Craft · 6 pages · 12 min

How a drumhead is a tensioned membrane

A drumhead is a skin or plastic sheet pulled tight over a rim, and its tone comes from that tension.

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From the opening

A drumhead is a thin sheet of hide or plastic stretched over the opening of a shell or a frame. It is a membrane, a surface with almost no bending stiffness of its own, whose vibration and pitch come from being pulled tight at the rim. The opening covers a sheet is pulled over a rim, tension supplies the restoring force, and rods or rope even the pull.

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Inside

A sheet is pulled over a rim
Tension supplies the restoring force
Rods or rope even the pull
A slack head does not speak
Where the idea stops applying
A distinction worth keeping

Sources

Tensioned drum membrane
Bearing edge and drumhead hoop

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How a drumhead is a tensioned membrane

From the opening

Inside

Sources

Also on the desk