Dropping your instrument

[Kar]

Well, it's comforting to hear everyone's stories, that's for certain! I don't think I need the fiddle neck strap but it's a good idea. Oh, and by saying you don't use your hands to hold the fiddle I meant, of course, that when not playing you sometimes hold it between neck & chin. I'm sorry if I confused people.

Per Dale's comment, should I have posted this as SLIGHTY OT? But many of us whistlers play more than than instrument, yes? And drop more than one instrument....

I think, after hearing all these stories, I come away with a few thoughts. 1) at least it's ONLY THINGS we're losing and/or breaking. Sometimes expensive, but mostly replacable, as opposed to INJURIES (no threads on that, please!) which are damage to living things. 2) Just be mindful. I dropped my fiddle because I wasn't paying attention, and sounds like most other accidents have happened because of that. It's always a good thing, for me, to stop, slow down and pay attention to what I'm doing. And 3) Most things can be fixed. So there's hope!

[Will O'B]

I had just bought a Walton cheapie from a Celtic shop where we had stopped on our long journey home. My wife was driving and I was into "Danny Boy" for the 19th time in the past hour, blissfully unaware of anything going on around me. The car must have hit a HUGE bump right before I was ready to hit the high B because my wife's hand slipped off the steering wheel and the Walton went sailing out the window. I don't know how the Walton fared after falling from a speeding car on the interstate, because when I innocently asked my wife, "Aren't we going back for it?" she gave me a look that actually made me fear for my life.

Will O'Ban

[Kar]

Uh...I have to say that if I were in the car with someone and they'd played Danny Boy 19 times, MY hand might have "accidentally" knocked the whistle out the window right before the high B.

Maybe a road-side trash cleaner or freeway worker will find it and discover a lifetime of music.

[Will O'B]

Uh...I have to say that if I were in the car with someone and they'd played Danny Boy 19 times, MY hand might have "accidentally" knocked the whistle out the window right before the high B.

Funny you should mention that, Kar. I remember my wife saying something at the time about how I should be grateful it was only the whistle that went out the window. Women... go figure... :roll:

[Dana]

Slightly OT (flute, not whistle)

I was on stage, getting ready to play in an orchestral pops concert. My silver flute was on its stand, when I knocked it over. I thought it looked OK, and then it was immediately time to tune. It turns out that I had severely bent a rod, and the flute played C, nothing else. The conductor walked in and bowed. My second flutist handed me her flute. She was supposed to be playing flute and piccolo for this concert. I played her flute, and she played the picc parts, and did her best on the 2nd flute parts, playing whatever she could down an octave on the piccolo. It made a pretty boring pops concert much more interesting.

My flute had to go back to the maker for repair.

Dana

[LeeMarsh]

Major rule of musicianship, "Know Thyself" and "Know Thy Instrument".

Hi, I'm a klutz, been a klutz since childhood, with me the smooth move is the exception. If I reach for a falling instrument, it only gets redirected into crashing into something that will create more damage. I use guitar stands because if I sit my guitars any where else they will fall. Usually making enough noise to through everyone else of key, rythym, and occasionally off the stage.

Because I'm a klutz, durability has always been high on my requirements for whistles and flutes. I have Overton's because, people don't complain if I dent their floors. I've dented several (floors that is) but my Overtons have survived without a scratch, as have my Dixons and Burke composites. All have rolled off the table and on to the floor. My flute is a 3 piece conical Dixon, it too has shown a slight attraction for rolling around on the floor. Occasionally, even my daughters have been known to roll around on the floor, usually because I was trying to be serious about something stupid (as opposed to my normal approach with their affairs which was to being stupid about something that was serious).

In addition to being a Klutz, I am completely lacking in the normal internal thermistat, that most folks have. This too from childhood, my mom had to make a rule that we couldn't go to the Pool when it was below 45 degrees (Fahrenheit), we argued but she insisted that blue was not attractive as a lip color.

I own a beloved Goya 12 String guitar. Our first winter together (1971-72). It made me aware that while I may not care about jumping in and out of the cold, it was not so disposed. After carrying it across campus (don't know how cold it was but there was a couple of feet of snow), sat down promptly on the stage of the local coffee house and quickly drew it from its case. The nice glossy finish shattered into a spider web of cracks all across the face of the guitar. Luckily for me the guitar was better made and only the top of layer of finished shattered. From then on, all cases are cracked open 1/4 - 1/2 inches and allowed to breath for several minutes before openning. I pretend that the experience prematurely aged my guitar, and like many mature folks it prefers to be warned befor being presented with changes it their environment.

After it is openned, it sits patiently in its stand. The stand is equipt with a snack tray (guitar pick holder) this is because my dear Goya will ingest at least 2 picks any night I take it to the pub. I usually keep the tray fully supplied with 6-8 picks because 2 or 3 picks escape my hands for the gentler treatment found on the Pub floor and the 2 that my sweet Goya ingests refuse to come out of the sound hole.

