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GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ Playing Outside In Cold,winter Time?
Posted by: Muris Feb 17 2008, 10:01 AM
Have you done it before,how it affected your playing,gear etc?
I'm talking about really "cold" situations,even down to 0 °C/32 °F (or lower 
)
Posted by: DeepRoots Feb 17 2008, 10:29 AM
Ouch - i have no live experiences bar one, and that was warm. I'd love to see mojo oro at 0°C- i think my fingers would fall off playing power chords at that temperature 
Posted by: wrk Feb 17 2008, 11:03 AM
I always had this question as well ... how professionals keep their hands warm. On festivals for example...
During winter time like now i have the problem to keep my apartment in good temperature, so i often have cold hands while practicing and its kind of disturbing. I regularly put them in warm water. After it's ok for around 30 minutes, but i think it's not a good habit, especially when i practice bending stuff ... i easily loose the skin on my fingertips (calluses?) and it starts to be painful.
Posted by: kyldeee Feb 17 2008, 11:09 AM
I don't have any experience, but my friends band was shooting a video to one of their songs and must have been like -15 degrees cold outside and they shoot it at a frozen lake and it was a very windy day. They had to take breaks like every fifteen minutes, because it was so damn cold, fortunately we had some hot choco with us, so we could keep the lads warm 
Posted by: Nemanja Feb 17 2008, 11:13 AM
I have a question to...how the wether effect the strings on a guitar...couse I knowe that my gutarist had problem with pich when it is cold
Posted by: MickeM Feb 17 2008, 11:21 AM
A guitar should be kept in the same temperature as much as possible. String go from short (when cold) to long (when warm). So tune a cold guitar and will run flat when the the strings get warm. All the metal on the guitar is affected by the temperature. Actualy, so does the wood in the guitar but not to the extent of metal.
Posted by: MickeM Feb 17 2008, 11:26 AM
I'm talking about really "cold" situations,even down to 0 °C/32 °F (or lower
)Oh I could not do it without a heating fan. My fingers run stiff at the slightest cold.
About the gear, the guitar can stay in tune if the temperature is the same. So make sure it stays in that environment 30-60 minutes before the gig and that it's tuned after it reaches the surrounding temperature. ...or just get a Gibson Robot guitar
Posted by: Joe Kataldo Feb 17 2008, 11:36 AM
I've played many times during festival in winter time, It's a pain in the Axe but never so cold like 0°c
Check the manuals of your gear, some of them especially electronics one...may not work at 0° C, if I remember well my G-Major stuck once, but gear apart...how can your hands move with so cold temperature? I mean you will wear gloves? or at least you have to get drunk
Posted by: Muris Feb 17 2008, 12:57 PM
Here's my experience ,the worst one.
I played open air with Tifa(local rock star) and it was around 0C,really .
Now,chops aren't so complicate so I managed that part somehow.
But gear suffered the most,as the whole band.
I had Rocktron Voodoo at that time,controlled by Midi Mate.
Everything was like slow motion...
Solo is coming...I'm pressing button on MidiMate...turn around to see Voodoo...
display is melting names of sounds... it's working slow,tooo slow...and so I miss almost 2 bars of solo 
Posted by: Joe Kataldo Feb 17 2008, 02:14 PM
Yes that what I mean, digital stuff doesn't work well at all
Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Feb 17 2008, 03:15 PM
Don't know about so cold weather, played in some cold environments but 0C is cold as hell. Maybe the light on stage and adrenaline can reduce the coldness, but as for gear, didn't use processors ever. I guess they do behave badly in those situations, on all digital equipment says that it shouldn't be used in cold or high humidity environments 0-40C
Posted by: Bogdan Feb 17 2008, 03:28 PM
Well my hand get cold before gigs that are in much warmer environment..They eventually during show warm up a little..But when I start playing with cold hand not only that I'm slow on playing but also loose the feeling in my right hand when slapping for example so I don't actually feel what I'm playing..Its really a bad feeling..I guess I could not properly play at 0C weather.. 
