I had a music teacher with a masters degree who didn't know you had to put whatever that muffling stuff (I'm a brass guy so I don't know what that is called) on the head and when the bass drummers would hit it'd resonate for legit like 3 seconds and our whole drumline was denied putting that stuff on the heads, and they just did it anyway lol
FWIW, in the DCI corps I marched and later taught, the horn staff were KEENLY aware of the bass drum and concert bass tuning, to the point where notes would have to be taken out if they were dissonant with the contras, or the overall tuning of the drums changed. To be honest, you could tell, it did make a difference. If only it were feasible to have an entire chromatic octave of concert basses in the front.....(well, there was that one year Crown could have pulled it off....)
Yea I agree. I feel like bass drums should be tuned in relevance to the horn line. At the high school I teach at I have the drums tuned to the power chord (we only march 3 drums) in the key of our show. A lot of the judges comment on the bass drum tuning saying how it makes the ensemble feel complete
Its definitely a nice bonus if you can tune your drums to ar least be in thr ballpark of the keys your show uses. However it's not a huge difference between doing that and just tuning your drums to sound good together in general.
The group I teach has received comments about our tuning being very nice this year from multiple judges. Idk if it's comparing us versus the competition's tuning but at nearly every show, we've had comments about snare, quad, and bass tuning being good. We follow a similar spacing for basses as you covered with the additional step of finding the most used chord in the show and rolling with that as a key for which notes to tune to.
I just changed my line’s heads and got them tuned up. I usually just go with what sounds good, but I’m gonna try these intervals. Thank you very much!!! Additionally, we started using Pearl Mallet Stations for our front ensemble. I’m an old school no electronics kinda guy. Learning the software is challenging. Any recommendations? Preferably something that can stack voices and split the board to better utilize the advantages of these electric thangs…
Main stage is a great option. I’m center marimba but our xylo also gets to use a malletstation. I originally started on synth and the program we used was mainstage. I got familiar with mainstage pretty quickly. There are tutorials on TH-cam, too. Mainstage also easily allows multiple synths. In your case it will be multiple malletstations AND you can do separate sounds on each instrument and stack multiple sounds on one instrument. Mainstage is definitely the program you’ll want. Another advantage is their “concert” feature. You can create a set list of multiple patches so that, for instance, one malletstation makes the sound of a marimba in bar 19, but (once the person in charge of the computer, typically synth, changes the patch), after switching it will make the sound of an organ at bar 20. Also look up tutorials on TH-cam and you’ll be set. Good luck!
The HS drumline that I teach at has this exact bass drum size line minus the 22 inch. The only thing I do differently is instead of a major triad for the top drums, I tune a minor third instead.
Be careful about pushing your finger on the middle of the head. Hardly anyone uses consistent touch/feel and hardly anyone places their finger in the exact same spot which alters the harmonics. Moon Gels or anything like that work great for this application; consistent pressure and surface area coverage. Great video!
I’ve always preferred lower bass drums that actually has some bass in lieu of a tenor drum hung off your chest. As always, your videos are super informative.
This was very informative for me. I'm starting to arrange for high school marching band and I have no idea what I'm doing for percussion because I'm a horn player lol.
I’m a Bassline captain at my school and I play a 32 inch, with 6 basses who don’t know how to tune so this helped out so much! Ive been waiting for a tuning video to come out on TH-cam! Can we get a video on changing bass heads/ wraps next????
When I was the bass captain at my school I actually did the tuning for our section we decided to tune the top three to a minor triad to fit with our theme better
The interval I ended up liking best for the top 3 drums was also 4ths, but you definitely need a bottom bass that is at least 28" or bigger for it to be feasible
damn if only I was allowed a 24" bass drum as a freshmen, playing bottom 5th bass! lol Just checked my broken head of the 2nd bass, it measure 20" (2nd bass). So im guessing we marched 18-20-22-24-26. - Miami, FL.
As a drummer, video production...ist?, and moonlight audio engineer (jack of all trades, master of none) I was actually surprised at how well that FCP bass boost worked in this application. Kind of like EQ for dummies. LOL While I couldn't really hear much difference between untuned and tuned, I'd like to suggest the John Good approach. He believes the tone can and should come from the shell. So you take a chromatic tuner and a soft mallet and give the shell a solid wack and note the tone on the tuner. Then tune your head to that. It's part of DWs artisanal approach to making drums.
