Your worst blunder?

Subject: Your worst blunder?
From: Andy7
Date: 28 Feb 18 - 06:32 PM

As a newcomer to the folk scene, many years back, I unwisely decided, during my very first visit to the local club, to attempt a rather difficult, unaccompanied, 2-verse ballad.

Having sung in choirs for some time, I assumed that singing was a transferrable skill. I was wrong!

The first verse was more or less okay. But after several tries, I just couldn't find the starting note for the second verse! So I had to leave it there.

The club members were very supportive ... they wanted to be welcoming to a newbie who'd had a go ... but at the time, I felt that I'd never dare to go near a folk club again!

Several years later, I sang that same song at the same club, managed to find the starting note for the second verse (it still wasn't easy!), and completed the song.

Nobody there would have remembered my first failed attempt, nor could have known just how many times I'd recently practised the song at home, just to make sure I did get it right at the second attempt ... but it did give me a little satisfaction to have done so!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: meself
Date: 01 Mar 18 - 04:09 PM

I started thinking back on all my various blunders, and trying to decide which one was worst ... it just got too depressing - sorry!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,.garggoyle
Date: 01 Mar 18 - 07:02 PM

I would rather view a sliding-note amateur .....

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 03:44 AM

I went to a nature preserve that pleasantly mild and warm day this week and walked around the pond, just breathing the fresh air and anticipating spring . After an hour walk I felt a little tired , so I when saw a log near the edge of the pond(presumably put there by the nature people who oversee this green space) I sat down.

When I got up, I saw that my pants and my good thick (favorite !! ) blue sweater were
mottled with streaks of .......something black- tar??? paint????is there such
a thing as indelible sap?!!??? (Other than me feeling like a sap for wearing
nice clothes to tromp thru the woods)
I ve tried getting the stains out with laundry soap, dawn dish detergent,
and baking soda. And plenty of elbow grease (mine).

Oh, and for the nitpickin', detail devoted type of folk who patrol many a forum
and may want to point out that the initiator of this thread was requesting
stories of a musical theme:

Ya shoulda heard me wail the the blues when I realized
I had ruined my clothes!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 05:13 AM

How long have you got?
RtS

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 11:54 AM

It was evening. The cat-who-loved-piano was sitting on the Dear Husband's lap, listening as I played a dance by Schubert. This dance explored all the things you can do around an E (E major, E minor, A, B), and it ended on a deep, rich, powerful E in the bass.

But my arm swung down and hit an F instead. The cat went went from pleased to shocked in an instant, and she shot up on all four legs as if on springs. Then she stalked out of the room. With her sensitive hearing, it must have been like a bomb going off.

Oops!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: gillymor
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 01:10 PM

About 10 years ago I had a gig at a small cafe about 50 miles south of here playing for crowds going in out of the multiplex theater next door. I'd left for the job in a hurry and when I opened my bouzouki case as we set up I found it was empty. Fortunately my partner, a multi-instrumentalist, had a guitar for me to play but it cut our repertoire in just about half. Good thing the crowd turned over so frequently because we played some numbers several times.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 01:43 PM

Well, I've had a few, and I've probably reported this one on here before, but back in my orchestral days, I played timpani: we didn't have the more modern pedal timps but tuned by hand, which included using an adjustable spanner on the tap nearest you.
Right in one of the quietest, most beautiful parts of the symphony, I reached for my spanner....and dropped it! Now, you'd think a lump of heavy metal like that would hit the floor and stay there, but somehow it managed to bounce - three times, on each step down off the stage into the audience. I just wanted the floor to open up and take me away!The conductor's face was a picture!
It's over 50 years ago now, but still haunts me!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 02:13 PM

Way back when at a Whitby Festival I was walking up the Kyber (steep hill) when the spring lock on my concertina box sprung open and my prize Wheatstone Special anglo dropped out and started rolling down the hill. Luckily it's a heavy beast and I was able to chase after it and arrest its motion before any vehicles came up the hill (one way). Had it been something like an edeophone it would have taken a dive to catch it. Needless to say I immediately fitted extra clasp locks onto the box when I got home. BTW the instrument wasn't damaged one bit. Not bad for nearly a century old. They don't make em like that any more!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 03:42 PM

Are you asking about my first marriage?

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,Clive Pownceby
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 04:35 PM

The late Peter Cook is quoted as saying, "I have learned from my mistakes and am sure I can repeat them all exactly." Well, I'll go with that one too!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Mar 18 - 07:36 PM

Way back when I was 42 and I knew about three tunes (I was a very late starter) I stood up in front of the gathered at the Tree Inn Folk Club with me mouth organ to play Chris wood's tune, Elizabeth Clare, the one tagged on to the end of Hares On The Mountain. It's a lovely waltz tune in three parts. Having only *sort of* learned it I launched in, full of beginner's hubris, and got totally lost, the three parts getting completely and randomly muddled to such an extent that I was standing there, blowing away in panic, not knowing how to finish. I remember all too clearly the lukewarm yet sympathetic applause. It took me a week before I dared show my face again in public in Bude.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Mar 18 - 12:05 AM

