I wouldn't trust a drum dial for tuning tenors. Some lugs may be harder to turn, but the head might have a lower pitch in that spot. To be certain you're getting a good sound, use your ears.

I tune by ear starting with drum 1. I typically like the tenors to be relatively high in pitch depending on the skill level of the players. If the players are just beginning to play tenors, I tune them lower than I normally do. The lower they are the less they stand out from the band and the less likely they are to poke out.

yah i realized that today when i tried it on my tenors. so im just sticking with my old method of useing a chromatic tuner and doing it in the bill bachman method.

i tune my tenors like this....jk we tune one drum to the key of the song and then tune the rest off of it

...and if the song changes key? Or if you play multiple songs in different keys? Do you retune in the middle of the show?

They way I tune my tenors at my school, is that when we are practicing together(Band and Drumline) I tune them to stand out from the band. The same with the snares and basses. I'm the drum tech at my school so I get to do all that fun tuning stuff. And Fixing stuff. SO then when we are on the field, the tenors can be isolated and heard, and the snares the same right along with the basses. Since we have a pretty decent Drumline it works in out benefit. The Judgescan more accurately judge us and so our scre goes up.

The "On the Waterfront" method works well too.

Pshhhh....Tuning thats totally 2002 I mean come on guys!!!!.....ok so just kidding, pull out your paper bags and take long, deep breaths, you wouldn't want to raise your blood pressure would you? But anyways, usually our 20 year old POS stuff doesnt work very well, busted heads, busted lugs, busted (insert part here), so tuning the 2 tenors that completely work is somewhat tough, especially since we can go 4-6 weeks without touching them...but when i do tune them, its usually realative and what gives a good bounce.

i just crank em till they sound good, wich i know probly isnt the best way, but oh well