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Get the Most From Your Snare Drum

The snare drum is the one drum we play constantly no matter what style we're playing.  We're trained on it first when we're beginners.  Most of our fills start or involve it.  It's also the most complicated drum in the set.  Besides the typical two membranes over a shell, you have the snares, the strainer mechanism, the snare beds, and lots of different shell materials.  It can be tough to make sense of all of it.  Without going into a LONG discussion of the variables on a snare drum, here's some information that might help you get more out of your snare drum, regardless of what kind it is.

BOTTOM (SNARE SIDE) HEAD:

The bottom head should nearly always be quite tight, regardless of whether your drum is tuned low and fat or high and poppy. The reason for this is that the snares can be more responsive with a tight bottom head, and the drum will speak more fully. With a loose bottom head, the snares will sound flatter, and the drum will sound boxy and choked (not a lovely sound, but a sound you might choose from time to time). As with any drumhead, make sure it is in tune with itself by tapping around the perimeter of the drum, an inch out from each tension rod, and being sure you hear the same pitch at every tapping point. Hint: You can easily keep the snares away from the bottom head while you’re tuning by inserting a stick underneath the disengaged snares, keeping the stick across the rim (see photo 1). This leaves both your hands free.

 
 
 
 

Snare heads come in different thicknesses (between 2 and 5 thousandths of an inch, with 3 thousandths, or “mils,” being most common). The thinnest head will give you more sensitive snare response, but will give you shorter sustain from the drum (not longer). The thickest will yield less sensitivity, but will add fullness to the sound and will hold up better under hard playing.

TOP (BATTER) HEAD:

This is where you get your tone out of the drum. You have a much wider choice of heads here; you could choose single-ply, coated heads (most common), double-ply heads, clear heads (for a really open sound), reinforced heads, or even self-muffled heads (examples include Evans Genera series, Remo’s PowerStroke 3 series, and Aquarian’s Studio-X series).


Photo 1
 
Keeping in mind the mantra “even tuning…even tuning…”, start with the batter head tuned a 4th from the snare side head (if you hear the melody “here comes the bride” from bottom to top, you’ve got a 4th). You’re listening to the upper harmonics now, not the lower fundamental pitch. You can make this easy by placing the drum on a carpeted floor or soft seat that will completely mute the drum as it sits, and being sure to tap around the outer inch of the head. You can also try 3rds or 5ths; those intervals also work well on snares. If the resulting tone is too high or too low for your taste, adjust both heads accordingly, but at least you’re starting from a good place.

TIP: Keep in mind that shallow snare drums (3 to 5 inches deep) will favor higher pitches overall, and will have faster snare response, while deeper shells (5.5 to 8 inches deep) will favor middle to low pitches, and be slower on the response. This doesn't mean that you HAVE to tune shallow drums high and deep drums low (I’m a fan of the sound of a deep drum tuned high), but just be aware of what you can potentially expect out of a drum before you begin.
SNARE ADJUSTMENTS

The snares. The very reason the drum has its name, and also the very thing a lot of drummers ignore (what are we thinking?).

There are very few hard & fast rules when it comes to overall drum tuning, but here’s one of them: Your snares should never be adjusted too tightly. What is “too tightly?” If you have to put effort into engaging the snares, and the lever needs a little force to get the snares into position, that’s “too tightly.” A few problems crop up when this happens. First, you choke the bottom head, and the drum has no chance to breathe. Second, you end up stretching the snare strands, and they become distorted over a short period. They will end up looking like a Twizzler, and you’ll get some nasty unwanted snare buzz (which most people think should be corrected by tightening even further, and then they wonder why they still have the buzz). A good thing to check: Disengage your snares and hold the drum up so you can inspect the snares as they hang free. If they look straight and even, then you’re all set (see photo 2). If it twists at all, or there are snares that look out of place (see photo 3), cut the bent strands away with wire cutters (if there’s only one or two) or replace the snares entirely.
 


Photo 2

 


Photo 3

 

Some points to remember: The looser the snares, the fuller the drum will sound, but it will have some sloppiness to it (which is sometimes desirable). The tighter they are, the more snap and focus the drum will have, and less buzz, but also less fullness of sound.

Be sure that your snares are spaced evenly across the drum. If one side is closer to the rim than another, it can cause funny buzzes. Your snares should also not be wider than the snare bed. (For those unfamiliar with this term, the snare bed is a scooped cutaway of the bottom bearing edge on two opposite sides of the drum. This is done to increase snare response. The snares are situated to lie over the beds. For an extreme example, see photo 4.) If your snares are wider than the bed, again, unwanted buzzing can occur, as well as tuning problems.
 

A word about sympathetic buzzing: In a live situation, your bass player’s and guitar player’s amps will always make your snares buzz, no matter how well you’ve tuned your drum. There’s really no cure for it. It happens. Live with it. What you can control is how your toms affect your snare. That’s a matter of how close they are to each other in physical and tuning distance (and that’s why your first tom will always make the snares buzz the most). In other words, try not to tune your snare to a note that’s too close to your nearby toms.

 


Photo 4

 
A FINAL TIP: A lot of drummers spend a lot of effort towards cleaning up their snare sound and reducing unwanted ringing after the hit. They’ll do all sorts of things, like use self-muffled heads, external dampening mechanisms, taping, noise gating, and so on. You can reduce the need for such measures by doing one thing: HIT THE DRUM IN THE CENTER, CONSISTENTLY. One thing few drummers work on is the consistency of their hit placement on the drum. That should be a part of every drummer’s practice regimen from day one. You should always be able to choose and control exactly where you’re hitting the drum at all times. If you hit the snare drum in the center for all of your backbeats, then you will prevent unwanted overtones, and you can save that ringy, off-center sound for a special moment, for an intentional extra tone color.