Hit the Lights

Nowadays a lot of drummers are using LED lights to illuminate their drums. These “glow kits” have become very popular and drum companies are coming up with new ways of installing multi-color lighting systems in their drums. Would you believe the concept of multi-colored lighted drums goes way back to almost the beginning of the drum set? Early drum designers came up with a method that used a system triggered by the bass drum pedal. This changed two interior lightbulbs between two colors, red and green. As the diagram below states, the addition of lights increased the “jazziness” of the music by flashing in time with it. I think this would be a distraction but apparently the audience did not.