Changing your drum heads, or drum «skins», is a normal part of owning and playing the drums. Everyone has to do this from time to time regardless of how often you play because as the drum heads age, they stretch affecting both the sound and the durability. As they age, drum heads become gradually more likely to suffer dents – or even break completely – as you hit them, so replacing them at regular intervals is an important part of maintaining your drum set. Regardless of how nice your drum set is, having worn or stretched heads will likely result in poor sound quality.

The conventional wisdom is that you should change your drum heads once every six months, but this is not uniformly true. The more you play your drums, and the more aggressively you play them, the more often you may need to change your heads. Indications that your heads are ready to be changed include dents, cracks, and bumps. These can all affect your sound and suggest that they are much more likely to break if used. Bear in mind that these indicators do not include simple stick marks. Marks coming from your sticks on the head do not indicate damage in of themselves and are perfectly natural.

Most drum kits come with detailed instructions showing how to change your drum heads and since this is a normal part of owning drums, the process is usually fairly simple and user-friendly. One thing to note that is frequently omitted from the instructions is that you should stretch your new heads a bit when installing them and before you tune them. This will help your heads maintain their tune a bit longer since brand new heads stretch quite a bit from the outset. You can accomplish this stretching by pressing down on the middle of the head with you fist after the rim has been applied, but before you tighten all of the lug nuts.