I'm rather sensitive about people playing on my piano. I really don't like for it to be played by anyone except close friends or a music teacher. I got it when I was 4 and I've always been rather protective of it. Does anyone else feel this way about their instruments or am I just weird?

your just wierd!
seriously, im exactly the same with my sax, I only let my teacher and about two other people (both who play the sax) even touch it!

Anyone touching my instrument would be in BIG trouble.

But then, I'm a singer

Yes - BE CAREFUL with who you let touch your instrument! I was on an orchestral course today and this boy asked if he could play my viola so I said yes, but be careful, and he balanced it on the palm of his hand , meaning that I had to immediately grab it back! Some other idiot also opened my viola case during break when I was in the loo. Grrrr.....

Oh my god I'm SO paranoid about people touching ANY of my instruments, especially my flute, alto recorder and piano. I can never seem to stop people going on the piano for some reason. I WILL freak out if anyone touches my instruments e.g. piccolo during band, recorder during practise. Its like OI HANDS OFF!

I'm okay with anyone touching or playing my piano,
provided that that person doesn't bang the piano down hard.
I had this 5-year-old neighbour child that banged on my piano and I was fuming!

I don't mind other people touching my piano, because after all it is kind of open and it's a family one, not just mine. I wouldn't mind anyone touching my clarinet either, but I wouldn't want them to play it - who knows what germs they're carrying?

My pupils have to use my piano at home - obviously! However, if they put their fingers in their mouth, they go and wash their hands. Also, this one person sometimes leaves little sweat patches on the keys. Once he has gone, I clean the keys thoroughly!

As a piano teacher - ditto!

In general, I don't let people near my oboe/cor anglais, except I do very occasionally allow a senior pupil who's contemplating an up-grade of instrument try my oboe to see the difference betwen their student model and my professional one. This always in a lesson when I'm there to supervise - they never "borrow" it.

Instruments are for real - they are not toys as some of our friends etc might believe. We need them and they matter to us a great deal. I would never lend my portable instruments to anyone - they are very, very precious to me and I don't want other people messing around on them or with them.

My piano matters to me but, as a piano teacher, I have to let others near it or we wouldn't get very far!

i dont like to let others play my instrument, i don't want to get ill!

I will not let anyone touch my baby grand apart from my 12 year old son who is about to take his grade 2 in the summer and maybe just a couple of close pianist friends.



When I'm away travelling on business I usually put the quilted dust cover on, so at least it's covered and no one can "finger" the highly polished casing. My wife (not a pianist) will not allow anyone near it in my absence.



Am I paranoid about my piano ?? Yes ! I think I am

I'm quite protective of my instruments. I let my recorder pupil borrow my old flute for a short time as she was having difficulty getting a sound out of her fife.
Sometimes my friends ask if they can try and play my flute which is fine because after a couple of blows they feel dizzy and give it back. My little sister is not allowed near my flutes though which is sort of strange because she used to play the flte, but she was always really careless with hers and it's covered in dents.
Piano, I'm fine. My 4 year old little sister always bangs on it because my parents say she has to be allowed to as it's not just my piano. (
My flute teacher has lent me her piccolo on occasions, and has let me blow her gold-headjoint flute

Oh my God ! I'm so mad with anyone who thinks of touching my piano..

If my little sister sneeks around in order to play a sclae or something , It would be one of her darkest nights!

I don't know really the explanation of this attitude. Did Sigmond Freud say anything about it?!

Little sweat patches? You are lucky you didn't teach my daughter when she was younger... her hands could literally drip even if she was doing nothing. They used to accuse her of sucking her fingers in school until she was about 8 or 9 when a sensible teacher let her keep a paper towel by her when working.
She has had the problem sorted out now.

With my flute, I'll happily let other flute players have a go, but not non musical people - it is too precious!

My oboe is really, really precious to me but I don't mind letting other musicians that I know and trust have a go - Nicki-flute is going to try it on Saturday

I figure that if people are serious about their own instruments then they'll know to be careful with mine and treat it with respect, and it is nice to have the opportunity to try other instruments!

