Do you talk to your instrument?

Subject: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 07:50 AM

I play a bunch of different instruments - most of them not particularly well - and it's just struck me that there's only one I talk to. I'm not talking about holding conversations with an inanimate object, you understand; just little things, like saying hello when I get it out, and saying goodnight when it goes away for the night. I started doing this more or less as soon as I got it, even though I'd never done it with any other instrument. I must be in love.

Anyone else - people with multiple instruments in particular - do you do this? If you've got several different guitars, say, do you say hello to all of them, or just the one[s] you're particularly fond of? Are there any types of instrument you're particularly likely to talk to?

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 08:00 AM

No, no and no

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: alex s
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 08:07 AM

No, no, no

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 08:15 AM

It's OK, Phil - you can tell us. We're all friends here.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 08:16 AM

I swear at them occasionally.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 09:56 AM

Stella is a Martin D-28 I bought 50 years ago now. Yeah, I talk to her. I'll be in touch when she starts answering.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 10:24 AM

Glad it's not just me. (As for the rest of you, I bet you do really.)

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: alex s
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 11:14 AM

Putting on my white coat - I'll be round soon.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 11:19 AM

Man said to his Martin,"Fie box, fie!"
Man said to his Martin,"Who's the tool now?"
Man said to his Martin,"Get thee in tune, and stop your fartin'!"
"Thou hast well angered me...who's the tool now?"

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 11:24 AM

I talk to some of them - not all, only the ones I've given names to, and those that have been with me for a while - like my harp & crwths (getting on for 30 years) and my pocket trumpet & violin, both of which require much TLC. I used to have a hurdy-gurdy that I had running rows with. We parted company with much acrimony, and, despite the briefest of re-unions several years ago (I was asked for a solo album by a label in Belgium - I did a sequence of wonky folk songs (including Leg of a Mallard and Cob-a-Coaling which I've never sung before or since) on hurdy-gurdy & called it Naked Season & it came out in a beautiful limited edition of 100 numbered cassettes) I don't miss it in the slightest. My D citera (circa 1850 or so I'm told) is an old lady I respect for her wisdom; in such cases it pays to listen rather than talk. As you might find inlayed on many an old fiddle: Tacui in vita et in morte canam.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 11:29 AM

PS - The Latin makes no sense (so much for Goodgle translate). Here's some more that do:

http://www.bigduck.com/mottos7.html

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 11:41 AM

Don't particularly talk to them but gave my button accordion a name, after we were playing in Spain: our 2 cellists used hired instruments, which became Pablo and Alfonso, and my accordion became Carlos. And a friend who has a mandolin and Mandola calls them Little Mandy and Big Mandy.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 12:45 PM

"Get into tune you little bugger!"

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Don Firth
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 12:55 PM

N-n-n-no, can't say that I do. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 01:03 PM

.... and does your instrument talk back ????

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 02:05 PM

Anything I've ever said to an instrument is inappropriate for mixed company.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 02:16 PM

yes, my lap dilcimer, "Peaches" so named after Spaw's character in one of the story threads, and also my fiddles. while they don't audibly answer, i do *feel* a good vibe from them.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 08:56 PM

My accordion likes playing Muneiras since he was named Carlos. And he even inspired me to write a tune!

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Stanron
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 10:49 PM

Talk to or swear at?

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 11:00 PM

No. Nor have I ever named one. I have cursed at many instruments over the years, but none of them ever seem to notice.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 12:20 AM

hmmm . . .
I have a varied assortment of things with strings, but one in particular evokes . . . je ne sais quoi. I was just singing into the soundhole--does that count? With a hundredth birthday coming up my Neapolitan ten-string [triple trebles] mandolin, yeah I guess I sing to it. Smiles. I don't converse in the same way with the rest, but my Washburn is affectionately named Amanda-Lynne, tooled on "her" case

keep on pickin'
dennis

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 12:42 AM

Yeah, sure I talk to my instruments...now and then. I don't do it regularly, but there are occasions when I'll talk to anything at all...a door, a wrench, a car, something I'm picking up off the floor, the squirrel outside the door, the computer, whatever. And why not? After all, I do have some degree of involvement (relationship) with all those other things that are around me...I interact with them in some way. So why not talk to them at certain moments if the impulse to do so spontaneously arises?

