A few weeks back I was gardening with the missus. I was building a fence, and nicked my LH index finger in my table saw. I lost a *small* bit of flesh, nail, and bone. So I haven't been able to practice my fiddle since. Fortunately my finger is healing and I will be able to play again soon enough.
This is the longest downtime I've had since I began playing the fiddle about a year ago. It struck me as an unusual situation: I can't play because I foolishly nibbled away part of my fingertip. I then began to wonder about other unusual reasons to stop playing.
So, has anyone else had to stop playing for some queer reason or another?
I've made the sides of my thumb and pinky sore from playing crazy bass clef rolls on the piano. After one practice i looked and i had practically blistered myself. it hurt. But that wasn't near as bad as your case.
I had a similar finger-related reason. I smashed my left ring finger really good between two cinder-blocks (punched a hole through a flimsy door immediately after it hurt so bad). I lost the whole fingernail and it was sore enough to where I couldn't play for about a month.
Slid of my motorbike on the ice and dislocated my pinkie -never worked properly since.I'm told this is because I used pulling my glove on to relocate it..
Are we talking strange reasons for not playing, or just injuries?
I stopped playing once because I was gobstruck at how bad I sounded after so many years of sawing away....
But I've sessioned with broken fingers (left middle and ring, fractured proximal and middle phalanges on both, done earlier that day), torn right rotator cuff, and once on St. Patrick's Day with one leg propped up high on pillows just 24 hours after splintering my left ankle (fibula, in three places, though the ligament tears were much more the worst of it). Don't get me started on my recent neck spine surgery....
past 3 years about this time rheumatics get into my shoulders and stop me fiddlin for about 4 months or so .. is damn painful but at least i can drop onto mandolin while they like that
Mike,
Well, my OP described an injury, but I certainly meant to leave the responses wide open. So if anyone joined a cult that forbade ITM, or any other such nonsense, let us know.
And are musicians the clumsiest folks there are? Or is it that this music often involves the occasional enjoyment of a pint or 2, and the resulting conditions are more likely to result in accidents?
I was splitting wood a few years ago, and accidently whacked by left thumb, to the point where I lost the nail completely. Thought I was lucky, because the thumb doesn't get much work when playing the whistle or accordion. And I thought I was OK with the guitar, until without thinking I brought my thumb around the neck to damp the E string. Ouch...
Maybe the tradition trad players are really rooted in is not so much any national one as the Nineteen Seventies, full stop.
This was the decade of DIY, home brewing, the revival of historical instrument making, abysmal dress sense and the Irish trad revival. Rural living was rediscovered and hobbits were rife. Everybody was under their cars and if any remain that can be eviscerated, I dare say many will be owned by trads.
And mainstream music was reviled as furiously then as now.
I rarely get hurt on DIY projects (well, if we ignore the time I fell off the garage roof....). It's my approach to "fun" that gets me into trouble: mountain biking, running, ice hockey, skiing, etc.
This is relevant. I saw a t-shirt once that said:
You can go extreme skiing and die.
You can go bungee jumping and die.
You can go rock climbing and die.
You can go sky diving and die.
You can go surfing big waves and die.
Or you can lay on your sofa watching tv and die.
if by "whackoes" you mean people who accidentally nip off bits of their fingers, then I concur wholeheartedly. I slammed my right thumb in my car door a few years ago - I don't recommend it, although I did have a good week where I felt like I'd made a huge leap in playing ability (probably just residual morphine)
Shattered all the bones in my figertip, getting it caught in an overhead door
Tore a tendon refinishing baseboards
Contracted some sort of a rash all over my hands while gardening
Had permanent memory loss after anesthesia
A months long bout of hives that noone could figure out the cause of.
All of which caused weeks and months of lost playing time. However, the strangest things that have kept me from playing is my my children. They tend to have all of these needs, wants and demands that cause me to miss sessions, workshops, weeks away and practice time. And believe me, they are strange.
