All the instruments you may see in a band play certain notes and have to be in key for the song to be coherent and make sense. For example, if a song is in the key of E major, every instrument has to play in that key; otherwise, you\u2019d get cacophony and not a song. However, you never hear drummers talking about playing in a certain key or tuning to one, which begs the question of whether drums even have notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drums technically have notes, but only rhythmic notes. That\u2019s why the drums don\u2019t have to be in the same key as the other instruments. When tuning drums, drummers tune them to get a sound they like and not to get certain notes out of them. Some drums can be tuned to a pitch. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This article will give you a detailed overview of how drums function and whether or not they have notes in the traditional sense. Read on to learn more about this fascinating instrument. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before we examine the question of drums and notes, we have to take a quick look at music theory and see what notes even are. I\u2019ll try to be as brief as possible, so we don\u2019t have to delve deeper into music theory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sounds are basically air vibrations<\/a>. For example, when a string is plucked, it vibrates and stirs the air molecules around it<\/strong>. The molecules also start to vibrate at the same frequency as the string. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our ears capture these vibrations, and our brains assign a place to each of these vibrations as a specific sound<\/strong>. Each frequency of vibration is perceived as a different sound. Each sound, that is, frequency is one note. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, when we talk about notes, we talk about frequencies at which the air vibrates. In Western music, these frequencies are divided into 12 notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where two notes are listed on the same spot above, it means that they produce the same pitch. Their name depends only on the key you\u2019re in. For example, if you\u2019re in the A major scale, it\u2019s C#, but if you\u2019re in the Bb minor scale, it\u2019s Db. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In less formal contexts, the different names for these notes are used interchangeably. Musicians often stick to what they find easiest to understand, and unless they\u2019re pros or really serious about their playing, nothing significant will change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we have a rough understanding of what a note is, we can examine whether drums have notes and whether it\u2019s even important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since a note is just what we call a certain frequency, everything that produces sounds technically has a note. If you honk your car horn, it produces a certain note. It will also produce notes if you bang a pot with a wooden spoon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The same goes for drums. You will get some notes when you hit a snare or a hi-hat. Putting a guitar tuner next to the drums will probably tell you what note it is with relative precision. However, these notes are not important in any way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Drums are rhythmic instruments and don\u2019t follow the notes of a scale.<\/strong> Whether or not the pitch produced by the drums makes sense in the song\u2019s key doesn\u2019t really matter. The drum kit is there to provide the rhythmic background for the music. You can see it as a canvas on which the rest of the instruments add details to get a complete picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are certain notes that you can read on drum notation<\/a>. However, these notes are only rhythmic and not melodic. Drum notation tells you which drum to strike, how many times, and how long each strike should sound. It doesn\u2019t tell you that it has to be in the pitch of note A#; that would be absurd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can tune drums, and it\u2019s even advisable to, even though most drummers don\u2019t do it often enough. However, it\u2019s usually done differently than with other instruments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a guitar, for example, you have to tune each open string to produce a certain note when you pluck it. In the standard tuning, it\u2019s E – A – D – G – B – E. There are many other tunings, but we can stick to this one for simplicity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you tune drums, you usually don\u2019t want to do this. Most of the time, drummers tune them to find the sound they like<\/strong>. Drums are tuned by making the heads looser or tighter. Most drummers won\u2019t tighten or loosen the heads to get specific notes as you\u2019d do with guitar strings. Drummers get the sound they\u2019re pleased with and stick to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not to say that it\u2019s impossible to tune the drums to get certain notes out. You can take a snare and tune it to the note of C. A small number of drummers will tune their toms to be at certain intervals from each other, and they claim that this enhances the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, tuning your drums to get certain notes won\u2019t do much for the overall sound of your band. Most likely, the changes won\u2019t even be noticeable, and the effort will have been in vain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, there is no need to go that deep into drum tuning. Aim for the sound you like, make it sound reasonable, and you\u2019ll be fine. Unless you tune your snare to sound like the one used on Metallica\u2019s St. Anger<\/em> album, no one but drum nerds will notice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When we discuss drums, we typically think of the drum sets you can find in rock, pop, jazz, and similar genres. However, percussion instruments encompass a very broad range of instruments, and not all of them work the same way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, drums don\u2019t have real notes, as we have discussed. This includes most types of drums outside a typical kit and most percussion instruments. Despite that, some percussion instruments have real notes<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a group of instruments we call pitched percussion instruments<\/strong>. These instruments are percussive because you have sticks that you hit the instruments with, but you produce real musical notes. In this group, you can find instruments such as<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, some drums are usually tuned to a specific pitch, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since we have thoroughly discussed drum notes and whether they exist, a question that has to pop up is whether drums have a pitch or not. To make things simple, we\u2019ll stick to typical drum kits, as it would probably take a dissertation to discuss all the members of the drum family. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat Is a Note?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Drums Don\u2019t Have Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Can You Tune Drums? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Are All Percussion Instruments Like This? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Does a Drum Kit Have a Pitch?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n