The Thunderous Bass Drum! Your bass drum is one of the most important parts of your kit. It’s important to tune the kick drum really well to get a good punch sound and a fat bass resonance! Tune the batter side (the side that you play with the pedal) fairly low. Tune the front head higher in pitch. This will give you a nice round sound from your kick drum. Many drummers choose to put a pillow in their kick drum. This is great if you need or want to muffle your sound, but it’s not necessary!