends on your preference or playing situation; for instance: recording vs. live. As for cutting a hole in the front head, the ultimate hole is no head at all. Remember the "cardboard box" sound in the 70's when drummers took the front head off their bass drums and the bottom heads off their toms? Disco Duck! Here's the rule of thumb regarding hole size: As the hole gets smaller, the "boom" gets bigger; and conversely, as the hole gets bigger, the "boom" gets smaller. Experiment. It is also possible to muffle or control the sound with mallet types and striking styles. Again, Experiment. Snare Drum Step 1 Tune the top head following Steps 1 to 10 in the section above called, "Tuning in Opposites." Step 2 As with other drums, you can tune the bottom (snare) head three ways: top and bottom the same; the bottom lower than the top; and the bottom tighter than the top. Hint: Most drummers tune the bottom head tighter than the top, but it's up to the Drum Sergeant... experiment. Tuning the bottom snare head, however, introduces a new "wrinkle," literally. Have you noticed that the bottom bearing edge of your snare drum is not flat? It has two "cut-outs," one on each side of the drum where the snares cross. These are called snare beds and they help the snares lie flat against the head to prevent buzzing. So what happens if you put a flat drum head on a not-so-flat surface like the bottom of a snare drum? You get wrinkles at the snare beds. There are two schools of thought regarding this. One school says, "Tune the head to itself and if you get wrinkles, so be it!" The other school says, "No big deal, take the wrinkles out!" Both ways are valid. Experiment to discover which works best for you. If you choose the latter approach and take the wrinkles out, the head will be tuned tighter at the snare beds. This may add stress to the drum head, especially at the dips of the snare beds. You can still tune the rest of the head to itself by using the technique described in "Tuning in Opposites" above. So, how tight is tight? I tune my snare head to the "G" above middle "C." I tune the batter head to the "E" or "F" below the "G" depending on my mood. A good friend of mine and a great drummer, Paul Yonemura who has perfect pitch (he can hear any sound, for example: a brake squealing, and he'll tell you what note it is and whether it's sharp or flat) suggested that I try these notes years ago. It turns out that he heard Ed Shaughnessy and Joe Morello tune their snare drums and, with his perfect pitch, was able to discern that both tuned their snare drums (at that time) to "G" on the bottom and "E" on the top (Morello) and "F" on the top (Shaughnessy). Just for fun, try these notes. Even if they're not "you," they can serve as a starting point. [The you is not really you! Please remember that the Drum Sergeant is the go-to reference in how the band drums will be tuned. If you want a different sound for solo competition, then get your own solo instrument. Do not change the band equipment on your own.] Note: Measure the pitch of the head halfway between the snare beds. 5

6 NOW WE'RE DONE... ALMOST! I forgot one important thing. When you put your drums on holders, most likely the tuning will change. Simple "tweaking" should get them back to where you want. All tuning aside, the human element requires: perfecting rudiments technique together, use of the same drum sticks, drum pads, etc. (the head on sticks creates different sounds depending on how the head/stick are designed). Similarly bass/tenor mallets should be the same in order to produce the same sound. Individual preferences are good in solo events, in the band we all need to adapt to the style and equipment selected for the group. 6