When you’re the section leader
When the whole section comes in wrong
When the conductor brings you in wrong
When you flub your entry but still manage to recover
When someone else flubs their entrance
When you have your entry clearly marked with a neon highlighter and you still mess it up
When you finally get that entry you always mess up
When everybody messes it up except you
When you mess up but no one notices
When the conductor stops everyone because you messed it up
When the conductor stops everyone because one person messed up
When you miss your entry but the conductor doesn’t stop
When you forget to count rests and lose your place in the music
When the second violins keep messing up the same part for 20 minutes
When people obviously haven’t looked at their part before the rehearsal
When everybody acts like they practiced it but they bomb the rehearsal
When someone says they practised it but you know they haven’t
When you go to turn the page but crash your scroll into the stand, drop the music, and stab your partner with your bow
When you do that in a super quiet part of the piece and so everyone notices (bonus points if it’s in a concert)
When your shoulder rest falls off for the 5th time in a single rehearsal
When your bow hasn’t got enough rosin so it’s just sliding everywhere
When you can’t get that A in tune
When your pegs keep slipping so you end up having to spend half an hour actually tuning your instrument
When you’re reading your part for the first time and it says “Solo”
When the part isn’t marked as a solo but everybody else stops and it’s just your section left playing
When you’re tacet
When you’re a string player so you’re never tacet
When the soloist has a cadenza
When you mess up your cadenza
When your section leader makes a wrong entrance
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CaptainBubblebath 