Because of the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected everyone and more specific the private lessons, I have been using Skype in lieu of having my students come to my studio. I then tried a group meeting with everyone together. Re-heading a drum is a time intensive procedure and although I've done this a few times during a lesson, I don't like doing it because it takes at least 45 minutes to do it correctly not just the procedure but to answer all of the questions from the student. As I expected it took about an hour because of the many questions from the students.
During our weekly Skype session my brother suggested that I include this on one of my posts for this blog. I initially dismissed the idea since there is a wealth of videos on You Tube about this subject. The idea stayed with me so I decided to watch those videos to assess their value. The result was that only one of the videos had good information and the rest had moderate to even misleading instructions. The result is the reason that I'm writing about it and the title of this post shows why.
Most students know when putting on a new head that the tension rods must be tightened in a crisscross order.
Most of the online videos stress the importance of this but they miss the first part of the procedure: the Removal of the old head. The drum head is under a tremendous amount of tension (as in the term "Tight as a drum"). Putting too much tension on one rod only can result in the warping of the counter hoop, cross threading of the tension rods in the lugs, and uneven tension of the head.
The first two issues are extremely important during removal of the head since it can lead to damaged hardware requiring costly repairs. This is why I always stress the importance of using the crisscross pattern during the removal of the original head as well as the installation of the new one.
Two other points that I stress is the use of Two Drum Keys. Instead of loosening or tightening rod #1, #2, #3, etc., they should be done in pairs: 1/2, 3/4, etc. with the initial round being 1/2 turn of each drum key. The other point is to 'seat' the new head after the 2nd round of tensioning (1 complete turn). This is done by placing the drum on the floor and pressing down on the center of the head with the palm of one hand on the other. This 'seats' the flesh hoop evenly into the counter hoop. The drum is returned to the drum stand and the final tensioning and tuning is completed.
Since the final tuning of the head is the end result of a properly sounding drum (with the appropriate amount of time and care) , I'll cover that in a separate post. The important thing is that a drum cannot be properly tuned without the fundamental preparations being addressed.
During our weekly Skype session my brother suggested that I include this on one of my posts for this blog. I initially dismissed the idea since there is a wealth of videos on You Tube about this subject. The idea stayed with me so I decided to watch those videos to assess their value. The result was that only one of the videos had good information and the rest had moderate to even misleading instructions. The result is the reason that I'm writing about it and the title of this post shows why.
Most students know when putting on a new head that the tension rods must be tightened in a crisscross order.
The first two issues are extremely important during removal of the head since it can lead to damaged hardware requiring costly repairs. This is why I always stress the importance of using the crisscross pattern during the removal of the original head as well as the installation of the new one.
Two other points that I stress is the use of Two Drum Keys. Instead of loosening or tightening rod #1, #2, #3, etc., they should be done in pairs: 1/2, 3/4, etc. with the initial round being 1/2 turn of each drum key. The other point is to 'seat' the new head after the 2nd round of tensioning (1 complete turn). This is done by placing the drum on the floor and pressing down on the center of the head with the palm of one hand on the other. This 'seats' the flesh hoop evenly into the counter hoop. The drum is returned to the drum stand and the final tensioning and tuning is completed.
Since the final tuning of the head is the end result of a properly sounding drum (with the appropriate amount of time and care) , I'll cover that in a separate post. The important thing is that a drum cannot be properly tuned without the fundamental preparations being addressed.
It's easy to understand - now that we've talked about it! Talk to you Sunday. BTW, be sure to read my blog before that now that I am writing again.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you are still teaching! :) Stay safe!
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