What is a very large drum?

What are drum heads and drum skins?

• So, first off what are drum heads and drum skins? Do you need both for drums? Do you like put drum skins on top of drum heads? Do you have to change both of them? And how often? Basically I need to know EVERYTHING about drum heads and skins. Not like what they're made of, but ya know.. The questions up there.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^… Anyways, thanks sososo much! :)

• Answer:

  Ok, I'm assuming you're looking to get into playing a drum kit. For a regular drum set, there are two types of heads, Batter and Resonant Batter- the side you hit with the drumstick and you should be able to see at all times while playing (obviously) Resonant- These heads go on the bottom of the drum to help the sound from the batter head (you guessed it) resonate. There are a variety of heads you can choose from. There are 1-ply, 2-ply, hydraulic heads (with oil between the 2-ply heads to make for a different sound). The heads out there are so varied that you really need to pick what type of sound you want before you go any further. Go to a big music store that has a drum section and ask them about drum heads, their tone, sound, maintenance, how to tune them, price, etc Now you mention drum skins. Its very rare to find any drum heads that are made out of animal "skins". That's where the term came from by the way. I'm not familiar with them but they might still have animal skins for hand drums/Latin percussion. As far as changing the heads.... Some people change their batter heads every 6 months. It depends if you like the sound you have and how much use you get out of the skins. I don't see the need to change them that often. I usually go with the outlook of: if it aint broke, don't fix it. If you enjoy the sound, keep them. If you're not tune them, and if you still don't like it, then look into other alternatives. Resonant heads can last forever really because they shouldn't have any wear. Good Luck Hope that helped