Mondo Knows Facts

Snare wires add buzz to the drum sound

Metal strands under the lower head rattle when the top head is struck A lever engages or releases the wires, which is how drummers get the tight snare sound or a dull tom-like one. The buzz carries across a wide frequency range, which is why a snare cuts through a band. The drum gave its name to the snare drum of marching bands. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Tags: percussion, snare, instruments

Snare wires add buzz to the drum sound: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Metal strands under the lower head rattle when the top head is struck. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?
Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.