Drum tuning
Pick the key of the song and the kit tunes itself to it — every drum on a chord tone, a minor third or more between neighbours, the snare kept out of the kick's lane. Tap a drum to hear its batter pitch.
How the kit is assigned
The chord tones of the key are taken in priority order — root, fifth, third (a minor third in a minor key). Each drum has a usable range of fundamentals, and gets the highest-priority chord tone that falls inside it. Neighbouring toms must sit at least a minor third apart; where two would collide, the smaller drum moves up to the next chord tone. Pitch always descends from the smallest rack to the largest floor.
The kick takes the root. The snare takes the fifth or the third, never the root — that keeps it out of the kick's lane in the low mids and gives the two a harmonic relationship rather than a fight. Where a range has no chord tone in it, a scale tone is used instead; that is the exception, and the table above will show you when it happens.
Usable ranges · starting values
These are where each size speaks most freely; heads, depth and bearing edges move them. Calibrate by ear: if a drum chokes at the assigned pitch, the range is wrong for that drum, not the key. The snare batter can sit higher than shown — up to E4–G4 — when crack matters more than body.
The resonant head
The kick is the exception: its resonant head goes to unison or a fourth below, never above — a reso pitched over the batter thins the note you most need weight from.