As we move into colder nights and early mornings around the country, drumlines across the land will start to face one major issue: KEEPING DRUMS IN TUNE! We thought we would take some time this week to share some of the top tips we have for keeping your drums in tune with extreme weather changes from indoors to outdoors.

Tip #1 – Let Things Adjust First

If you are going outside to warmup, rehearse, or perform have on a cold morning/evening, let a little time pass before you starting playing on the drums or tuning them outside. Get the drums outside in the cold weather in their cases and then after 10-15 minutes remove them from their cases and let them adjust to the outdoor temperature before you have students start playing or you start tuning. This will allow the heads to expand/constrict with the weather and be in the optimal position for tuning and playing.

Tip #2 – Tune According to Performance Venue

Let’s say you know you will be performing indoors at a large stadium for state finals, and you get to warm-up inside. In Indiana, the ISSMA state finals are held in Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts, while the warmups happen across the street at the Indianapolis Convention Center. In this case it makes it fairly easy to tune up once inside the warmup area, and feel confident that your pitch will hold in transit to the performance.

In other states, you may be fortunate enough to perform inside of a closed stadium but are stuck outside warming up. In this case, be sure to tune your drums with the indoor performance in mind. You may end up being inside the venue for 15-20 minutes before you perform which allows the heads to acclimate to the warmer temps. In this case, you are likely better served to do your show tuning that morning inside at your school before leaving for the performance site. Then, just trust throughout the warmup and waiting inside the stadium that your tuning from earlier in the day will hold true.

Tip #3 – Make Small Adjustments

It can be tempting to start cranking on snare and tenor heads without taking the temperature into consideration. Be sure to make small adjustments at first when you start tuning up the drums to make sure you don’t over crank and pop a head. Remember small 1/4″ to 1/2″ turns per tension rod can go a long way.

Tip #4 – Give Yourself Time

Plan to give yourself and your staff a little more time than you might usually allow for tuning on game day or show days. The weather can be a little trick especially for younger staff that haven’t experienced the changes of cold and how they effect tuning your heads. Give yourself an extra five minutes or so, and you’ll feel confident in getting the drums in tune.

Tip #5 – Have Spares on Hand (If Possible)

You may find that with your battery drums that you notice the most change in pitch and timbre in the higher battery drums of snare drum and tenor drum. This is why it is always good to have a few extra heads on hand, just in case of an over zealous tech that goes a little too far when tuning.

Tip #6 – Time Your Head Changes

If you know the end of your season will have some lower temperatures than normal, consider making your last head change of the season a little sooner than normal. That extra week or two of time can help you avoid trying to put on new heads and having them adjust to low temperatures at the same time.

If you have other tips or tricks share them in the comments below or on our social media posts for others to see. We look forward to seeing more groups performing in the coming weeks throughout Indiana, cold weather or not!