Pitfalls of playing a kit

Beater caught in pant leg ☑️
Sliced knuckle on hi hats ☑️
Cymbal stand section dropped cuz of poor tightening ☑️
Cymbal stand falling over due to flat base on uneven floor ☑️
Snare drum head ripped ☑️
Tom head ripped ☑️
Drum stick flying into crowd during righteous fill ☑️
Cheap throne riser failed and dropped the seat 10” ☑️
 
I'm late to the party, but I came up with one not mentioned:

The bass drum pedal spring that breaks. No amount of foot technique will save you at that point. The overall effect is as if your bass drum grew a couple wheels and suddenly took off away from you, leaving you with nothing but the flat floor underneath.
 
I’ve experienced most of these and I especially relate to @paradiddle pete ‘s throne issue. We had an old drum throne at church that was the same except the original bolt and wing but had long since vanished. I used to set the height by putting a pencil through it, which was fine until it snapped...

Also this didn’t happen it me but I went to a backyard gig a couple of years ago and the drummer had set up at the bottom of a slope (the whole yard was on a sleight incline) and his Bass drum along with the mounted tons kept creeping up the hill so he had to chase them. Only positive was it distracted from how bad the band was hahaha
 
rhumbagirl said:
I'm late to the party, but I came up with one not mentioned:

The bass drum pedal spring that breaks. No amount of foot technique will save you at that point. The overall effect is as if your bass drum grew a couple wheels and suddenly took off away from you, leaving you with nothing but the flat floor underneath.
Click to expand...
Who manufactured that fatal spring? :mad:
 
Andy said:
Wasp! A few years back - festival gig - wasp determined to sting me in the face. Me pulling all kinds of faces when the winged b*%rd landed on my nose. Managed to swipe it whilst maintaining groove. Got a good audience reaction as the whole was captured on the big screen for all to see.
Click to expand...
Haha. My first ever bee sting was in the right thigh during an outdoor gig a few years back.

- bass drum beater holder snapped
- blinding lights due to being seated
- playing traditional and getting the butt-end of the left stick caught under or between the hats, thereby directing the tip into your eye on the up stroke, as well as flinging your glasses across the room
 
Yamaha Rider said:
Who manufactured that fatal spring? :mad:
Click to expand...
Well before we get ahead of ourselves, it was more my pedal setup than the manufacturers design. Everyone knows I once played with my beater at 90 degrees. In order to do that with the DW9000 pedal, you .... DW's flexible design allows you to adjust the spring very loose, in combination with adjusting the beater travel with respect to the pedal travel. I went through a phase where I believed the best efficiency was having the default beater position at 90 deg (to the vertical plane of the head). I later realized that drumming isn't instantaneous. One anticipates the rhythms and patterns one wants to play, as time floats by. And in that anticipation - assuming now we're talking 45 deg default - one can put the beater near 90 by first starting the beater anterior to 45 just prior to the desired stroke/beat. Sort of like Moeller technique I suppose (not the investigation).

Oh I've written a book again..

Short story long, the repeated cycles of loose dangly spring to real tight to loose and back, wore the spring hook prematurely. There.
 
Last edited:
I've suffered two blood-drawing injuries at gigs:

1) Between sets one of my cymbal stands got knocked over and the falling cymbal hit me in the ankle and gave me a pretty good cut.

2) There's a local place we gig where the drum riser is close to a beam. Many drummers (and sound engineers) have bashed our heads on it. Last time I did it (yes, I've done it more than once), I saw stars and didn't realize I actually had drawn blood until after the gig and in the bathroom, saw in the mirror the dried blood in my hair.
 
Lee-Bro said:
I've suffered two blood-drawing injuries at gigs:

1) Between sets one of my cymbal stands got knocked over and the falling cymbal hit me in the ankle and gave me a pretty good cut.

2) There's a local place we gig where the drum riser is close to a beam. Many drummers (and sound engineers) have bashed our heads on it. Last time I did it (yes, I've done it more than once), I saw stars and didn't realize I actually had drawn blood until after the gig and in the bathroom, saw in the mirror the dried blood in my hair.
Click to expand...
Depending on the genre/gig a bloody head may have added to the performance
 
In all my years of live drumming, I can't recall a single instance of equipment failure, personal injury, or any other stage-related mishap that resulted in a significantly compromising moment. Call me extraordinarily fortunate, I suppose. Here's a bizarre account you might find regaling, however.

Between sets at a show, I took a lavatory break. As I crossed the threshold, I discovered two inebriated ruffians immersed in combat. One flung the other across the room, forcing him to collide with me. We both plunged to the ground. Security stormed in, escorting the three of us into the parking lot. I had to explain that I was an unaggressive victim in the melee. Finally allowed to reenter the premises, I completed the second set, but I felt tainted beyond restoration. If you have the slightest commitment to hygiene, the floor of a public restroom is a place you never want to be.
 
