Rude awakening

Man, lesson learned! LOL Let me explain (briefly):

Last Friday evening the church my wife and I attend full time - I'm the drummer in the p&w band there - had a outdoor "end of summer festival". Three secular/christian bands were scheduled to play, games for the kiddies, bounce houses, sodas, pop corn, etc.

One band cancelled at the last minute so the church p&w band played that slot. I had to bring my kit, so Thursday evening I reheaded my floot tom, dusted the shells off, and retuned the entire kit, first by ear, then finely with a drum dial. So I was up half the night making sure all my gear was in good working order, etc. since it has been a while since I gigged.

The time comes and we set up on a trailer in the parking lot. We're located in Arlington, Texas, so you can imagine the heat in August in Texas. We were all sweating like pigs.

I felt good since I had tuned my drums the night before. We start playing the first song and "OH NO!" My drums don't sound nearly as good as I had thought they would outside.

My two ride toms and the floor tom sound almost identical. OUCH!

So at the very first break between songs, maybe a few minutes, I take my drum key out and start tuning my smallest tom up as high as I can. I loosened the floor tom head a bit and do a very quick fill on the toms to see how they sound. Satisfied (somewhat) with the tom ranges, we begin the second song and complete our set.

Look back, I can laugh now at my ignorance or forgetfullness of playing outdoor gigs, but Friday evening playing, I was panicking because I had several very good friends come by as guests to listen, so I wanted my kit to sound perfect. My playing wasn't perfect, mind you, but the kit HAD to sound good. Ha!

Ride toms? I thought only non drummer CL-er's used that term lol.

Did you tune them too low, too high, or did they go out of tune from the heat?

larryace said:

Ride toms?

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I was under the impression that it was actually the original name for them, like back in the swing era.

NerfLad said:

I was under the impression that it was actually the original name for them, like back in the swing era.

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I'm actually not sure, but I think it's a wrongly used term used by well meaning but inaccurately informed people who are confusing the ride cymbal and the rack toms. I mean you don't ride on toms as an everyday thing, right?

Then again I could be totally wrong. Steve would know. He knows everything.

"ride tom" is a completely legit term just not commonly used as much anymore since the terms rack tom or mounted tom became more popular

it was more used when drum kits were in their infancy and there were floor drums and ride drums.

a bass drum and a floor tom would be floor drums, and anything attached to the bass drum would be considered a ride.....as in riding the bass drum...cymbals, temple blocks, tom toms , and even early snare drums attached to the kick would all be considered riding the bass drum

later on the term ride took on a different meaning ....as in riding a pattern on the cymbal

....anyway....you may be the only one who noticed the poor sounding drums....unless there were other drummers around ....this is the case a lot of times

I think I "mistuned" them, if that makes sense. I tuned them to my den, completely forgetting I was going to play outside and wanting to get a semi-decent range.

I knew my drums would not be mic'd, even the bass, but I should have realized and thought about it (sometimes I'm slow to catch on...haha), the drums are outside and may need an exagerated range? Probably I am the only one who noticed and across the parking lot maybe they sounded fantastic.

@ ride toms - I actuallys started playing drums in 1972 and my older brother had been in the junior high jazz orchestra. From an 11 year old's perspecive (me), that was COOL! .

I first heard him refer the the toms as "ride" tom and "floor"tom. Even the hi-hat I heard referred to as a "sock" cymbal.

It's funny because only recently in the last 10 years have I heard the bass drum referred to as a kick. Even within the last year I've heard common time - 4/4 - referred to as "four on the floor". Sorta makes me wonder if I've been living under a rock or something. Lol

Oh I forgot to mention, what made the gig even nicer was the fact our leader is a very attractive twenty-something blonde and she was wearing running shorts at this gig and standing right in front of me playing acoustic guitar. Ya, Imma hound dog at times! Big ol' Grin.

Aside from the unconventional use of the term "Ride-Tom," I believe the original intention of the link was to point out, that even though the plastic heads are not as reactive to temperature and humidity as the calf-skin, goat-skin, and fish-skin heads, they do react to changes in the weather.

I would tune my drums the night before either a practice or a gig, the next day; I would load my drums in the car, and leave them in the car all day while at work. I would then take the drums out of the car, and play them, they are out of tune. Sometimes it is because it was in a cold climate, and other times it was in a hot climate.

But, the only drum I tune is the snare; I let the others find the temperature equilibrium.

That is weird though. I've been playing in hot temperatures most of this summer and my plastic heads have never gone out of tune in the heat. Perhaps it was just a case of tuning them up nicely inside your home, and then going outside to where you have no other reverberant surfaces to bounce off of? I've made that mistake before, drums always sound difference inside and outside.

@ Bo - I think that was it...tuning drums inside a den where they can reverb off the room's walls and outside where they can't?

My drums live in my van. It gets quite hot there in the summer. My drums stay in tune for the most part, every once in a while I tighten them up but it's not much. Mostly they hold their tension.