I worked for while building timberframe and log houses. After a week of running a chainsaw in freezing rain, I decided to sleep in on Saturday. My darling wife playfully lept into bed to tell me that the coffee was on, but my left arm was kinda twisted up in the sheets, and she damned near broke it right off. So, I'm playing box now, not fiddle!
I had a stroke at a young(ish) age that totally crippled my left hand. I didn't really quit playing though I just sucked real bad for a loooonnnngggg time.
What almost made me quit playing (this music anyway) was performing in a band that I really didn't enjoy. I stuck it out for two or three years but by the end of it I didn't even want to play music. A situation like that will quickly suck the life out of you. It turned something I loved into something I absolutely loathed.
Oh yeah and another time back in the punk days I slod my gear (50 watt Marshall 4 twelve cabinet) to put my best friend on a bus to Canada. He needed to leave the country(USA) in a bad way.....I quit the band I was in and got a job at a car wash. Music took a rest for a time.
I damaged the nerves in my left elbow by spending too long with it on the desk, chin on hand, head back, mouse in the other hand surfing the web. Not so strange maybe. Learned my lesson though - not to wear bifocal lenses when reading the yellow board.
I haven't touched my GHB since the day I broke off a front tooth by biting wrong on the blowstick during the funeral of a colleague. I have a temporary tooth that I can't afford to upgrade, and dare not risk knocking it out.
Played football om my way home from a session in the pub, and broke my right collarbone. Couldn't play fiddle or concertina for three or four weeks. Could play the banjo after a week though.
A few years ago I broke my left index finger playing basketball at age 52, got no sympathy from the wife who had long said I was too old for it. Finger in a splint for 8 weeks or more- I tried to play my fiddle with the remaining fingers, but no good (not that I was so good with all of them.) After a few weeks I was desperate and I got hold of a melodeon and started bashing away. The rest is history-the wife wishes I would go back to basketball instead!
What a perfectly timed thread. I will be out of commission for this Sunday's weekly session because I had to fight off two rottweiler dogs from decapitating my spaniel and attacking my 7-year old and my wife two nights ago. There's nothing quite like choking out a 70 pound dog in a life or death street brawl to get your pulse elevated. My right hand is a still bit puffy from bashing the beast in the skull. My puppy survived, but only because I got there in the nick of time. His poor little face is swollen up like a balloon. Scary. Anyway, my hand hurts too much to play at the moment.
To go on, following zippydw's ''law of unintended consequences. My elbow damage stopped me playing mandolin, but I could soon play whistle again. I found I liked being able to play different length notes and switched to flute. No more diddley tunes on the mandolin.
Wounded Hussar - Me street wrassling the one dog clamped down on my puppy's head was not nearly as impressive as my diminutive wife throwing a my kid's bicycle at the other dog to chase him off. She gave him a Beckham like boot to the snout for good messure too. I'm just thankful the dogs were only interested in eating my puppy and not my people.
Well Jusa, you'll be glad to know that if you're ever over in ol Ireland, the owners of such beasts here are obligated to have them restrained and muzzled when out in public. Doesn't stop the odd assault though, when they escape etc.
Inuries have put me out of comission twice. Once, my fingers saved a 5g carboy full of beer from crashing to the ground. Lost a nail on that one. the second time, while in the ring, a few good blows to the breadbasket made it too painful to sit or stand in one position for more than a few minutes. That one came with the pleasant bonus of fractured ribs and blood-laced urine.
Props to jusa, though. He and his wife's dynamic duo was able to accomplish what the dark knight could not.
I was playing in a pickup band for some Welsh dancers and I sprained my left little finger, which was kinda strange, as the little fingers aren't used for harp playing, though they do move with the ring fingers for most people. Excrutiating pain, followed by about a month of recuperation and no harping.
One year later: Same festival, same Welsh dancers, same pickup band. SAME #%+! TUNE!! Six weeks of pain pills and physical therapy. This is why I don't play Welsh music any more.
