[Ashton Page]

Hi Folks,
 
WHAT IS PITCH?
First of all – forget the harmonics. You do not perceive harmonics as pitch, you perceive harmonics as timbre. That’s why a flute sounds different than an oboe even when they play the same note (pitch)
 
What you hear as the pitch is the fundamental frequency & only the fundamental frequency.
 
TUNING DRUMS:
The proper way to tune a drum-set is to match the tuning of the head to the resonant frequency of the shell. I’ve watched drummers bang on the shell to get the fundamental frequency of the wood shell (This is called ‘tap tuning’) when tuning their sets. Good drummers will even match the pitch of their sticks and then sort them in matched pairs. Yeah, even a drumstick has a pitch – pretty crazy, huh? When tuning a kit you tune each lug around the rim until the head sounds at the same frequency at every location; all the way around the rim…. So YES, drums do have pitch, they are NOT atonal. That’s why you’ll see drummers tap-tap-tap the head near the rim, tune that lug, then move the stick over to the adjacent tuning lug and tap-tap-tap… constantly making adjustments with the tuning key until there is equal tension (and therefore equal pitch) throughout the entire area of the drum head.
 
DOES PITCH MATTER?
The pitch of the drums can absolutely, positively clash with the song. Ever do a mix that sounds muddy and you can’t pin-point what the problem is? To hear what I am talking about, play a C (note, not chord) and an F# note simultaneously, especially with a bass guitar and a floor tom – clash!
 
WHAT INTERVALS (different notes) ARE USED IN STANDARD TUNING?
 Usually, the drums are tuned in fourths (to the old tune “my dog had fleas”) with each word increasing up a 4th – for example: C – F – Bb – Eb. This is a ‘quartal’ chord – Google it if you need more info.  An easy way to remember what a 4th interval sounds like is to sing the first two words of “Here comes the bride”.
The best and quickest way (for me) to determine the tuning of a drum is to select an Acoustic Bass patch on the keyboard and tap on the floor tom while running UP the chromatic scale on the keyboard until the notes match. It helps to play the keyboard in the same register (octave) as the drum whose pitch you are trying to determine.
 
SUPERIOR TUNINGS AND PITCHES:
The stock Custom and Vintage SDX kit is tuned thusly:
Bass Drum – Bb
Floor Tom – Eb (this is a perfect 4th above the kick)
Low Rack Tom – Ab (another perfect 4th)
Mid Rack Tom – Db (as above)
Hi Rack Tom – Gb (as above)
Snare Bb (this is a major 3rd above the Hi Ride Tom – which places it 2 octaves above the kick).
 
What’s a ‘perfect’ 4th? In music intervals – 4ths can be NEITHER major nor minor (unlike a 3rd which can be either major or minor) therefore, the 4th interval belongs to a set of intervals called ‘perfect’.
 
BOTTOM LINE:
You do NOT need to tune the drums to be in the same the key as the song. You only need to watch out for tunings that clash – e.g. flatted 5th. Because even if you could tune the kit to each and every song, what happens when the band goes to the chorus (from A chord up to E chord) or when the band modulates the entire song up ½ step for the last verse? Are you going to re-tune the kit to match the verse then re-tune it again to match the chorus? Of course not. Like I said, you only need to watch out for dissonant tuning between the drums and the other instruments.

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