1989 Santa Clara Vanguard ("Phantom of the Opera") had a section where the tenors doubled the mallets on "Masqurerade", so they had to tune the tenors to the correct pitches for the music. If I remember correctly, they did the same thing in 1988, but without the tenors being tuned, and it didn't sound nearly as good.
I own 3 custom bass drums. My "bottom" bass is also a 24 inch, because that was the biggest size shell and chrome rims I could get my hands on. The other two are 22 and 20 inch.
@@james_subosits I forgot a comma after the word "series". I just found it interesting and the tuning makes sense to me but he didn't seem to notice it him self so I just tried to point it out
maybe its just my headphones, but the drums did not always sound like the notes you said they were. I trust that you did actually tune it right, probably something with the mic picking up weird harmonics
Hey Eric @EMCproductions, I am a junior and play snare in the Big Walnut Highschool Competition Marching Band and this year we are doing a queen show. In our third song we have a drum feature to the beat of We Will Rock you and our solos are not cutting it for the crowd, the judges called it boring. Could you possibly look over it and do your thing please!!! Just lmk!!.
My high School drumline uses the exact same bass drums and the same heads. And for some reason my high school percussion director he likes to tune one head a half step higher than the other. He claims he gets the sound out more I don't know.
As a high school 2nd bass drummer, it was odd hearing those sizes, and now I know why all the other bands have such tiny looking 1st bass drums. I play 2nd bass and it’s a 22”, so it’s not drum corp sized but it’s a little bigger than the average (for HS bands).
I always thought using the major triad on the top 3 drums made it sound too high. Personally, I'd like to try using whole steps on the top 3 for like a do-re-mi effect.
I wondered if during your education there was actual physiology teachings involved as I get older forearms are getting sticky hands are cramping more stretch constantly but it seems my singles not my doubles are starting to suffer from age high sticking used to get rid of all of this with other exercises but I was interested in what knowledge you had to keep away the tendinitis carpal tunnel and cramping
Fun story, I was starting the year just going for my highschools bass 5 dum, which is 28' inches, and I ended up on bass 6 which was 32' inches. We originally had 5 bass drums, but since all of our flubz (snares drums with the guts, so just drum) quit we had to make it six basses. The best part of all this is that my drum is pretty much as big as me. (I'm about 5'5). And in case anyone cares, I'm in the LOHS Marching band (in mi) and a sophomore. Anyways, anyone who's even read this far have an amazing day and night!!!!!
What should one use to correctly muffle the heads? Is it the 1 inch foam glued to the head near the rim, is it a pillow, or is it something completely different? Please help! Thanks for the great video!
At my university we have the opposite problem. We use massive drums, to where our bass one is like a 20 inch. It's near impossible to get the upper drums where we want them lol
For splits and brand new bass drums under a year old. What are the notes best for them. High school drums good as well in the splits and 4 basses. We need to tune them well because ours for some reason are just not jt
I only have 4 basses, a 24 22 20 & 18, any opinions on tuning? Should I stick with power chord on bottom plus the 3rd on the 18? Or should I start with the 5th on the bottom so that bass 1 is the root of the chord?
OMG THANK YOU, IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR A WHILE. THE BASS DRUMS AT MY SCHOOL SOUND TERRIBLE
Lets go, update us on how that goes
@@gavin_bigred a
I had a music teacher with a masters degree who didn't know you had to put whatever that muffling stuff (I'm a brass guy so I don't know what that is called) on the head and when the bass drummers would hit it'd resonate for legit like 3 seconds and our whole drumline was denied putting that stuff on the heads, and they just did it anyway lol
@@gettingittogether424 moon gel is a possible one
@@spike6192 nah it's like a foam padding that goes around the head close to the rim
FWIW, in the DCI corps I marched and later taught, the horn staff were KEENLY aware of the bass drum and concert bass tuning, to the point where notes would have to be taken out if they were dissonant with the contras, or the overall tuning of the drums changed. To be honest, you could tell, it did make a difference. If only it were feasible to have an entire chromatic octave of concert basses in the front.....(well, there was that one year Crown could have pulled it off....)