So for my fellow klutzes make sure to acquire klutz proof whistles, Overtons, Dixon's, and Burke's seem to fit into this category. Feed your more mature instruments and the pub floor with snacks so that both don't become distracted and develop an attraction for one another.

This is the way of the Klutz musician. The way you can be true to your self and still ...

[Jens_Hoppe]

My daughter (< 2 years) loves to take my whistles from the baskets on the floor where they reside, and then walk around the house swinging them around. And once she tires of them she ... throws them.

None have been ruined so far, but I guess it's just a matter of time.

Jens

[Wombat]

Anyone have stories of dropping their instrument that would make me feel better about my clutziness?

You bet. I once put my early '70s Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty against a chair for a minute instead of unplugging it or getting a guitar stand. As I reached the door I saw it begin to fall. It seemed to take ages to crash and there was nothing I could do about it. Now, for those of you who don't know guitars, that one would be worth about 10 Copeland low Ds if not more. I found out later that those guitars are notorious for having neck and body part company given the slightest encouragement. Not only was mine unharmed. It was still in tune except for one string.

I'm careful with whistles but they do fall onto carpet quite a bit.

[Zubivka]

Just after receiving my brand-new, custom-made three-piece Alba Low D, I gave it a good jerk to shake out the "juice", firmly gripping the tuning slide... just forgot there was a second assembly, in-between 3rd and 4th holes.
Thus this end tube shot up to the ceiling, badly denting the tip, then it bounced down where mother gravity called it back, and crashed on the tiled floor, ruining the tuning assembly.
Stacey (Alba) managed to save it through annealing. Better than new, the low D donned a cool "fipple art" plug--the one which currently serves me as an avatar icon. Its "Broken Arrow" nick was coined by Stacey as well.

So... when I play my megabucks keyed Strathmann F flute, I do appreciate that among all its sax hardware, there's also a sax thumb-rest. I actually attached a thin cord to it, which just helps me relaxing... precisely when playing standing up over my tiled floor.
Same with the Gruber "Silberton" recorder in C: it has a thumb-rest, making the all-holes-open tone easier. Note the "Silverton" whistle in D has no thumb rest, since it's easier to secure a stable grip on the six-hole instrument.

[BrassBlower]

You bet. I once put my early '70s Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty against a chair for a minute instead of unplugging it or getting a guitar stand. As I reached the door I saw it begin to fall. It seemed to take ages to crash and there was nothing I could do about it. Now, for those of you who don't know guitars, that one would be worth about 10 Copeland low Ds if not more. I found out later that those guitars are notorious for having neck and body part company given the slightest encouragement. Not only was mine unharmed. It was still in tune except for one string.

I'm careful with whistles but they do fall onto carpet quite a bit.

I read that a similar thing happened to Ed King's (Lynyrd Skynyrd) Les Paul guitar, and the headstock broke off. Ed gave it to a janitor to keep, but the next day, the janitor brought the guitar back to him with the headstock repaired, and Ed King still plays that guitar today.

[burnsbyrne]

This happened a couple of years ago, when I was still playing guitar for a flamenco dance company. We were waiting in the wings in full darkness while the stage hands set up chairs and microphones for us. The stage hand had left the mics in the mic stands. I was holding my guitar like a newborn baby to protect it in the darkness. I sensed one of the stage hands trying to squeeze by me and then KLUNK! he turned and the bottom end of a mic slammed into the top of my guitar, leaving a four point indentation. I didn't have much time to think about it because we were on stage almost immediately. After our show I surveyed the damage - four little holes in the shape of a cross. They were just on the surface and I realized that there was nothing to be done about it so I decided to think of it as collateral damage to go along with the fingernail indentations and various scratches of a working guitar.

A whistle is a LOT easier to carry around.

Mike

[Wombat]

You bet. I once put my early '70s Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty against a chair for a minute instead of unplugging it or getting a guitar stand. As I reached the door I saw it begin to fall. It seemed to take ages to crash and there was nothing I could do about it. Now, for those of you who don't know guitars, that one would be worth about 10 Copeland low Ds if not more. I found out later that those guitars are notorious for having neck and body part company given the slightest encouragement. Not only was mine unharmed. It was still in tune except for one string.

I'm careful with whistles but they do fall onto carpet quite a bit.

I read that a similar thing happened to Ed King's (Lynyrd Skynyrd) Les Paul guitar, and the headstock broke off. Ed gave it to a janitor to keep, but the next day, the janitor brought the guitar back to him with the headstock repaired, and Ed King still plays that guitar today.

I think it must be the unusually heavy bodies that makes these guitars so vulnerable. Fender Stratocasters are so robust that there are stories of them falling off roof racks while speeding along dirt roads and still being in tune. I'm quite sure I wouldn't subject mine to that treatment but they do seem to be the Overtons of the electric guitar world.