concept

On the surface it seems somewhat silly: a drum is a shell with a vibrating membrane covering one or both ends; when the membrane is struck a sound is created. The characteristics of that sound depend on many factors: shell, membrane ("head") properties, striking velocity, striking area, head tension, and the room acoustics. "Head tension", or tuning, is the subject of this page, and the silly part is this: the basic principle behind the acoustical physics of a drum might seem to deny any complexity - a struck head will produce a sound - however, the range of types of sounds any given drum can make are unlimited.
   One major factor in this variance is the tension of the drum head - the tuning. Shell composition, size, and depth all play a factor in the timbre, volume, and sustain of the resulting tone, but head tuning impacts the pitch, resonance, attack, decay, and tone - as well as contributing in a large part to the final timbre, volume, and sustain. No other single factor affects your drum's sound, and no other single aspect of drumming is as overlooked by the majority of amateur and semi-professional drummers.
   The reasons are myriad: ignorance of tuning techniques, lack of practice, insufficient realization of the range of subtle and dynamic changes simple tuning methods can elicit, and - the biggest, I think - fear. Fear of changing the current sound of the drum because 

• The drummer doesn't understand how that sound was arrived at, and
• He or she is afraid he'll never get that sound back.

   I've listened to many drummers, and played many other drummer's kits. There is, almost without exception, a distinction in sound between a "professional" drummer's kit and a "non-professional" drummer's kit. But, this doesn't have to be. The techniques the "pros" use are available to anyone. The best things a drummer can do if he wants to understand and learn drum tuning are

• Experiment, and understand that nothing you do to your drums can harm them, and that a better sound is always waiting for you to take some risk.
• LOSE YOUR FEAR.