Yea I agree. I feel like bass drums should be tuned in relevance to the horn line. At the high school I teach at I have the drums tuned to the power chord (we only march 3 drums) in the key of our show. A lot of the judges comment on the bass drum tuning saying how it makes the ensemble feel complete
don't give eric ideaas
Its definitely a nice bonus if you can tune your drums to ar least be in thr ballpark of the keys your show uses.
However it's not a huge difference between doing that and just tuning your drums to sound good together in general.
I know im late, but does such complex tuning mechanics in the bass drums apply when there is no hornline? Like WGI
The group I teach has received comments about our tuning being very nice this year from multiple judges. Idk if it's comparing us versus the competition's tuning but at nearly every show, we've had comments about snare, quad, and bass tuning being good.
We follow a similar spacing for basses as you covered with the additional step of finding the most used chord in the show and rolling with that as a key for which notes to tune to.
i know i’m really late but how did u tune your snares because i want to tune my snare pretty good but i don’t know how to tune it tbh 😭
As a fellow Marine, but an untrained musician, I have no idea what you're doing in a lot of your videos, but I love it and I'm trying to learn.
The tuned and no effects sounds amazing, the tuned with the effects sounds so full and punchy! So good!
Video 40 of commenting until EMC makes an entire battery percussion section out of spocks and 8 inch splash cymbals
my percussion teacher said we should tune our bass drums today after school and, what do you know, we got a guide on how to do it. thanks eric!
As a bass drummer, I thank you for speaking in Bass Language
Still blows my mind when you do those double stroke runs all by yourself on different recordings. You are built differently!!!
Thank you EMC. This helped a lot, my school’s basses 2, 3, and 4 were the exact same pitch while bass one was as high as a spock drum.
I just changed my line’s heads and got them tuned up. I usually just go with what sounds good, but I’m gonna try these intervals. Thank you very much!!! Additionally, we started using Pearl Mallet Stations for our front ensemble. I’m an old school no electronics kinda guy. Learning the software is challenging. Any recommendations? Preferably something that can stack voices and split the board to better utilize the advantages of these electric thangs…
mallet stations are made for practice, not to replace real marimbas and vibes
@@gryd3461 agreed, and for sound affects
I agree, but we don’t have the players yet :/
Mainstage is the program you want. You can get any sound you want out of Malletstations. They are used in performances all the time!
Main stage is a great option. I’m center marimba but our xylo also gets to use a malletstation. I originally started on synth and the program we used was mainstage. I got familiar with mainstage pretty quickly. There are tutorials on TH-cam, too. Mainstage also easily allows multiple synths. In your case it will be multiple malletstations AND you can do separate sounds on each instrument and stack multiple sounds on one instrument. Mainstage is definitely the program you’ll want. Another advantage is their “concert” feature. You can create a set list of multiple patches so that, for instance, one malletstation makes the sound of a marimba in bar 19, but (once the person in charge of the computer, typically synth, changes the patch), after switching it will make the sound of an organ at bar 20. Also look up tutorials on TH-cam and you’ll be set. Good luck!
I loved the last part with the clicks in the exercise, it just felt right
Loved this! Incredibly easy to understand, even for a bass player 😂
So does this mean you'll be keeping an eye out for bigger bottom drums? Kinda cool you have your own set now!
Yes 100% do a bass head change video. Would be a good tool to have a recent well done video.
The HS drumline that I teach at has this exact bass drum size line minus the 22 inch. The only thing I do differently is instead of a major triad for the top drums, I tune a minor third instead.
Be careful about pushing your finger on the middle of the head. Hardly anyone uses consistent touch/feel and hardly anyone places their finger in the exact same spot which alters the harmonics. Moon Gels or anything like that work great for this application; consistent pressure and surface area coverage. Great video!
I’ve always preferred lower bass drums that actually has some bass in lieu of a tenor drum hung off your chest.
As always, your videos are super informative.
Thanks for making this! I like this tuning scheme as well. I have no bass experience - I was a snare drummer my whole life lol.
I was looking for a bass tuning video the other week and couldn’t find one. Emc comin in clutch
This was very informative for me. I'm starting to arrange for high school marching band and I have no idea what I'm doing for percussion because I'm a horn player lol.
This is the quintessential bass tuning. So many drum corps use this
Where was this 20 some years ago when I needed it.
