Drums

[kahunabean]

If drums have a tone (bass drum lower than a tom-tom etc), why isn't it necessary for the bass and lead guitar to be in tune with the drums, or indeed the drums in tune with each other ?

[sft42]

Simple answer "It is"...but it's not really.....I used to play in a band where the drummer was fond of using roto toms and he would tune those (to a scale of G if I remember right) but because of the very low frequency the drums operate at they don't jar as badly as higher pitched instruments instruments with each other when played dischordantly...plus a lot is to do with the waveform produced by a Membranophone (drums) when compared to Aerophones or Chordophones.