A lot of musical instruments produce sound by vibrating strings held under tension. These strings, which can be made of hard material like steel, occasionally break during a performance. Are musicians ever seriously injured by flailing strings? (By a “serious” injury, I mean one that requires professional medical attention, not minor cuts and nicks that the musician would ignore or treat herself.) For example, has a violinist ever had her eye pierced by a snapped steel E string? Has a pianist ever been inadvertently tracheotomized by his own piano wire? If so, how common are these sort of injuries? Stastistically (or even anecdotally) speaking, is playing a string instrument any more dangerous than playing other kinds of instruments?
The way most instruments are designed, the string can’t really come around and hit the player. In a piano, for example, the strings are inside a box and the player is outside of it. Even on a grand piano where the top of the box is open, you’ve still got the front of the piano between the strings and the player.
I play the guitar, and you have both hands over the guitar strings almost at all times. I’ve had many strings break on me over the years, especially in my college days because I couldn’t afford to regularly replace guitar strings and would play the ones I had until they broke. None of the broken strings even broke my skin or caused anything other than a very brief amount of small pain. I suppose if you got really unlucky one could cause a minor cut but that’s about it.
Strings break all the time. Eddie Van Halen broke a string during “I Cant’ Drive 55” on their “Live Without A Net” DVD. Here’s the song on youtube. You can see him wrap the broken string around his neck at about the 1:53 mark and at some point after the 2:35 mark he changes guitars while out of sight. When you see him again at 2:50 he’s playing a different guitar.
Here’s the video:
Guitar player here. The strings I break most are the top B (second thinnest plain string) and the D (thinnest wound string). The top two strings are pretty puny* and generally break at the bridge, they basically just go slack there’s no whipping type action. The bottom strings are wound and when they break it’s generally just the core that snaps leaving the winding intact, so the broken ends don’t actually separate. I suppose the most dangerous string to break would be a heavy unwound G but they’re pretty tough.
Also the guitar is slung down at waist-ish level and you’ve got the guitar between you and the strings. With a violins you’re holding the strings in front of your face :eek: guitars aren’t generally played like that. Unless you’re doing a Jimi Hendrix impression.
- unless you’re playing a guitar strung for Pete Townshend or Jeff Beck.
I’ve snapped a cello A string and gotten pinged in the face with it (which stung a little). An eye injury is possible but highly unlikely.
Years ago, I was jamming with a guy from university when suddenly the glue on the bridge on his guitar decided to let go. It came straight up and caught him in the corner of the eye, cutting him along his eyebrow. It may have been a freak accident but we were all surprised that it hit him with such force.
Other than a few nicks or cuts, the only other guitar injury I’ve suffered was a good jolt from an ungrounded amplifier.
I play 6 and 12 string guitar. A normal 12 string set has a very small high-G string and I tend to break that one most. Several years ago, I didn’t have a replacement available, so I put on a second low-G string. I actually liked the resulting tone of the guitar and have strung my 12 string that way ever since. I don’t break as many strings, either.
Side note - SWMBO will buy me new strings as a small present for birthday or Christmas. She’ll get the 12 string pack, plus the second low-G string and then tell everyone at work that she got me a G-string for a present. 
A broken string may not do you much damage, but an ungrounded amplifier just might. Keith Relf of the Yardbirds was killed by an improperly grounded amplifier in the 1970s.
The bridge, strings, and most metal bits (even the tuning pegs, if they are metal) on most electric guitars are all connected to the amplifier ground. If the amplifier is ungrounded, this “ground” connection can float and have a very dangerous voltage present on it. Touch something that happens to be grounded, and ZAP!
These days, the most popular types have a steel or synthetic fiber core, and a flat metal winding. If the core breaks, the windings will usually still hold the broken ends together, so there won’t be bits of shrapnel flying everywhere. IME it’s just a loud pop, and oh hey it’s time to grab your spare.
AFAIK, there are some metal strings without windings, but usually those are just the cheap-and-nasty student E strings. You can also get gut strings without any winding, but those are much lower-tension, and aren’t frequently used. Usually the pure gut strings are used on period instruments.
The real occupational hazard is plain old hearing loss. Especially for the poor bastards that sit right in front of the trombone section…
Regarding orchestral string instruments: If a violin or viola string breaks, it’s probably in the area where the bowing occurs, i.e. just on the other side of the bridge, from the musician’s point of view. That means the shorter section might snap toward the face, but not even come close to reaching it, and the longer section might snap harmlessly toward the left hand.
Cellos and basses might be dangerous though, since the longer end of the broken string would snap nearer to the face.
I see no one’s mentioned guitar face.
Pete Townshend has suffered some guitar injuries, possibly by string, but his style of playing is somewhat hazardous.
I have broken a few strings and barely noticed. A guitar string isn’t under that much tension, really, compared to industrial applications of cable and such, and their mass is very small, so they don’t pack much of a punch even if they do whip a little.
I assume you mean his guitar’s neck… 
ETA: My bad, I just watched the video, you *did *mean his neck!
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Pete Townshend has suffered some guitar injuries, possibly by string, but his style of playing is somewhat hazardous.
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Yup, I saw him on the Parkinson show telling the story of how he impaled his hand on the whammy bar of his Eric Clapton signature strat. He said the first thing he knew about it was that he felt his hand was stuck to the guitar. I guess the extreme pain kicked in shortly after. Eric was on the same show and pointed out that though it was his signature model that he didn’t in fact fit trems to his guitars.
To the OP: in the act of playing a guitar, not very likely. Now, as a noob player learning how to change strings? Sure, a coupla times I had the guitar on my lap and was twirling the little string / tuner crank tool I got and really had no clue if the string I was installing was still lower than my target tone so I was just cranking away, and I kinda lean in close to see how I am doing like any stoopid teenager - yeah, I had a couple of pop and realized that they could’ve taken out my eye…but I haven’t done that in over 30 years, thankyouverymuch…
Of course, there’s also fiddler’s neck and violinist’s neuropathy.
Heh. There was a BBC TV documentary back in the 1969 called “Royal Family”. It was about… well, anyhow, at one point Prince Charles, then about 20, was playing the cello and a snapped string hit Prince Edward, then about 6. In a famous wobbly-lip moment Edward asked “Why did it do that?”. 
I nearly had a heart attack when a piano string snapped.
The higher-pitched strings on a hammered dulcimer are usually unwrapped steel. I’ve had a couple of those break while tuning. It’s LOUD. The broken ends of the string went flying up and to either side of me, so there was no injury, but I darn near pissed myself the first time it happened.
I remember when I was a kid I was playing the cheapest of cheap electric guitars, and it probably had the cheapest of cheap strings and one broke off and cut my right hand.
Someone told me it was called a “scorpion bite” and that made sense to me, with the way a scorpion stings with its tail. But I can’t find any reference to it online, as a term for being cut by your guitar string.