I’m a Bassline captain at my school and I play a 32 inch, with 6 basses who don’t know how to tune so this helped out so much! Ive been waiting for a tuning video to come out on TH-cam! Can we get a video on changing bass heads/ wraps next????
Thank you so much for this. It has helped me with my brand new marching drum line.
Kinda needed this a week ago, but better late than never!
When I was the bass captain at my school I actually did the tuning for our section we decided to tune the top three to a minor triad to fit with our theme better
The interval I ended up liking best for the top 3 drums was also 4ths, but you definitely need a bottom bass that is at least 28" or bigger for it to be feasible
I’m really enjoin your videos lately keep it up 👍
6:30 thats funny in my first year of indoor a judge called out our bass tuning
Have a good morning, I'm watching this from germany and it is 8 Pm
Yes, please make a head change and tune-up video.
I use Power Chords when I can, it’s a great thing to practice
Do a separate maintenance video, please! That would be super helpful! :)
THANK YOUUU I NEEDED THIS IM IN BASS LINE AND THIS IS SO MUCH EASIER NOW
"New to me": Always good to repurpose! Now, you need to get a college to contact you so you can get a larger set!
Please please please do a maintenance video in the future! That would be so helpful!
4:11 "That note, E"
plays the drum: is E - flat
😆
Yes, please, I would love to see a head change video!!!
damn if only I was allowed a 24" bass drum as a freshmen, playing bottom 5th bass! lol Just checked my broken head of the 2nd bass, it measure 20" (2nd bass). So im guessing we marched 18-20-22-24-26. - Miami, FL.
In Scouts we marched 18-20-24-26-30-32, that’s the best sounding bassline ya ever heard!
Emc your petition to marry cow bell is almost fully signed
Never opened a notify so fast
I just tuned my school's basses last night, same intervals except I did it in D major
Following the overtone scale is just a good idea in general
As a drummer, video production...ist?, and moonlight audio engineer (jack of all trades, master of none) I was actually surprised at how well that FCP bass boost worked in this application. Kind of like EQ for dummies. LOL
While I couldn't really hear much difference between untuned and tuned, I'd like to suggest the John Good approach. He believes the tone can and should come from the shell. So you take a chromatic tuner and a soft mallet and give the shell a solid wack and note the tone on the tuner. Then tune your head to that. It's part of DWs artisanal approach to making drums.
Excellent presentation 👍 thanks !
1989 Santa Clara Vanguard ("Phantom of the Opera") had a section where the tenors doubled the mallets on "Masqurerade", so they had to tune the tenors to the correct pitches for the music. If I remember correctly, they did the same thing in 1988, but without the tenors being tuned, and it didn't sound nearly as good.
I own 3 custom bass drums. My "bottom" bass is also a 24 inch, because that was the biggest size shell and chrome rims I could get my hands on. The other two are 22 and 20 inch.
Excellent! More like this, please!
I marched in a showtime style band in highschool as bass drum. We marched a 22, 2 24s and a 26 inch bass.
Just noticed Fleck Sherman in the credits.
He taught our bassline at all the audition camps.
#GoGamecocks
My wife is a band director, I wish there could afford new bass drums they are in dire condition.
Yes to the bass drum maintenance video
a maintenance guide would be great
I marched a 32' in 1993. Are you still serving....are the old videos every coming back.
I don't know if you noticed but you're tuning them to the overtone series skipping the fundamental note
He knows what he's doing, I promise. You don't do the fundamental because you would need a huge drum to get an octave lower than that
@@james_subosits I forgot a comma after the word "series". I just found it interesting and the tuning makes sense to me but he didn't seem to notice it him self so I just tried to point it out
Boom! Subscribed.
maybe its just my headphones, but the drums did not always sound like the notes you said they were. I trust that you did actually tune it right, probably something with the mic picking up weird harmonics
EMC should do a custom head competition, like the ultimate tenor wraps
I march bass 2 and at a comp last year we had a judge who’s only complaint was we needed to tune our drums. We still got 1s but yeah.
So, did you not re-up, or did they give you a discharge?
He posted a video on that
@@AzrealMaximus thanks. I watched it.
I like how he has 4 Randall may stands and 1 pearl
Can you do an in depth one for snares too!?😅
Thank you so much I needed this! What about muffling? How many of the white foams should I put on the head?
