With your snare drum being played so often, it’s always the drum that needs the most work when it comes to dampening. It’s highly likely that you won’t enjoy the open sound for all situations, so every drummer needs to know what they can do to control the tones.
Here are 13 tried and tested ways of dampening a snare drum. Some of them are more effective than others, but they all work relatively well.
Moongels are one of the most popular dampening tools. They’re rectangular shaped, and you get six of them in a pack when you get them. You can stick as many as you want onto a snare drum to control the overtones.
You just need to make sure that you don’t leave them on if the snare is exposed to sunlight. They can start to get very sticky, and that makes them hard to take off.
Snareweight is a brand that offers various dampening tools, but the Snareweight M80 is our suggestion here. It’s a leather strap that mounts to the rim of your snare drum.
Every time you hit the snare, it jumps up a little. So, it’s designed to maintain the resonance of your snare drum, but it does a good job of controlling the tones.
Big Fat Snare Drum is another company that makes dampening products. All of them are thin drumheads that you can place on your drums. Unlike other dampening methods, a Big Fat Snare drum will actually drop the pitch of your snare.
You should use one of these if you want to get a deep and thuddy snare drum sound.
Muffling rings are one of the more affordable dampening tools to buy. You need to get one that correlates with the diameter of your snare drum. It will sit snuggly on the drumhead, and it will take away all the overtones.
The problem with muffling rings is that you have no control over how much dampening they do. That stops a lot of drummers from using them.
Drumdots are just like Moongels. However, they’re circular in shape. They perform the same job of dampening the snare drum, and you can choose how much dampening they do by the number of Drumdots you place on the drumhead.
Many drummers prefer these over Moongels, as they look more discreet.
Sticky hands are toys that kids use to slap and stick against walls. They’re not intended to be used by musicians, but it turns out that they do the same job as Moongels and Drumdots.
Using these would be the inexpensive option, as you can get dozens of sticky hands for only a few dollars. They just don’t look as professional.
A lot of drummers love to use towels to dampen their snare drums. You get a very dry sound, but you also have the benefit of folding the towel in different ways to apply varying levels of dampening.
Another benefit is that you can use the towel to wipe off your sweat when performing at gigs.
A t-shirt works the same as a towel, but it’s a lot thinner. You don’t get as much dampening, and that gives you a bit more tonal richness from the snare drum.
Using a t-shirt will dampen the snare ever so slightly, and that’s all that many drummers want.
A wallet is one of the most popular free ways of dampening your snare drum. You can place it near the top of the drumhead, and it will cut out all the overtones.
The more cash you have in your wallet, the more dampening it will do.
Using a splash cymbal is one of the more interesting ways to dampen your snare. It will do a bit of muffling, but it will also add a new layer of sound availability.
When you hit the splash with the shoulder of your drumstick, it will give you a handclap sound. You can also get a tight metallic sound when hitting it with the tip of your stick.
Cutting out an old drumhead and placing it on top of your snare will give the same result as using a Big Fat Snare Drum. However, it won’t work quite as well.
If you have some gaff tape lying around, you can just put pieces across your snare drumhead, and it will lower a few of the overtones. It will also cut down on the resonance.
The problem with using tape is that it leaves residue marks most of the time.
Placing your phone on the snare drum will do the same trick as using a wallet. However, we only recommend doing this if you’re very accurate with your hands, and it’s the only option you have at that point.
Using Moongels or Drumdots is what we’d say the best way of dampening your snare is. You can add and remove as many as you want to get desired sounds, and that gives you a good amount of control.
They also stick to your snare drum and don’t move around as some other dampening methods do.
Absolutely. Any dampening method that you use for a snare drum, you can easily apply to a set of toms as well. Just note that toms normally require far less dampening. Having too much will make them sound flat and dead.
It’s also important to remember that how you tune your snare drum plays a major role in its sound. If you tune it well, you may not need to use as much dampening.
You should always tune it as best you can before thinking about muffling it, as adding too much muffling will kill a lot of the good tone.
Also, it’s a good idea to try out all these muffling methods to see which ones you like the most. You can then choose different ones depending on what sounds you need for various gigs.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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