It's never happened to me, but if you watch the 1992 DCI DVD/Video, druing the Blue Knights show, just after the end of the percussion feature, one of the tenor players drums either slip off the carrier, or the hooks come loose.. The poor guy has to hold on to his drums, got out of step, and missed a chart. I felt really bad for him. but I guess they got him all fixed up, because he finished the show.

ok, so im 13..that means that im extremaly clumbsy...well, one day during winter drumline rehersal I was marking time and somehow my shoelace got stuck under my other foot so when i lifted my heel off the ground my foot slipped completly out of my shoe and when i put it back down i tripped over my shoe, fell over, and knocked the other tenor player and 2 snares over...it was kinda like dominoes!!! Now they remind me to keep my foot in my shoe while marking time!!!

That's why I only lift my HEEL when we mark time.

In the Blue Devils show in 2004 when they were doing the train marching out of the stadium, I heard one of the tenor players fell and he picked it up fast enough to keep going.

yep, he tripped at the very end. he's a tropper though. mad props for getting back into it.

the worst thing that ever happened to me was marching into the 2004 DII Nat'l football championships i had my only spock just completely dismount and roll down a hill. that sucks. fortunately someone picked it up and returned it so i didn't have to break rank. moral of the story: always tighten all your bolts!

I've never had mine fall off before, but one time during a parade we got to a spot where we were performing in front of the main crowd under lights and the second after I counted off I dropped my right stick. This would normally be okay because I carry extra sticks, but I had already dropeed a pair and the band parents that were following us had them. I performed that bit the best I could with one stick, and got the rest back when we began marching again. It was horrible. So the moral of the story is don't have sweaty hands.

How can they come off? They make the things that tighten the harness to the back bar. I could see if you were jusmping up and down maybe.

I can remember back in high school my sophmore year one of our tenor players had his tenors on an actual stand and the bar just broke off from the tenors and just smacked the floor horribly (maybe that's why we didn't have stands...) There have been times too when we would do waves w/ the tenors and they'd come out of the J hooks and we'd be frantically trying to put the hook back in while marching. Funny sight though to see one of our tenor players' shoe come apart (literally) and trip on the pieces, making him stumble for a good amount of time until finally falling on the ground face-up (he saved the tenors thankfully). So yeah, that's not good...

This is my first year on tenors also, and when we had tryouts I was having a little trouble carrying them, I am hopeing that I will be alright at drum camp which starts in like 20 days.