I've also had to take a break when, just to be different, I developed De Quervain syndrome in my right thumb following an epic game of Whack-a-Mole the evening after a business trip to the federal prison in Duluth, Minnesota. (I'm not making this up; American tax dollars paid for me to do this.) (The prison visit, not the whack-a-mole.) The first sign something was wrong -- *really* wrong -- was when my hand was too weak to pick up a beer. Oh, yeah ... and the excruciating pain. Pain pills, physical therapy, and a mucking great brace.
I cut across the pad of my index finger when trying to cut a scone in half. Not on the knife - the scone was a bit hard, and it was the scone that actually cut me. No flute or whistle for a week!
m.d.
I did something very similar to the original poster about 9 years ago - although, fortunately, I missed the bone by a whisker.
NewToltAll - I don't wish to put a damper on things, but it was 9 months before I could play on that fingertip again - and even then, it was tender for a good year or so more. In my case, it was the LH *middle* finger, and it was easier than you might think to adapt my fingering (on mandolin) to miss out that finger. I imagine it will be more of a challenge without your index finger - but a great strengthening exercise for the other three.
Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery - speedier than mine, I hope. BTW, if you find yourself desperate for an outlet for your music, you could try harmonica.... and there's always singing.
Thanks for the kind words. I hope I'll be playing again before 9 months! I think I'll not try singing, as the missus has displayed great patience with my fiddle learning. No need to push my luck.
Well I make up for low volume with high ABV. Last brew was an 11.5% Imperial Irish Red (really a Barleywine). Called it "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".
The strangest reasons I have for not playing are easily some of the tunes through the duration of which I withhold my musical labour and turn my thoughts inward till they cease.
These are tunes espoused and played by student kiddie tradheads (a category of person without a proper upper limit, as they tend to hang around, do research and bit-by-bit join academia / the intellectual proletariat / subcultures / bands / other...). Each tune is really a sort of musical equivalent of a baby owl or warthog, arousing disbelief rather than a desire to handle it, unless that is you are a SKT. They are in outlandish keys, G minor in particular. One reason I don't tend to play along is that it would demand use of the F whistle, and as I never practise on this (there are things I'd rather do...) I am certain to make noises on it in a session that are quite terrifically foul.
I am honoured to announce the formation of the Guild of TIMSEANs : The descending order of the - Traditional Irish Musicians (who) Scale Elevations (only to) Attain Nadir
Strangest reason to not play?
Strangest reason to not play?
A few weeks back I was gardening with the missus. I was building a fence, and nicked my LH index finger in my table saw. I lost a *small* bit of flesh, nail, and bone. So I haven't been able to practice my fiddle since. Fortunately my finger is healing and I will be able to play again soon enough.
This is the longest downtime I've had since I began playing the fiddle about a year ago. It struck me as an unusual situation: I can't play because I foolishly nibbled away part of my fingertip. I then began to wonder about other unusual reasons to stop playing.
So, has anyone else had to stop playing for some queer reason or another?
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by NewToItAll
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I've made the sides of my thumb and pinky sore from playing crazy bass clef rolls on the piano. After one practice i looked and i had practically blistered myself. it hurt. But that wasn't near as bad as your case.
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by fiddlelearner
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Almost exactly a year ago, I tore my calf muscles. I couldn't play either fiddle or flute for a month, basically because I couldn't sit up properly.
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Both of your calf muscles, at the same time? And I thought I had bad luck...
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by NewToItAll
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I had a similar finger-related reason. I smashed my left ring finger really good between two cinder-blocks (punched a hole through a flimsy door immediately after it hurt so bad). I lost the whole fingernail and it was sore enough to where I couldn't play for about a month.
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by Jimmy B
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Slid of my motorbike on the ice and dislocated my pinkie -never worked properly since.I'm told this is because I used pulling my glove on to relocate it..
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by wodeninjun
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Some years back I slipped on a patch of black ice and fell face first into the street.
Fortunately I took the brunt of the blow with my right arm.
Unfortunately, the impact severed the distal biceps tendon, and I had to have it surgically reattached.
No playing for most of a season.
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by Dave Weinstein
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
The calf muscles in one leg. I couldn't sit up because of the combination of pain and swelling.
