We’ve “tarted up our babies” and dolled up our bows and cases; now I ask---what non-essential items do you always carry in your case? Mine are: my grandfather’s gold champion fiddler medal, a bridge from one of his violins and a St. Celia (patron saint) prayer card. Hopefully your instrument is not a non-essential item🙂.
And that should be St. Cecilia (as she is un-tuning my instrument as we speak.) Sorry.
Fiddle Case: Fiddle, Two Bows, Tuner, Rosin & Cloth. Plus a few flyers in the pocket.
Concertina Case: Concertina, crib sheets with first two bars of a few favourite sets.
Mandolin: Mandolin, Capo & spare Plectrum
Incidentally, I don’t put stickers on my cases, cause I’m a ‘serious’ musician!
For serious, read - ‘door bas*ard’!
Non-essential? You call a pencil, pocket knife, and flashlight non essential items? Although, the only one I’ve used so far is the pencil…. 🙂
Fiddlle, two bows, rosin, tuning fork, spqre strings, tweezrs for persuqding the A-string through that inaccessible hole in the A-peg, spare micrometer adjuster or two in cqse I have to use a metal string, pencill, scraps of manuscript paper, photos of my granddaughters; and a small recording device if Im attending a workshop.
I keep a bow, rosin and a spare A string in my case - I classify these as non-essential because I play guitar….
oops, sorry for those clerical errors. Thats what comes of using an unfamiliar keyboard on my daughters computer in Belgium. Cant find the apostrophe or exclamation mark keys, either.
Trevor: Isn’t the ’ above the # and the ! above the 1 ?
Fiddle case: pencil, rubber, spare strings, batteries
Guitar case: tuner
A pity the fiddle case with all the stickers from the 70s and 80s got lost.
My nonessentials are two spoons that my mother bought when she was young. I put them in my fiddle case because I always like to have an extra instrument in case someone would like to participate.
kuec, I have now been instructed by my family here in Leuven in the sacred mysteries of the Microsoft Natural Keyboard (Belgian version), and now know where ! and ’ are (nowhere near where expected). Still trying to get to grips with the wqy (sorry, “way”) some letter keys have been changed around.
Excellent timing for this question, I emptied my fiddle case the other evening, it was starting to weigh a tonne, and I found a photograph of one of the sessions I attend, three flyers for a company that lays outdoor decking, two half packets of chewing gum, three pocket size packets of tissues a tin whistle, a dozen pieces of paper with notes of tunes written on them, no names included of course, several scraps of paper with phone numbers, again no names included, two bic biros, two AA batteries, a packet of jelly tots, all soft and squashy coz they have been there so long, stickers from different festivals that were stuck on the outside of the case at various different times and a shell. At the moment my case is free of all nonessentials (apart from the shell, it has happy memories attached) but I guess its just a matter of time before the crap builds up again!
I’ve just been informed that this keyboard I’m using in Belgium is 12 years old, which explains why it doesn’t have the Euro sign. However, to make up for it , it has useful stuff like é è ç à ù ¤ µ ° and § 🙂
My flute is in a 19th century safety deposit box that belonged to my great aunt’s father in law. It has written on it, “WmW. Gilbert” (he was a doctor.) I lined it with foam and velvet so it will cradle my flute. That fits into a leather case that straps to the top of my concertina case. My concertina case is leather as well and has straps so I can carry it over my shoulder and have free hands. Inside I have pouches for all of my repair tools, glue, springs and extra buttons etc. In the flat space beneath the concertina is my sheet of set dance bar counts, photos friends have taken from sessions, a list of contra dance friendly medleys, a few set lists from past gigs, and a copy from last year’s Ennis Trad Fest to show to the non-believers.
Now we know who wrote the tune ‘Dr. Gilbert’.
Trevor: What, no äüö? If the keyboard is Belgian shouldn’t it have a key for nckx or aerae ? 😉
Violin case- my grandfather’s fiddle and bow, his rosin, a tuner (4-note harmonica untouched since the 1930s that might be valuable), my printed-out session.org tunebook
Flute case (actually, a pool-cue case)-my old Oak whistle, a borrowed Howard low D whistle, and my homemade PVC flute
Ok, this is not a joke - I went and had a look in my concertina case to see what I had, and this was it :
Five old guitar strings, a packet for an E fiddle string, $15.45 in Aussie shrapnel from a busking stint I did with a friend about five weeks ago, a note that someone gave us when we were busking that said, “Thanks for brightening up Sydney, smile at someone one day” (which seems a bit contradictory), my grandma’s old Rosary beads, and a bottle of Carlton Cold beer.
The beer was in the front pocket. Since I put it in there, I’ve moved house with my concertina and driven about 900km.
My fiddle case has some photos, broken bits of rosin and a broken fiddle. Waaaa!
Non-essential - nothing - but I have a tooth-brush, tooth-paste, a small bottle of Black Bush, scissors, rosin, spare strings, and a 10 Euro note in my fiddle case…
kuec, I reckon it must be a keyboard for the French-speaking part of Belgium, which explains why it doesn’t have äüö (which I pasted from your post), although I’m in the Flemish-speaking region.
shrapnel = loose change.
sure I heard that in Ireland too Jim
or did I?
My cases are pretty boring. No stickers from obscure folk festivals and if I’ve remembered to put spare strings and plectrums in them, it’s a bloody miracle.
A lot of airport security stickers and tags though.
A Pentacle in Blackthorn Wood. Bought it at a Druid gathering (Lammas Games) and haven’t got around to using it yet. Raises & beats your St. Cecilia prayer card!
OOOOO, St. Cecilia gonna come whop you up the side of the head!!! Greg, I also have a tuner of my grandfather’s that’s like yours.
…maybe worth a few bux on ebay?
Maybe enough to retire!🙂
Just had a look in my fiddle case:
rosin, wooden clothes peg, some thick aluminium foil,
a carved ebony fertlity figurine (quite phallic looking), a tram ticket from pre decimal days, some wornout strings, a ‘shadow’ pick-up a grey lead pencil and some ‘blutack’.