Changing a drum head for the first time

▶️ Watch on 3Speak

I bought my second hand Tama Club Jam kit just over a year ago and it came with the original heads. These will wear out and so I was going to have to face changing them. The snare takes the hardest beating and it was really showing it with a lot of the original coating worn off.

I have changed plenty of guitar strings, but this was a new experience and so I did look for some tips. The Drumeo school had some videos on changing heads and also on tuning them. It was actually not too bad really. This is a cheap drum that only has six lugs holding the rim on. Better drums may have eight or ten to get more even tension. You need a drum key to do this job and it serves to adjust various parts of the kit. I have acquired several now and keep them scattered around. The drum itself was pretty clean with not much dust inside, so I just gave it all a wipe before fitting the new head. I went for one from Aquarian that seemed suitable for the jazz I have been playing with my friends. If I ever get another snare I could fit a different head more suited for rock.

The video suggested stretching the head by pressing down on it, but I did this quite gently as I do not know how much they can take. Once I had everything screwed on I tried tapping around the edge of the head and could hear slight differences in pitch. Adjusting the lugs evened this out.

The orange thing on the head is a gel that cuts down on unwanted ringing sounds. There are various alternatives to that. Drums are more complex than you may expect with lots of ways to vary the sound.

The demo is with sticks and brushes. The latter should work better now there is some coating for them to grip on. I am still learning about what sound I might want, so I may adjust things further. I welcome suggestions from any experienced drummers.

Audio is from my Yamaha EAD10 with a hint of kick drum triggered sample using the trigger I made.

Rock on!

▶️ 3Speak