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Are we talking strange reasons for not playing, or just injuries?
I stopped playing once because I was gobstruck at how bad I sounded after so many years of sawing away....
But I've sessioned with broken fingers (left middle and ring, fractured proximal and middle phalanges on both, done earlier that day), torn right rotator cuff, and once on St. Patrick's Day with one leg propped up high on pillows just 24 hours after splintering my left ankle (fibula, in three places, though the ligament tears were much more the worst of it). Don't get me started on my recent neck spine surgery....
I guess I'm too thick to quit.
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by Will Harmon
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
past 3 years about this time rheumatics get into my shoulders and stop me fiddlin for about 4 months or so .. is damn painful but at least i can drop onto mandolin while they like that
Mike,
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by Mike.T
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Well, my OP described an injury, but I certainly meant to leave the responses wide open. So if anyone joined a cult that forbade ITM, or any other such nonsense, let us know.
And are musicians the clumsiest folks there are? Or is it that this music often involves the occasional enjoyment of a pint or 2, and the resulting conditions are more likely to result in accidents?
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by NewToItAll
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I was splitting wood a few years ago, and accidently whacked by left thumb, to the point where I lost the nail completely. Thought I was lucky, because the thumb doesn't get much work when playing the whistle or accordion. And I thought I was OK with the guitar, until without thinking I brought my thumb around the neck to damp the E string. Ouch...
# Posted on September 20th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I think it's because trads are DIY whackoes!
Maybe the tradition trad players are really rooted in is not so much any national one as the Nineteen Seventies, full stop.
This was the decade of DIY, home brewing, the revival of historical instrument making, abysmal dress sense and the Irish trad revival. Rural living was rediscovered and hobbits were rife. Everybody was under their cars and if any remain that can be eviscerated, I dare say many will be owned by trads.
And mainstream music was reviled as furiously then as now.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by nicholas
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I rarely get hurt on DIY projects (well, if we ignore the time I fell off the garage roof....). It's my approach to "fun" that gets me into trouble: mountain biking, running, ice hockey, skiing, etc.
This is relevant. I saw a t-shirt once that said:
You can go extreme skiing and die.
You can go bungee jumping and die.
You can go rock climbing and die.
You can go sky diving and die.
You can go surfing big waves and die.
Or you can lay on your sofa watching tv and die.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by Will Harmon
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
if by "whackoes" you mean people who accidentally nip off bits of their fingers, then I concur wholeheartedly. I slammed my right thumb in my car door a few years ago - I don't recommend it, although I did have a good week where I felt like I'd made a huge leap in playing ability (probably just residual morphine)
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by airport
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Hmm, I have in the past few years:
Shattered all the bones in my figertip, getting it caught in an overhead door
Tore a tendon refinishing baseboards
Contracted some sort of a rash all over my hands while gardening
Had permanent memory loss after anesthesia
A months long bout of hives that noone could figure out the cause of.
All of which caused weeks and months of lost playing time. However, the strangest things that have kept me from playing is my my children. They tend to have all of these needs, wants and demands that cause me to miss sessions, workshops, weeks away and practice time. And believe me, they are strange.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by tracywag
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I worked for while building timberframe and log houses. After a week of running a chainsaw in freezing rain, I decided to sleep in on Saturday. My darling wife playfully lept into bed to tell me that the coffee was on, but my left arm was kinda twisted up in the sheets, and she damned near broke it right off. So, I'm playing box now, not fiddle!
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by cbw
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I had a stroke at a young(ish) age that totally crippled my left hand. I didn't really quit playing though I just sucked real bad for a loooonnnngggg time.
What almost made me quit playing (this music anyway) was performing in a band that I really didn't enjoy. I stuck it out for two or three years but by the end of it I didn't even want to play music. A situation like that will quickly suck the life out of you. It turned something I loved into something I absolutely loathed.
