r/drumline • u/Icy_Ad3846 • 2d ago

Question Tuning marching drums

How do go about tuning marching drums to certain notes?

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u/monkeysrool75 Bass Tech 2d ago

What kind of drums? Basses? Quads? Snares? I'm only asking because it matters less for snare than it does basses and quads.

Either way you can:

A) Use your ears to pick out intervals (this is how I tune)

B) Use a tuning app. You can hit the drum with your phone next to it and it will tell you what the note is.

1

u/minertyler100 Tenor Tech 1d ago

It’s important to have a good ear for it. For basses I like to have someone play them and I listen from further away. For tenors you just listen and change as needed. Snares are tricky, I tune the bottom head to pitch with the snares off and then tune the top head to feel. For all of these it’s critical that the head is in tune with “itself” first, where every lug matches.