I'll be really worried in case I damage it, I appreciate you letting me have a go

Liek the other piano teachers on this thread, I would not get very far being over protective with my piano, but my oboe and cor can only be handled by people who know what they are doing. I've never been over protective, but I wouldn't want a large bill for instrument repairs so a minimal level of care is essential.

I'm not at all keen on anyone else playing my violin, but having said that I have actually lent my violin to a teenage or adult pupil to play during a lesson if something disasterous happens, like their bridge suddenly snaps. However, I'm not comfortable for the duration and was very relieved to get it back. It's a similar feeling to when people wanted to hold my new-born baby - weird.

Violinia

Don't worry Nicki, it wouldn't get damaged unless it was dropped or something - it's not going to be any more fragile than your flute is! I'm bringing a spare reed for you to try, as those *are* really fragile, but it won't matter if that gets damaged.

I won't let non-musicians touch my violin case, let alone violin or bow. Violinists - yeah sometimes I'll let them, if I know them, and know that they can play without breaking it. I'm more touchy about my bow because I had to pay for it, so if it gets damaged it's my problem! When I get my new violin I won't let ANYONE touch it. Ever

My knowledge of wind instruments (those you put to your mouth and blow through) is very limited but I would have thought it not very hygienic letting other peoples saliva 'dribble' into the mouthpiece, reeds etc of a wind instrument.



I'm a doctor and know very well the risks of bacterial and viral infections transmitted by saliva.



How do you disinfect the mouthpiece? What precautions do you take to ensure good hygiene?



Worth thinking about, IMO, before you let other people, sometimes even members of your own family, play with your favourite 'toy'.



For those of you whose instrument is your voice, you only have "french kissing" to worry about

For me, it depends which instrument and who. There are people I would be happy to let play any of mine, and people who I would have reluctance even to let them near my sturdy piano!

Fellow musicians tend to be the most careful - ie I've long ago said Nicki can have a go on my viola at the weekend and it wouldn't occur to me to worry - I know that she will look after it.

I forgot about that.

With flutes, you can't really disinfect them - chemicals and metal don't mix. You just swab them out and you can clean those cloths...

No double entendre is intended when I say that I'm delighted when people want to play my organ. I guess this rather open approach is founded on the fact that

a. it's not actually mine -- I am just a transitory custodian
b. it's not used for 95% of the week, and what a waste of a resource otherwise
c. when I was much younger I was positively _discouraged_ from trying the instrument or playing anything other than ppp

At least with a flute, one is not actually putting it in one's mouth...

I am moved to *rage* be people who let their children thump on my piano keys!

I actually upset a friend of mine quite badly when I asked her to stop her 8 year old son doing it. She replied that he "wasn't doing any harm" and I told her straight away that I didn't want my piano treated like that.

As for as people actually playing it - I have absolutely no problem and enjoy hearing it being played.

Apart, that is, from worrying about coming within fifty feet of someone with a cold or having someone cough or sneeze without turning away or covering their mouth, or eating just before you sing or eating the wrong thing before you sing or whether one's lower abdominal muscles are busy doing something else rather than supporting singing one week each month or wearing the wrong clothes/shoes for comfortable stance and breathing or........

Ditto! I love seeing other people who can actually PLAY, play my piano as its just music after all...but I hate seeing little kids go 'oooh a piannyno...THUMP THUMP THUMP - random dissonant chords' I'm like this with my house in general too...don't like people touching my stuff unless they are careful or knw what they are doing.

I don't even let my flute teacher play my flute, as she's a smoker and I just find that disgusting!

Wouldn't dream of it Katyjay. I don't mind people playing my piano at all. Though woe betide them if they put a drink on the top of it. I also am quite happy to let people have a go on my viola, provided they are reasonably responsible people. I know how much I love having a go of other instruments so I don't mind other people having a go of mine.

Ugh - yeah, I'd be reluctant too in that scenario!

I don't mind people having a go on my flute as long as they are responsible and i can see what there doing. I wouldnt let anyone play on it without me being there.

Only three people apart from me have had a go on my violin, my teacher, a violinist friend and it seems one of my flatmate's friend, he let her have a go on it when I wasn't in, and just casually told me this later, apparently she was about grade 8 standard though, still I felt a bit off about it being played by somebody who didn't ask me first.