C.M. Jones said:
In all my years of live drumming, I can't recall a single instance of equipment failure, personal injury, or any other stage-related mishap that resulted in a significantly compromising moment. Call me extraordinarily fortunate, I suppose. Here's a bizarre account you might find regaling, however.

Between sets at a show, I took a lavatory break. As I crossed the threshold, I discovered two inebriated ruffians immersed in combat. One flung the other across the room, forcing him to collide with me. We both plunged to the ground. Security stormed in, escorting the three of us into the parking lot. I had to explain that I was an unaggressive victim in the melee. Finally allowed to reenter the premises, I completed the second set, but I felt tainted beyond restoration. If you have the slightest commitment to hygiene, the floor of a public restroom is a place you never want to be.
Click to expand...
Well it's hard to lose a stick with a German grip :oops:
 
I'd say playing so relaxed that i'm not paying attention to how i play and smack myself in the head with a stick.
And the other is going in for a fill and then my stick;
- bumps into the side of my tom and i cause to drop it
- gets stuck under a cymbal and i cause to drop it
- i somehow hit a stick with my other stick and cause it to fly off to any given random direction

Oh and ofcourse everyone's favorite: the bottom 'bolt' of the hihat clutch loosens up so much that it eventually drops of and makes your hi-hat and x-hat. Always happens in the middle of a song on those great maintained venue kits. Always bring your own clutch! ;)

Oh! And one last one! Rather a psychological one... knowing that a fill or groove it coming up that you struggle with sometimes, overcompensating to play it right and end up butchering it because i pay too much attention to play it right. It's when i start thinking on how to play it i mess up instead of trusting my body to do what it does.
 
Drunk woman dancing in front of the kit finally losing her balance and falling on the damn kit ! Resulting a crash cymbal landing luckily on my shoulder not my forehead.
the worst I lived during a show was a bass pedal attachment getting jammed.
Recently on a show I had problem with a boom stand I couldn’t tighten, the cymbal was going down little by little. The result being: I missed a cymbal stop, my stick got caught under the cymbal and flew away! The funny part is that it’s the only moment the cameraman decided, at last to film me! So I’m satisfied to see during 3 seconds my panicking eyes on YouTube!!!
 
Last edited:
rhumbagirl said:
Well before we get ahead of ourselves, it was more my pedal setup than the manufacturers design. Everyone knows I once played with my beater at 90 degrees. In order to do that with the DW9000 pedal, you .... DW's flexible design allows you to adjust the spring very loose, in combination with adjusting the beater travel with respect to the pedal travel. I went through a phase where I believed the best efficiency was having the default beater position at 90 deg (to the vertical plane of the head). I later realized that drumming isn't instantaneous. One anticipates the rhythms and patterns one wants to play, as time floats by. And in that anticipation - assuming now we're talking 45 deg default - one can put the beater near 90 by first starting the beater anterior to 45 just prior to the desired stroke/beat. Sort of like Moeller technique I suppose (not the investigation).

Oh I've written a book again..

Short story long, the repeated cycles of loose dangly spring to real tight to loose and back, wore the spring hook prematurely. There.
Click to expand...
Rhumbagirl IS the 'Spring Killer' :oops:
 
bermuda said:
I suspect most of us have caught the pedal beater in our pant leg
Click to expand...

That's something really painful in England and difficult to imagine how you'd do that!

I've got a weak blood vessel in my nose and I've had a few nose bleeds when I've been playing before. Also having to sing and play means I've smacked myself in the face with a microphone more than once!

You always have to fend off piss artists who think they're John Bonham after a skinfull!
 
ineedaclutch said:
Haha. My first ever bee sting was in the right thigh during an outdoor gig a few years back.

- bass drum beater holder snapped
- blinding lights due to being seated
- playing traditional and getting the butt-end of the left stick caught under or between the hats, thereby directing the tip into your eye on the up stroke, as well as flinging your glasses across the room
Click to expand...
One way or another - the Gods find a way to punish those who commit unnatural acts: like playing traditional grip.
 
mikyok said:
That's something really painful in England and difficult to imagine how you'd do that!

I've got a weak blood vessel in my nose and I've had a few nose bleeds when I've been playing before. Also having to sing and play means I've smacked myself in the face with a microphone more than once!

You always have to fend off piss artists who think they're John Bonham after a skinfull!
Click to expand...
A serious Y-Front/bass-beater collision can involve all 3 emergency services to get you cut loose from the wreckage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top