Where to keep your fiddle?

The viola list has been in slight uproar recently when a younger member asked if it was a bad thing to do to keep the viola out on a stand all of the time, so she could practice it at odd times. While it seems that there are People Who Do This Sort Of Thing, collectively we jumped in and said ' how can you do this?', 'how darn hard is it to put it in a case', and listing the types of accidents that might befall the instrument. The discussion then veered towards those people who leave their instrument on the chair during orchestral rehearsal breaks.

One list member today recounted the experience of the ' Louisville Orchestra. I'll never forget, even when a tornado was coming through, and the musicians were evacuated to the basement of the building, many chose to leave their instruments on their seats, as they were accustomed to doing during break. Until that point, I hadn't seen it outside of highschool either, and I'm happy to say I haven't seen it since then (at least with violins and violas.) There are many veeeeery good reasons not leave your instrument on your chair during break.'