Tag: Chicago drum teacher

Anyone knows? No? Yes? What are the most common woods used for drums? All right, here it is: maple. You thought there were several kind of wood? In nature, yes, there are thousands of different essences. In drum making, 99% of the shells are made of maple. That’s the sound we hear on the radio,…

This is my longest blog. Let me know if you like it. May be the next one will have 20 parts. Or 56. What can be done when you know that you will always face drum makers that leave your sound up to chance? A lot. It is time to reveal to this modern world…

When you have 15 different woods in one drum kit, you should get something homogeneous. But, as a tuner, you quickly discover just the opposite. They are always some discrepancies. One piece will go its own way compared to the rest of the kit. Always. Now, the drum makers have an easy counter argument: the…

Let’s go to the big Kabloey drum factory (The name doesn’t matter). What do we see? Someone is making a snare drum. He’s got all the special gear for it. As a matter of fact, this factory has a department that makes just snares. Day after day, poof! snares! 150 per week. Further along, we…

As a tuner faced with a set of drums who’s got an unruly shell, you have to commit a little crime. You have to compromise. No other way. That medium tom will not have the same controlled decay as the rest the kit: very well, the rest of the kit will have to compromise and…

As a tuner, you are trying to do one thing: Make a five piece drum set sound like all the drums are from the same family. The five pieces must sound like one instrument. Easier said than done. I spent a lot of time aiming for that impossible goal. I raise that tom, lower the…

The first secret is to not choke the drum, because the shell is made of a material that has its own property. I have to listen to what the drum or the drums are telling me. Every set is different. Each one will have its own voice. Each brand has a way of doing things.…

This blog will be pretty long. It will describe my experience about tuning. It will talk about the different brand of drums out there. Also about the choice of skin for different situations. And then it will talk about the obvious truth that we don’t know and has been biting us in the face for…

I’ll give you the very skinny: Start with 2 levels. Just 2 levels. And stick to them for awhile. One of those levels will be with the sticks at 1/2 an inch above the drum head, the other level is the stick up 10 inches above the drum head. Get yourself a page of accent…

The dynamics by contrast is based upon the principle of emphasizing the difference between soft and loud. I’ll give you a for instance. Hit a snare three time as soft as possible, now hit it one time medium loud. Do you hear the difference? No? Then you did it wrong. Try it again. I’ll wait.…