Oh yeah and another time back in the punk days I slod my gear (50 watt Marshall 4 twelve cabinet) to put my best friend on a bus to Canada. He needed to leave the country(USA) in a bad way.....I quit the band I was in and got a job at a car wash. Music took a rest for a time.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by shanty
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I got kicked in the arm by a young horse, made it to a session that night nevertheless, and then had to take time off playing for a few days.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I damaged the nerves in my left elbow by spending too long with it on the desk, chin on hand, head back, mouse in the other hand surfing the web. Not so strange maybe. Learned my lesson though - not to wear bifocal lenses when reading the yellow board.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by David50
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I haven't touched my GHB since the day I broke off a front tooth by biting wrong on the blowstick during the funeral of a colleague. I have a temporary tooth that I can't afford to upgrade, and dare not risk knocking it out.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
That's the strangest reason yet
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by ...
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Played football om my way home from a session in the pub, and broke my right collarbone. Couldn't play fiddle or concertina for three or four weeks. Could play the banjo after a week though.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by snorre
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
A few years ago I broke my left index finger playing basketball at age 52, got no sympathy from the wife who had long said I was too old for it. Finger in a splint for 8 weeks or more- I tried to play my fiddle with the remaining fingers, but no good (not that I was so good with all of them.) After a few weeks I was desperate and I got hold of a melodeon and started bashing away. The rest is history-the wife wishes I would go back to basketball instead!
Dan
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by curamach
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Dan
We call that the 'law of unintended consequences'!
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by zippydw
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
What a perfectly timed thread. I will be out of commission for this Sunday's weekly session because I had to fight off two rottweiler dogs from decapitating my spaniel and attacking my 7-year old and my wife two nights ago. There's nothing quite like choking out a 70 pound dog in a life or death street brawl to get your pulse elevated. My right hand is a still bit puffy from bashing the beast in the skull. My puppy survived, but only because I got there in the nick of time. His poor little face is swollen up like a balloon. Scary. Anyway, my hand hurts too much to play at the moment.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
just last week, a session player gave us the excuse he could'nt come to play cause he had an infection on his face! weird......
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by bjd
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
To go on, following zippydw's ''law of unintended consequences. My elbow damage stopped me playing mandolin, but I could soon play whistle again. I found I liked being able to play different length notes and switched to flute. No more diddley tunes on the mandolin.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by David50
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Crossed with Jusa. Wow !
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by David50
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Impressive, JNE! .. but what happened to the other Rottweiler?
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by the wounded hussar
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Wounded Hussar - Me street wrassling the one dog clamped down on my puppy's head was not nearly as impressive as my diminutive wife throwing a my kid's bicycle at the other dog to chase him off. She gave him a Beckham like boot to the snout for good messure too. I'm just thankful the dogs were only interested in eating my puppy and not my people.
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Wow! Go you and your wife!
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
"just last week, a session player gave us the excuse he could'nt come to play cause he had an infection on his face! weird......"
Maybe he thought he might have a problem borrowing a whistle if he needed one?
http://stdpictures.org/_wp/wp-content/gallery/primary-syphilis/syphilitic-infectious-chancres.jpg
# Posted on September 21st 2011 by Jack Campin
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Wow! You people all have really good excuses.
When I can't play it's usually just because I've drunk too much.
# Posted on September 22nd 2011 by skreech
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Well Jusa, you'll be glad to know that if you're ever over in ol Ireland, the owners of such beasts here are obligated to have them restrained and muzzled when out in public. Doesn't stop the odd assault though, when they escape etc.
# Posted on September 22nd 2011 by the wounded hussar
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Once I was so shocked and appalled by what I read about guitar players on thesession.org that I stopped playing the guitar for 20 minutes.
# Posted on September 22nd 2011 by halfwaythere
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Inuries have put me out of comission twice. Once, my fingers saved a 5g carboy full of beer from crashing to the ground. Lost a nail on that one. the second time, while in the ring, a few good blows to the breadbasket made it too painful to sit or stand in one position for more than a few minutes. That one came with the pleasant bonus of fractured ribs and blood-laced urine.
Props to jusa, though. He and his wife's dynamic duo was able to accomplish what the dark knight could not.
