The Misnomer About High-Tension Heads

[rpc]

I sometimes hear people saying that high-tension heads make it easier to play at high speeds. They almost always equate the extreme rebound a high-tension head gives with a kind of cheating, saying, "It's easy to play that fast when you're playing on a cranked kevlar head," and, "I'd like to see drummer X play that same thing on a regular head." It's obvious that these people, though perceptive, haven't spent any real time playing on a high-tension drum.

If you're playing slowly and doing little to control the rebound of each stroke, it's true that the head does most of the work for you. But when you really dig in, you'll immediately see that playing on a medium-tension head is lightyears more forgiving than digging in on a kevlar head. In fact, most of the medium-tension skill set doesn't transfer directly over to the high-tension style of drumming; most guys have to practice for a couple of weeks to adjust to a kevlar head, if they haven't played on one in awhile.

The scientific logic is pretty simple: Each time you throw the stick down, a high-tension head sends it back with as much more velocity as the head is tighter. Obviously, your hand absorbs that energy, requiring extra work. And while it may not be significant when playing just a few strokes, playing extremely fast material for any length of time can be brutal, because the cumulative effect of absorbing all of the rebound energy fatigues muscles quickly. That's not to mention the extreme rhythmic articulation that's required when playing on a surface with so few vibrations. (A normal drum head vibrates a lot, though the vibrations are mostly undetectable by the human eye). So the duty is really doubled: you have to absorb a surplus of energy and articulate more clearly.

Marching drummers will sometimes call it "padhanditis," or say that someone has "pad hands." This means that their hands are adjusted to playing on a medium-tension surface, usually a practice pad. It takes awhile to correct. I know I've had to spend a few weeks building my chops up every time I've played on kevlar. Needless to say, anyone who thinks that it's easier to play on a high-tension head has it totally backward and probably hasn't spent enough time on one to relate.

In this video, Nick Angelis plays "Train Wreck," the solo that he won the 1992 DCI individual and ensemble cometition with. Nick was only 17 when this was filmed. I think it's a pretty good example of what can be done with a high-tension snare drum and some old-fashioned hard work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NkFtYbucoc

[YamahaPlayer]

Haha we must have posted at the same time, you basically said what I said in the "moeller killer" thread. Just to ad a little

The logic is simple: Each time you throw the stick down, a high-tension head sends it back with as much more velocity as the head is tight. Obviously, your hand is absorbing that energy, which requires extra work. And while it may not be significant when playing just a few strokes, playing extremely fast material for any length of time can be brutal.

It's not logic, it's physics, and your physics is very off, but that's ok. Newtons 2nd law, F=d/dt(mv) deals with velocity, anyway without going into the fun stuff.

Couple things to keep in mind, the sticks absorb most the vibrations - that's why sticks are so carefully made using only particular woods, Hickory for the most part because of it's vibration absorption properties ( it is the best, hence why baseball bats are made from it). If your hands absorbed it, well we all wouldn't be playing very long. That's the point of the technique, to be able to not have your body take the forces. Same with baseball, just try and hit a fast pitch and hold on to it....

It should be pointed out as well, because of the properties of velocity and momentum, it would be harder by factors to play the same thing on a marching snare with drum set sticks as it would with marching sticks.

There is also the issue of reflection VS redirection. The harder the surface the more reflective properties, the softer the more re-directive - hence mesh heads practically throw the stick back at you basically the same way a rubber ball works. The surface is deforming and the properties of that surface to regain it's previous shape help move the object of deformation - and that's why rubber balls bounce so high!

Though in all cases, referring back to our good friend newton - you'll always be LOOSING energy. Gravity, Air Resistance, Force Absorption, Friction, etc

In the end, the rebound is not necessarily greater with a tighter head.*


* That statement is entirely reliant on the material of the head. In the case of Marching Snares using mylar, kevlar and carbon fiber weaves/composites it is true. Using a conventional drum set head however, you would see increased rebound properties as the tension increases.
Changing the material again to something even more pliable - such as a mesh head, you'd see even greater rebound properties as the tension increases. To a particular point of diminishing returns based on the material.

Of course non of this takes into account air movement inside the drum, force reflections, etc which is all very awesome cool stuff. Such as how a snare drum with practically no shell will respond the same as one with a fully intact shell. etc

[rpc]

I dunno, but it's harder than hell to play anything real demanding on a kevlar head. A nice medium-tuned head gets to feeling pretty comfy when your forearms are getting eaten alive.