I won't relate all the painful details. Just let me tell you never to pick up a guitar in its case unless the clasps are clasped.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,michael
Date: 05 Mar 18 - 04:06 AM

I was eighteen and had a gig with my community theater, and they were doing a western-ish play with a saloon scene and they asked me to play one song: Cool Water, an eternally great song by the late Bob Nolan, who has written some wonderful stuff. But I'd heard some movie themes at the time that got real sophisticated harmonically with things like Red River Valley or something, and so I thought it would be a cool thing to mess with the chords and I mean really change the harmony parts extremely, maybe even making it minor in the major places and major in the minor. i thought it'd be like, refreshing, thought i was being very original with the tune, but the only way you'd know it was Cool Water was if you heard the words. Chordally and melodically I was indulging myself at the expense of this simple beautifully written song. So when it came time to play everybody in the audience was like, WTF. They were kinda like the way people get when they hear Jonathan and Darlene Edwards. To this day i will wake up in the middle of the night and SO wish i had given these lovely people in my home town and an earnest rendition of a great song. But No-o-o-o-....

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Mooh
Date: 05 Mar 18 - 08:19 AM

Wasted a couple of years on a girl, a conniving, manipulative fraud of a girl.
Wasted untold dollars on booze.

No huge musical blunders though I did give a bandleader the benefit of the doubt one too many times. He always said the band was a democracy, until he didn't get his way. Too many details and too long a story to retell here but I misplayed my hand and it cost me dearly.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 05 Mar 18 - 09:55 AM

Leaving my Sony Pro Walkman on pause for an entire Richard Thompson set in 1984!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Mar 18 - 11:43 AM

Well I once took my minidisc along to record the session. In order to keep things manageable I set it to record at the start of the evening but discreetly hit pause at the end of every set or song. When I got home I found that I'd got things arse about face for the whole evening, having recorded all the in-between banter and not one single piece of music.

Mind you, there was some good blackmail material on there, but I did the honourable thing and erased it all - after a good listen!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,Ebor Fiddler
Date: 05 Mar 18 - 03:35 PM

A few years ago, I had carefully packed our car full of our gear for a week in Miltown Malbay and it all fitted very neatly. I put my Grannie's Violin in its case in the space preserved for it and closed the boot firmly. This did not work, so I slammed it, reasoning that all the soft things underneath would cushion any damage.
Brothers and Sisters, I was WRONG! I had great difficulty in opening the case when we got to our cottage, and when I finally succeeded, I found that my valued hard-bodied case was now completely beyond repair. The only good point was that it had done its job and saved our family treasure for future generations! I was able to walk to Friel's with my friends and play joyfully while therein.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Mar 18 - 10:58 AM

I'm glad to hear the fiddle itself was okay, Ebor.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,Ebor Fiddler
Date: 07 Mar 18 - 02:30 PM

Thanks leeneia. but the story didn't end there. Last year, Ebor Morris had been invited by Great Yorkshire Morris to dance at their annual Day of Dance in Leeds. We all duly caught the train from York and disembarked at the right station. So far, so good. We got to the first dance spot and I reached for my fiddle, only to feel a blank area on my shoulder. Bright spark had left it on the train!
Many phone calls later, I found that it would be dropped off at Huddersfield as this was home base for whichever railway company it was, and as my sainted wife was going to a ceilidh in that direction, she picked it up while passing. Phew ...

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 07 Mar 18 - 02:52 PM

That reminds me of the awful moment when I changed trains at Wimbledon and left my recently bought Gibson sitting in the luggage rack! Again it was my lovely wife who chased it up to Waterloo, reclaimed it and joined me later that night. Saved me from singing all my songs unaccompanied! Also another good reason why I love her!

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Mar 18 - 02:33 PM

On my first trip to England, there were three of us travelling together, and at Chester, a friend left a piece of luggage on the train. What a hassle, as BritRail apparently feared it had a bomb in it.

From then on we made it a rule to count the luggage before getting on and off a train, plane or bus and to assign the same pieces to the same person for the duration of the trip. Haven't lost one since.
=========
I'm glad you two got your instruments back. Ebor, I went to YouTube and watched Ebor Morris dancing 'Skirmish.' Is that you on the fiddle?

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,Ebor Fiddler
Date: 08 Mar 18 - 04:49 PM

Yes leenia, that is I and my Grannie's violin playing on our 2014 Northumbrian Pilgrimage at Newbiggin By The Sea, just before our annual stupid dancing in the North Sea. We toured Wensleydale in 2017, but we shall RETURN to Northumberland this September! They have been warned!
Actually the pubs around there seem to like us. We are welcome to take over The Ship in Seahouses on the Friday and Saturday evenings, and the Landlord at the Ship in Newbiggin gives us a free pint!

Chris B.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: leeneia
Date: 09 Mar 18 - 11:13 AM

Sounds good, Ebor. Best of luck to your troupe.

Subject: RE: Your worst blunder?
From: GUEST,Ebor Fiddler
Date: 09 Mar 18 - 03:13 PM

Ooer, Missus!