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by Johnny Chicago
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
"Once I was so shocked and appalled by what I read about guitar players on thesession.org that I stopped playing the guitar for 20 minutes."
I do hope that it was during a session that you stopped, otherwise the effect was lost.
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
"Once, my fingers saved a 5g carboy full of beer from crashing to the ground."
You weren't helping Darby O'Gill and his pals at the time, were you?
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Ah. I see it now. It's my morning fug. Apologies - you meant gallons I guess.
... nope, I still don't get it - even 5 gallons is pretty small, really ...
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I was playing in a pickup band for some Welsh dancers and I sprained my left little finger, which was kinda strange, as the little fingers aren't used for harp playing, though they do move with the ring fingers for most people. Excrutiating pain, followed by about a month of recuperation and no harping.
One year later: Same festival, same Welsh dancers, same pickup band. SAME #%+! TUNE!! Six weeks of pain pills and physical therapy. This is why I don't play Welsh music any more.
I've also had to take a break when, just to be different, I developed De Quervain syndrome in my right thumb following an epic game of Whack-a-Mole the evening after a business trip to the federal prison in Duluth, Minnesota. (I'm not making this up; American tax dollars paid for me to do this.) (The prison visit, not the whack-a-mole.) The first sign something was wrong -- *really* wrong -- was when my hand was too weak to pick up a beer. Oh, yeah ... and the excruciating pain. Pain pills, physical therapy, and a mucking great brace.
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by Tracie
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I cut across the pad of my index finger when trying to cut a scone in half. Not on the knife - the scone was a bit hard, and it was the scone that actually cut me. No flute or whistle for a week!
m.d.
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by emmdee
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I did something very similar to the original poster about 9 years ago - although, fortunately, I missed the bone by a whisker.
NewToltAll - I don't wish to put a damper on things, but it was 9 months before I could play on that fingertip again - and even then, it was tender for a good year or so more. In my case, it was the LH *middle* finger, and it was easier than you might think to adapt my fingering (on mandolin) to miss out that finger. I imagine it will be more of a challenge without your index finger - but a great strengthening exercise for the other three.
Anyway, I wish you a speedy recovery - speedier than mine, I hope. BTW, if you find yourself desperate for an outlet for your music, you could try harmonica.... and there's always singing.
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
ethical blend,
5 gallons is the standard homebrew batch volume. And I agree...far too small.
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by Johnny Chicago
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Yeah. About enough for the person who made it plus a couple of mates.
... but then what would you drink for the rest of the evening?
# Posted on September 23rd 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
@CreadurMawnOrganig
Thanks for the kind words. I hope I'll be playing again before 9 months! I think I'll not try singing, as the missus has displayed great patience with my fiddle learning. No need to push my luck.
# Posted on September 24th 2011 by NewToItAll
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Well I make up for low volume with high ABV. Last brew was an 11.5% Imperial Irish Red (really a Barleywine). Called it "The Wind that Shakes the Barley".
# Posted on September 24th 2011 by Johnny Chicago
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
The strangest reasons I have for not playing are easily some of the tunes through the duration of which I withhold my musical labour and turn my thoughts inward till they cease.
These are tunes espoused and played by student kiddie tradheads (a category of person without a proper upper limit, as they tend to hang around, do research and bit-by-bit join academia / the intellectual proletariat / subcultures / bands / other...). Each tune is really a sort of musical equivalent of a baby owl or warthog, arousing disbelief rather than a desire to handle it, unless that is you are a SKT. They are in outlandish keys, G minor in particular. One reason I don't tend to play along is that it would demand use of the F whistle, and as I never practise on this (there are things I'd rather do...) I am certain to make noises on it in a session that are quite terrifically foul.
# Posted on September 24th 2011 by nicholas
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
Blowzabella are answerable for quite a few of these!
# Posted on September 24th 2011 by nicholas
Re: Strangest reason to not play?
I am honoured to announce the formation of the Guild of TIMSEANs : The descending order of the - Traditional Irish Musicians (who) Scale Elevations (only to) Attain Nadir
# Posted on September 25th 2011 by docdick