Trouble playing in cold climates.

[Brendengoff]

Hello! I am a high school senior looking for some advice on playing in cold climates. I have auditions for colleges and regional band coming up and wanted to see how everyone else copes with this problem. The cold tends to make my sound very thin and unstable, but when I play in a warm climate, my sound is much richer. I have tried the blowing warm air into your flute technique and it really did not help at all. What do you do to cope with this problem

[FluteMonkey]

I live in Minneapolis so I can sympathize with your problem. Not only are our winters cold, they're dry as well. You can't control your environment, but there are a few things you can do to control your flute and yourself. Try to minimize the time your flute spends in a cold environment. Don't let it sit in the car if you can avoid it. Keep yourself well hydrated. Drink lots of water. Beyond that, you just have to keep playing until the instrument warms up. Blowing warm air through the flute like you've been doing will speed up the process. Don't forget to keep yourself warm as well. Cold fingers don't respond very well.

[Treemotan]

I live in Ohio right up by the lake, so boy can I sympathize! FluteMonkey pretty much covered most of what you can do already, though I do have a few other suggestions due to having to deal with it a lot as a player in a competitive marching band. Blowing warm air through the instrument when you can't play followed by warming up with long tones prior to going out on the field usually works pretty well for me.