How To Tune Your Toms To The Key Of The Song - Part 1

How To Tune Your Toms To The Key Of The Song - Part 1

In this video I show you a unique way of tuning your toms to the key of a song. In this episode I demonstrate how to use a tone generator to tune your heads to the same pitch so they will be completely in key with the key of the song. I am demonstrating this with my Gretsch 16x16 Floor Tom using Clear Ambassador heads on both the Batter and Resonant heads. I am tuning the floor tom to the pitch of Bb which is the dominant in the key of Eb major. It is best to use the Tonic and Dominant notes before any other scale tones because they are the most grounded and stable notes of a key. Part 2 will feature the rack and snare drums.

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Twitter - @rickbeato

[dougstewart]

i can't belive how clever this is! using the resonant frequency and constructive interfecrence. when music and science meets it toally tickles my pickle

[jedrekantkiewicz]

I've had a hard time tuning drums for a very long time and I was pretty frustrated. This method is brilliant, easy to understand and most of all it's super fast. Thank you Rick, that's the best drum trick I've ever learned. Cheers from Poland! :)

[michaelinglis]

This is honestly the first time I've seen this done convincingly. Great video!

[CaseyJust]

I love this! I use a Tune-Bot to get my drums in tune quicker. I read somewhere that as long as the kick and snare are tuned to scale notes of the same key of the song it will work. To my ear this works great! I’ve also gotten great feedback on my drums from professional engineers that I trust not to BS me and give no credit when it’s not due.

So far Rick’s Tom Tuning and tuning the kick and snare to scale notes had brought me great results.

[AimeeNolte]

Great information! All drummers need this!

[kraigompls]

Thanks for the speaker tip! I hadn't seen that one before.

[rootvalue]

Rick, I'm so thankful you made this video. I always feel like I'm the only drummer I know who (tries to) tune my drums to a designated pitch, usually the root and the fifth of whatever track I'm doing. Your video made this so much easier with the speaker method. I would play a sustained frequency instead and try to get the "beats" generated by the tom fighting the frequency playing. With this method, it's so much easier to find the note! I'll be watching the rest of your videos now!

[StringsOfSalvation]

I would love to one day shake your hand and thank you for making me a better artist. Even at 47 years of age I have learned so much from you I've watched your videos for so long now I consider you a friend but can't say I have ever spoken to you that I remember anyway. You are like the mad scientist genius when it comes to drum tuning and to me the one place everyone who plays guitar or drums should go first if they need to solve an issue they can't figure out so for all of us that watch and appreciate your videos being here thank you Rick Beato. We do appreciate the effort, expense and your time you put into making these videos. I am hoping for some vocal mic and vocal mixing as well as drum mic and drum mixing videos this year would help me alot. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this but I spent two years trying to find THE vocal mic for me and vocal sound as well THE drum mic setup to find the sound I was trying to get i came close with Blue Hummingbirds as overheads SM57 on the snare too only and Aston Origin on the kick still lacked something that I never found I sold everything took a two year break now once again On a mission sooner or later you'll do a video and I'll find what I am looking for. Thank you in behalf of all of us sorry it's so long

[PAAmsterdam]

I wish someone had taught me this from Day-1. Thanks Rick!

[ProfessorSwing]

I always been "taught" that drums were an indefinate pitched instrument, except for timpani. But Yes, you are definately getting an exact pitch out of that drum.

[drumstx]

very cool method. never thought of using a tone generator before! one thing I noticed, whenever I tune my top floor tom head, I take off the legs so I don't have to prop a pillow like that :) that way, no difference in setup/height when tuning top or bottom heads. great video, Rick!

[philjackson]

Love your videos Rick and I don't know as much about music as I should but I know drums and that's not a particularly well-tuned floor tom. You can hear the change in pitch through the length of the note. I wouldn't be happy with it

[j_quyatt]

pro tip: make sure the drums and the vocals are in the SAME KEY

[EricT]

Using the speaker and tone generator is a great idea.

[strassercaster]

Wow just wow. I spent the last few days checking 50 of your videos out. Joe Pass, John Williams, Mixing techniques I could go on and on.! . I am an instant fan Rick! I am a hack guitarist for 35 years .I have a an old pro tools rig . I finally fixed my interface and I am recording tomorrow.. The three tunes we are doing tomorrow will all be in e flat so this could be a lot of fun . so Basically what notes for a 5 piece kit. ? I am so impressed with your vast knowledge . YOur amazing !

[hannibalixlecter]

That was very helpful and useful information. Thank you Rick! I follow you from Ecuador

[djevlhelvete]

Hey Rick, so if the floor and rack tom are tuned to the dominant and tonic, respectively, to what do I tune the bass drum & snare?

Great vids! Thank you very much!

[HollywoodRecordingStudio]

Thank you. This is incredibly helpful.

[ngocaihaivo]

I have learned so much from you. Thank you very much!

[flakkito]

Love this video😀 I have a question for you - what about the kick and snare? I tune to eflat and am trying to apply this information to Addictive drums. Thanks for your time!