The snare drum is one of the most recognizable parts of a drum set, and the way it is tuned can have an impact on the overall feel of a song. Some snare drums are tight and pop a lot, while others are looser and boom a lot more. Marching band snare drums have the tightest tuning of any drum and produce a crisp crack when struck. Tightening the bottom, or non-batter, head first, using two tuning keys at once, and tapping near each of the lugs on the snare to ensure the pitch is uniform across the head are just a few of the best snare drum tuning tips.
The two-key method of tuning a snare drum allows the head to settle into a centered position on the rim of the drum’s shell. It’s critical to get the head centered first so that the tuning process can be as precise as possible. The resonant head is the snare drum’s bottom head; it’s the one that gets tightened first, and it should be much tighter than the batter head. The advantage of using the two-key method for tuning a snare drum is that the tension created tightening is uniform across the head and does not result in a warped sound. The two-key method entails placing the drum tuning keys on diametrically opposed lugs on the snare drum, turning both keys simultaneously in quarter-turn increments, and working around the head until the desired tightness is achieved.
The batter head is placed on top of the snare drum and the two-key method is used there as well, after the bottom head has been tightened as much as possible and the person tuning the drum has gently tapped the head with a drumstick or mallet to determine pitch. The finer audible tuning process begins once both heads are securely and uniformly on the snare drum. The tuner should tap about a quarter of an inch (about 0.60 cm) out from each lug on the batter head to listen for consistency in pitch placing a hand, palm flat, against the resonant head to mute it. When tapped, the area near each lug should produce the same tone; however, if one area is higher or lower pitched than the one next to it, the tuner must use the tuning key to adjust until each tap produces the same tone. Any adjustments to tightening should be made to the batter head only when tuning a snare drum.