Hardbopman,
Excellent post. Quick question: When you say you tune in 4ths or 5ths are you talking about the relationship between the batter and reso or the relationship between drums? My minor third comment was referring to the pitch relationship between the batter and reso head when the drum is placed on a padded surface. I just want to make sure I was clear on that.
May I answer your question? I do... both. Or, I try: batter and reso heads heads tuned usually a fourth apart, and my drums tuned, drum to drum, starting at the bottom, the same fourth difference. The tough one is the floor tom.
With new heads, I'll start with them tuned the same and leave them be, and then, as they wear in, tune them (tension them, actually) back into a fourth separation between heads by bringing the batter head up, usually (ten lug snare drums are harder to tune this way).
Now, I have a close friend, a true pro drummer, who tunes them the same, and then simply detunes one lug on the batter head to get the fourth differential.
I play jazz and pop, no heavy metal or such, so my tuning techniques are probably quite different from many. And I've always enjoyed Joe's approach, using traditional sized drums with a small group. His touch was marvelous, as was his sound. Of course, there are some* who said he didn't hit hard enough!
hardbopmans' comments are right-on.
thanks tnsquint...no explanation neccessary. I was referring to drum to drum tuning a 4th apart. The perfect interval between drums IMHO. It just sounds like jazz to me. Jazz heads like Passion Dance and Witch Hunt are based on 4th's.... very Phrygian sounding. I also agree with tuning both heads to the same pitch for optimum sustain and tuning the batter head down slightly for less sustain. We agree again on the effect of tuning the batter higher than the reso. To me, it sounds choked and the response is funny. You're right about the floor tom Rick. Always a disproportionate amount of time spent tweaking the lugs on the FT!
Phrygian, now there is a term I have not heard in a while. "In the Mode" so to speak.
I do a lot of drum kit rentals so I am constantly putting on new heads and getting them tuned. More often than not I am tuning in the very low range of the kit for Rock and Country gigs. Generally I am sending out 10" 12" 14" and 16" toms. Whether or not they all get used is up to the various drummers in question. In the low end of the tuning spectrum I never have an issue with 16's. What I find is that I like to have as much separation between the drums as possible while keeping everything in the same timbre. I find it is important to create more separation between drums the lower the overall pitch gets as lower tones are harder to discern.
Back on topic I think we may have reached a consensus that there is a fine line between the high end of a 16" drum and choking it. I have completely enjoyed this topic of conversation and listening to some great music!
