Kid Guitars
Archive for January 27th, 2010
Christmas is now long over but oh the memories remain. Most gifts we buy for our kids are loved when received but it isn’t too much time before the excitement is over and they’re onto something. Not the case with our young son! We bought him a childrens drum set and if we let him, he would “bang on the drums all day”. However despite the obvious noise, he seems to be developing some rhythm. We are actually setting him up with some drum lessons next week. He is quite happy about this.
Right now he is enjoying his beginner drums and we may get him a full drum set if he continues to enjoy the drums and shows some promise. My daughter still likes her Ipod but not with quite the passion her brother has for his drum set. I guess as a parent I am so glad to see him have a passion and want to work on something!
Without a doubt, the snare drum is just as integral to your kit as your bass drum. Personally, I prefer stripped down kits: a bass drum, a snare, a floor tom, a high hat and two cymbals – simple, easy to break down and carry. But any skinmaster will tell you, tuning a snare on your childrens drumset can be a real pain. Here’s an easy tutorial:
~ Turn the snares off. The snare drum cannot be tuned correctly with interference from the snare sounds.
~ Tune the top head first. Turn each lug clockwise to increase the tension of the head and make the drum’s pitch higher.
~ Tune one lug, and then tune the lug on its opposite side (180 degrees away). The drum tunes better when you don’t tune these lugs in a circular sequence.
~ Continue this pattern so that you never tune two lugs in a row that are less than a few inches from each other.
~ Repeat this sequence with the bottom head. Be careful not to tune it too high, because these heads tend to break easily.
~ Test the pitch of each lug when finished by lightly playing about 1 inch away from the lug with a drumstick.
~ Make sure all the lugs have equal pitch. At this point, your drum should be tuned.