Kraz

It's easy to get neurotic about bugs - I get really annoyed about all those household disinfectant ads- we once did an experiment in bacteriology and succeeded in growing bacteria in one of the standard home antiseptics. Having said that, I do think a quick wipe of a metal instrument is in order, and people who get cold sores shouldn't lend their (wind) instruments out. Bugs don't survive that long on most surfaces, and wood is self-sterilising, I hear, so I wouldn't have a problem letting my teacher or a pupil play my recorders. I'm not so keen on just anyone having a shot though - if people who have no particular feel for an instrument play it, it never sounds so good. With reeds, I'd have thought that the real problem is that different players need different reeds - my oboe teacher used to lend me her Howarth so as not to have to listen to my ghastly B&H Regent, but I always used my own reeds. I can well imagine that a string player wouldn't want their instrument played with - too many bits to get untwisted or out of position!
I do remember feeling most honoured when a professional recorder player offered me the chance to hold her beautiful treble - and I didn't dare...

I'm fairly easy going letting people play my instruments. I know most people at school, and they're the ones that generally want a go, if I know they won't break and such, they can have a go but I won't let them out of my sight with it, or away from me with it.

My oboe and cello are both rented from my school so I don't mind that much when people want to play them. I do get annoyed when people take them without asking first though......
If anyone wants a go on my oboe I make them use an old reed.... I don't want them messing up my nice ones!! None of my teachers let anyone play their instruments; my oboe teacher dosn't even bring an instrument, he just plays on mine.

Everyone plays my piano, and I normally don't mind but I find if I hear my brother or his friends touching it I panic as I imagine them making all the keys sticky and stuff; I have to make them was there hands first.

In Biology we did an experiment where we took samples from random things with sellotape and grew the results on agar jelly; I took my samples from instruments in one of the practice rooms at school. The flute (not mine ) grew some bizarre yellow mould, as did the saxophone. The trumpet grew a rare red fungus-type thing that's apperently quite dangerous in large doses! So sharing wind instruments is probably a bit icky.

That sounds quite interesting actually!

I won't go into what grew from the samples taken from under peoples nails. Oh, and from the toilet door.

But don't you need a certain amount of exposure to germs to gain immunity?

It's the grubby kids who never get ill.....

But the trumpeter is presumably still alive to tell the tale?

Gives a whole new meaning to "culture" doesn't it

(The trumpeter's alive...I think)

I left my old cornet in my form room while I nipped out to do a job for the teacher. When I got my I found my 'friends' sat playing my trumpet. I hadn't given them permission or anything they just took it upon themselves to open it and start playing.

As you can imagine I went beserk when I found them with it ! I even go mad when I find out my sister has been playing with it ... yeah, it's mine !!!

I have been generous and let her actaully have my cornet as I got a new trumpet a couple of Christmases ago tee hee

I tend not to let many people play my flute .. unless they are close friends and also play the flute ( so they know what they are doing and aren't going to drop it or anything ) And no-one gets to touch my new piccolo tis' my precious

Julie

Yes, but it's those kinda kids who get hooked on heroin, rob old grannies or steal cars and kill pedestrians whilst out of their heads on vodka-based drinks and amphetamines...

What it is to generalise...

No one touches my flute, I'm really protective over it, but I don't mind as long as they know what they're doing. I once saw my sister threatening to throw my flute at my other sister... I went a bit crazy...


Yes, but it's those kinda kids who get hooked on heroin, rob old grannies or steal cars and kill pedestrians whilst out of their heads on vodka-based drinks and amphetamines...

Isn't that a bit of a broad generalisation?...

Well, i used to be very protective other my instruments, but i let my close musical friends who i know understand the value of instruments play my violin, and let just about anyone have a go on my new flute. I'm a bit more picky about my new flute though, i only let my flautist friends, and one other (a clarinet player who i know takes care of it and has a pretty good idea of the basics of playing it - and also lets me play her clarinet). My flute teacher plays it sometimes, and my music teacher likes borrowing it because it's better than hers (heehee, i borrow hers when i forget mine though so its only fair). I've played my flute teachers flute a few times, but my violin teacher won't let me near her violin.