For instance, the car might be having a little trouble getting going on a cold, wet morning, and I might sympathetically say, "Still feeling a bit sleepy, are you?"

And when the Martin turns out to be perfectly in tune after having driven 50 miles, I say things like, "You are one GREAT guitar!"

I don't mind at all that they don't talk back. ;-)

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 01:24 AM

NO!..You're job is to make the instrument talk..and tell them what's inside of the both of you!!!

GfS

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 02:36 AM

Oh, well, yes, most certainly. ;-D

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Ernest
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 03:08 AM

I sing to it   ;0)

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Kele
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 09:02 AM

Mostly I apologise for ignoring them too much...

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Stanron
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 02:19 PM

I have been known to mention November the fifth on the rare occasion it plays a wrong note.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 02:43 PM

there are occasions when I'll talk to anything at all...a door, a wrench, a car

This is more or less what I was talking about to start with - "out you come", "oops, sorry" and so on (although I will admit to saying goodnight when I put it away, which probably pings some people's Crazy-Person-O-Meter). I only do it with one instrument, though, and it is my favourite.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 02:44 PM

Does silently swearing at myself when my voice just stops, count?

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 03:09 PM

I can't say that I talk to my guitar, but I do mutter a few stern words to my fingers from time to time.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: The Sandman
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 04:05 PM

I consider it dumbing down.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 06:15 PM

Little hawk only needs a small adjusting reminder sometimes and he is quick to adjust....Bravo! that is a quality we all could catch a flash to!

Don Firth: "..I do mutter a few stern words to my fingers from time to time."


Well that's a start!

GfS

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 01 Nov 12 - 06:24 PM

The old broad is 50 now. I'm 65. Every now and then when my ideas get lost and I have to get them back, we talk. Sooner or later, she tells me what to write. The day she stops doing that I'll quit writing.



MY OLD GUITAR AND I

I heard her whisper she'd be leaving soon
The sun is shining bright; it could easily be midnight
There is no light here in this room

I heard an ocean wave sailing with the tide
Heavens have a stormy face; nothing stays in just one place
Not all sailors race on the leeward side

CHO:          My old guitar and I drift from song to song
                     Take a lonesome melody
                     Write a rhyme and hope that she
                     Finds the time to call me when she's gone

BRIDGE:    I look with envy at the birds up in the sky
                     I see your face in every cloud that passes by
                     I hear an angel's voice + feel an angel's sigh
                     Your memory wakes me when I try to close my eyes


I heard her speak so clear on rivers, roads + rails
She'll never be too far away; maybe she'll come back some day
Keep her in my heart if all else fails

I heard a whippoorwill singing in the breeze
I really need to get some rest; ease the aching in my chest
Can't see the forest for the trees

CHO:          My old guitar and I drift from song to song
                     Take a lonesome melody
                     Write a rhyme and hope that she
                     Finds the time to call me when she's gone

(Has a neat melody. I intend to record it before I croak.)

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 03:31 PM

Very nice stuff, 999.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: open mike
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 03:37 PM

I look forward to hearing your song, 999!
My Martin is named Martina...she sings to me!
I occasionally give her a pat or two.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: Tootler
Date: 02 Nov 12 - 07:09 PM

I just say "Oh s**t" when I make a cock up of something.

Though that's as likely to be to my video camera when trying to make a You Tube video and have just ballsed up the umpteenth take.

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 03 Nov 12 - 12:51 AM

open mike...mine is named 'Martha'. It had that name before he gave it to me.

GfS

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: reggie miles
Date: 03 Nov 12 - 02:14 AM

I talk to the trees, but they never listen to me...

Subject: RE: Do you talk to your instrument?
From: reggie miles
Date: 03 Nov 12 - 02:15 AM

I don't think they like the fact that somebody sliced 'em up to turn 'em into guitars