Hey Eric @EMCproductions, I am a junior and play snare in the Big Walnut Highschool Competition Marching Band and this year we are doing a queen show. In our third song we have a drum feature to the beat of We Will Rock you and our solos are not cutting it for the crowd, the judges called it boring. Could you possibly look over it and do your thing please!!! Just lmk!!.
And right before our first performance!
Our bassline varies so much, our bass 5 is probably around 28 inches but my bass 1 is literally 14 inches, it is so small
My high School drumline uses the exact same bass drums and the same heads. And for some reason my high school percussion director he likes to tune one head a half step higher than the other. He claims he gets the sound out more I don't know.
yes do a video of changing the heads
Get the Remo Starfire when you change the heads :D
As a high school 2nd bass drummer, it was odd hearing those sizes, and now I know why all the other bands have such tiny looking 1st bass drums. I play 2nd bass and it’s a 22”, so it’s not drum corp sized but it’s a little bigger than the average (for HS bands).
Great info thanks
John Meehan of the Blue Devils is coming to my school tomorrow for a clinic
Now that you have new bass drums you should re do the cavaliers bass feature
Where was this video back when I was teaching in 2014-18😩😩😩😩😩
I don't have any relation to the marching arts, and I don't play percussion at all. But for some reason, I am here.
Can you do a Bass Drum Muffling Tutorial if/when you change the heads?
What’s your favorite flavor of crayon?
I always thought using the major triad on the top 3 drums made it sound too high. Personally, I'd like to try using whole steps on the top 3 for like a do-re-mi effect.
I wondered if during your education there was actual physiology teachings involved as I get older forearms are getting sticky hands are cramping more stretch constantly but it seems my singles not my doubles are starting to suffer from age high sticking used to get rid of all of this with other exercises but I was interested in what knowledge you had to keep away the tendinitis carpal tunnel and cramping
can you make a video on how to tune snares next? would be very helpful!!
What interval groupings do you recommend for tuning 6+ marching bass drums?
Nice video!! Btw, I want to know about how to tune 4 bass drums (16,18,22,26). I always look forward to your videos from Japan.
Fun story, I was starting the year just going for my highschools bass 5 dum, which is 28' inches, and I ended up on bass 6 which was 32' inches. We originally had 5 bass drums, but since all of our flubz (snares drums with the guts, so just drum) quit we had to make it six basses. The best part of all this is that my drum is pretty much as big as me. (I'm about 5'5). And in case anyone cares, I'm in the LOHS Marching band (in mi) and a sophomore. Anyways, anyone who's even read this far have an amazing day and night!!!!!
And drink water!!!!
Can you do a bass drum technique tutorial🔥🔥🔥this is my first season in a marching band and I want to get my technique right
What’s the pads around the bass drum for? Does it make the sound better?
What should one use to correctly muffle the heads? Is it the 1 inch foam glued to the head near the rim, is it a pillow, or is it something completely different? Please help! Thanks for the great video!
You should try the EMAD heads on the bass drums!
Could you do a video on a matching snare as well please? I’ve got an older pearl championship snare and keep getting a kinda hollow sound
At my university we have the opposite problem. We use massive drums, to where our bass one is like a 20 inch. It's near impossible to get the upper drums where we want them lol
For splits and brand new bass drums under a year old. What are the notes best for them. High school drums good as well in the splits and 4 basses. We need to tune them well because ours for some reason are just not jt
if you do a video on changing bass heads may as well add in how to properly muffle them.
Tuning video for old style field drums when, o man of many chickens?
Thank you I need this can you do ones with snares next XD
Can you do a lesson on how you do the fast 32nd notes with those? That seems tricky, how do you know when to hit when you only make one hit?
How would you tune 4 basses when you March 4,3, and 1, but still use 2 for a tune or two?
I only have 4 basses, a 24 22 20 & 18, any opinions on tuning? Should I stick with power chord on bottom plus the 3rd on the 18? Or should I start with the 5th on the bottom so that bass 1 is the root of the chord?
Do it eric do it
EMCproductions: What is a good recommendation for a line with only three bass drums?
B1 - octave
B2 - Fifth
B3 - root note
The effects make the bottom bass higher than 4th bass