Erm.. someone on this forum told me that she dropped her bow in the middle of a scale during her cello exam, she was so nervous! I shan't tell you who it was unless she is willing to.

my flute has been dropped a few times!It fell off the music stand.

my friend who is very obsessed with fiddling with my instruments dropped my flute onto a glass and gave it a dent in the headjoint

that and i've unfortunately knocked over my bassoon (well...schools bassoon) which hit the tenor horn player next to me (whos my best friend) on the head.

I was marking some theory in our staffroom and because I always knock stuff over, I set the cup of tea on the floor. However I had forgotten I'd set my mobile on the arm of the chair, and when I turned the page, the mobile went headfirst into my full mug of tea....

What was worse, was that the music teachers told all my pupils what I did and I never heard the end of it.....

oh dear thats unfortunate of you Jazzy.

phones have heads?

well it seems to have more brains than I do!

Aww!! What a wasted effort at putting the tea on the floor. Was the phone ok or did it drown?

phone eventually went to the great network in the sky....

What a shame, Jazzy! But look at it this way, you could get a brand new phone with newer functions after that!

I remember my friend telling me about her guitar instructor. She went for lessons with another friend, and her friend had trouble adjusting the music stand, as it was way too high. The instructor was a little impatient, but he came over, and said, 'It's easy! You do it like so!' He flipped the screw a bit too quickly and the stand slipped downwards, hitting his err... unmentionables!

Yes, I'm waiting for an upgrade that is wench-proof and repels tea....

One time, never forget it. Was just finishing off flute practice when the dog started screaming. Had to run to find out what the matter was, so put the flute across the stand (one of those black ones with the holes in the back!) and ran out to see what the story was.

Found Allegro, dealt with him and went back in to find Mum white-faced and shocked .. Having knocked said flute onto ground. Put it together, and found that footjoint did not work ...

This caused a slight problem because I had the Junior Concerto Competition the next day This was 8pm at night, and I was on at 10am.

Rang around desperately, eventually found the number of a guy about 25mins drive away that fixes 'band' instruments. Got onto him, explained and he said come on up.

He terrified me. He had a pipe, lit it, inhaled the smoke and then blew it through my flute. When he found where the leak was, he pressed down hard on the keys, I was so scared that they were going to snap right off. But ... he fixed it. Played more beautifully than it ever had done before ... And .. only charged us a fiver

Alls well that ends well, though I've never put my flute back on the stand ever again.

And, just remembered when reading about the trombone slide on page 14, was playing in a concert in which we, (the band) were making a presentation to our old conductor who had just retired from the Concert Band, so we had played, and then he was coming down to accept the gift, everyone was clapping, we were standing and said footjoint falls off my flute, bounces on my foot (bruising the toe majorly!!) and lands on the ground in front of the flute section ... Never so embarrassed in my life, scooting forward to pick it up and all the time smiling like this was an every day occurence.

i had a similar incident happen to me with my prized Miyazawa flute (which has a prized price of around £3,500)

i was rehersing a Handel Flute Sonata in the main music room with my friend Rachel and two of my mates were wandering around (being quiet) i left it on my flute stand to go fetch some music from the store room, and when i was about to walk through the door, i heard Rachel scream. my mates had knocked my flute clear off its stand, and had bent some of its keywork. Its one of those heart in your mouth incidents

fortunately, there wasnt TOO much damage done to my baby, it was only the G# key and D# key that had become misplaced. anything else and i would have gone beserk at them

the following night in the concert, i sounded pretty damn good

I was pretty shocking in that competition - flute had the smell of smoke off it and I kept inhaling it But it's a good memory.

I have a Yamaha flute, series three at the moment .. Considering upgrading to an Altus flute ... absolutely love the sound out of them but I'm .. attached .. to my flute

I dropped my bassoon about three weeks after I got it. It had taken me about a year to pursuade my parents to get me one and you know bassoons are pretty expensive...I had leaned it against the sideboard and left the room for like ten seconds and heard a big crash. I was almost in tears and spent about an hour looking over it and making sure it was ok..

It was, thankfully. It taught me a lesson though. Never leave the bassoon unattended!

NM

So it's not just Amber who's tried playing the flute and smoking at the same time.

I've dropped my guitar loads of time, i've also banged it on every bit of furniture in my bedroom so it's got loads of dents in it

And it's happened again. Just spent 1.5weeks on irish national wind ensemble, was on a break, had flute in three parts on a chair - boys walked past and walked into chair, middle joint fell on ground and is now dented - where i have to attach the footjoint. Feckin eejits.

I only dropped my clarinet once and my sax twice! No damge was done either time! But something has crossed my mind!!!

Does anyone ever know a 'piano mover man' to drop a piano and brake it?

Just curious!

I used to have my digital piano upstairs in my room and when my Dad was trying to bring it downstairs he nearly dropped it but luckily its still with us....lol I've dropped my guitar a few times with a loud clang on the floor!I don't think its damaged though...

Should you have left it where it could have been knocked?

It wasn't in a position to be knocked, and I was standing right behind the chair chatting to my head of section. I had taken it apart so that it wasn't sticking out over the side, and it would have been fine had the boys not been shoving each other around the place.