When Your Bass Drum Pedal Breaks in the Middle of the Show...

One summer during college, some fellow music-major friends and I put together a band to play at a festival in a neighboring town. This was a big July 4th celebration out on a ball field right off Main Street, and there were going to be fireworks. This was slated to be a big deal, and we rehearsed for months leading up to this Saturday night.

I arrived early and set up my kit on the outdoor stage. (Yes, it’s the same kit you see in my basement today!). I had recently made a drum head upgrade to prepare for this very day, because I had previously had some pretty old beat-up heads on the kit. My shiny Zildjian A’s were also ready to go, and the kit looked beautiful.

The only weak point of the setup was my hardware. I was still using some cheap hardware that had come with the kit. It had held up fine for practicing at home, though, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I especially didn’t worry about my bass drum pedal, which was a pretty decent pedal I had grabbed at a local music store 3 years earlier. Little did I know the bass drum pedal would be the single point of failure.

Our setlist consisted of a pretty upbeat song right off the bat (about 166bpm if I remember right), and we were rocking from there on out. Suddenly I felt that the heel plate on my pedal wasn’t staying put on the floor. At least this time I DID have my drum rug. :) But the pedal felt loose and totally unstable. It was reacting in weird ways, and it was somehow coming un-attached from the bass drum hoop.

The bass plate had literally snapped in two, and the foot plate was now free to swing in whichever direction. This was putting stress on the pedal clamp, which caused it to loosen from the hoop. By the last song, the beater was striking the head at such an angle that it was leaving marks across the batter head and barely making a sound.

However, in the midst of all this chaos, I still finished the set fine without missing a beat. Well... I may have missed a few actually. But for the most part no noticeable mistakes. :) How did I make the broken pedal work? Truth is... I didn’t. Thankfully I had gone all out and set up the DOUBLE pedal extension, even though I knew I wouldn’t need it. Turns out that slave pedal on the left saved my life, because I ended up playing half of the show with my left foot on kick.

I doubt that my left foot kick-drumming was too great, and I’m ok with there not being a recording of that night. I was just glad to have survived and adapted on the fly. I share this story to say:

1. The show will always go on, so be prepared to adapt to whatever comes your way.
2. Make sure you don’t forget to have fun. As cheesy as that sounds, not taking yourself too seriously is pretty important to still enjoying a crazy night like that one.
3. Consider practicing some left foot kick drum work in case you ever find yourself in a similar scenario. Just kidding...sort of...but maybe not really. Make sure to always carry an extra pedal or two with you. Maybe you could run to your car and grab one between songs if you absolutely needed it.
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY... Always be hyper-prepared for any gig you get. I can’t imagine how stressful that night might have been had I not put in the preparation to know those songs inside and out. Being completely confident with the material allowed me to keep my cool and maintain focus in the heat of the moment.

There have been lots of potentially stressful gigging moments since that night for sure, and the more prepared I am with the music and the more “calmly confident” I’m able to be as a drummer, the better I find I handle those situations. Always strive to prepare well for every playing occasion, and be ready to adapt to whatever life throws at you.

Take Care, Guys, and God bless,

Stephen