Posted by: Tuubsu Feb 17 2008, 04:15 PM
Well I do have some experience about it... I never played live for more than 10 friends at 0-2 C, but I practice in my garage 99% of the time and now as it is winter the temperature is 0-5 C depending on how cold it is outside. I wear a long sleeve, but on my picking hand I usually roll the sleeve all the way up to my shoulders and I manage to play just as good in there as in somewhere warm. Some people have said though that I can handle cold a lot better than many, and it's true.
I don't know why but my picking hand handles cold soooo much better than the fretting hand, does anybody else have the same experience?
Posted by: Bogdan Feb 17 2008, 04:53 PM
I don't know why but my picking hand handles cold soooo much better than the fretting hand, does anybody else have the same experience?
For me its opposite regarding hands..
Its interesting that you practice in that temperature, I can't imagine it..I would be shacking all over the place not being able to play
But you being from Finland sure adds a little to your immunity to cold weather.
Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Feb 18 2008, 12:37 AM
cold problems here too. No matter how much I warm up, those 5 minutes needed to go to stage, plugin and tune are just enough to get my hands cold again, at least for the first song
Posted by: erik Feb 18 2008, 01:17 AM
If your fingers are cold, then your'e not playing fast enough
Posted by: Staples Feb 18 2008, 01:28 AM
I haven't tried this with guitar but being military I've been in a few pretty cold outdoor places. At some hunting shops and things like that you can find little hand warmers, like .79 cents and they warm when exposed to air. They're kind of like little bean bags, about 1/4 inch high and 2 inches wide. Maybe in the case of guitar since you can't constantly hold onto those, tuck them just under the end of your sleeve on both sides of the wrist, or maybe wear a wrist band and tuck them in there. At least keep that area warm, and will warm the blood flowing through your hands to some extent. Little complicated but might work.
Posted by: Bogdan Feb 18 2008, 02:01 AM
Wow thats very interesting advice !!! I like the idea of holding it under the wrist band..Can you give me a google link to some shop or something to check them out..
Posted by: Staples Feb 18 2008, 02:42 AM
I can't find the exact ones I used but these are similar.
http://www.warmers.com/
Or just type in hand warmers in google. You'll find a bunch of different things similar to this. Hope it helps.
Posted by: Muris Feb 18 2008, 11:06 AM
It usually comes when management isn't taking care of musicians. 
Most of the time those are huge gigs,couple of thousands in audience
and all they give to us is some small heating device so we run around it like butterflies
Posted by: Joe Kataldo Feb 18 2008, 11:45 AM
Most of the time those are huge gigs,couple of thousands in audience
and all they give to us is some small heating device so we run around it like butterflies
, Muris if you wanna start complain about management, may I help you? I could start now and end typing next month!Some random example, all really happened from medium to small gig
(I never played with a big pop star, and I really hope that something is different)
Cheap Power Generator, power under 190 volt
Cheap Power Generator, power over 220 volt
No food
No catering
Too much food
Bad Food
A spotlight aimed directly to you during summer (ok this is not management fault
)No bathroom
No sleep
No Fitting Room
Etc.
etc.
Yeah that why I've chosen to be a musician
Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Feb 18 2008, 11:47 AM
I've played outside at about 1-3 degrees before and I was fine although I find it more that its a psychological thing. When it's cold my brain doesn't function as well I find and so I have more trouble remembering songs and improvising.
Posted by: Muris Feb 18 2008, 11:48 AM
I see you've got many reasons to complain on management Joe,and not only during winter.
Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Feb 18 2008, 12:34 PM
Cheap Power Generator, power over 220 volt
No food
No catering
Too much food
Bad Food
A spotlight aimed directly to you during summer (ok this is not management fault
)No bathroom
No sleep
No Fitting Room
Etc.
etc.
Those things can be horrible indeed
... I mean no bathroom...what do you do when the "nature calls"
Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Feb 18 2008, 12:35 PM
... I mean no bathroom...what do you do when the "nature calls" We're lucky to have use of the full stage most the time. Never play a gig over Christmas you'll get to the venue and realise there is a great big tree in the middle of the stage and you'll have to play around it.
Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Feb 18 2008, 12:38 PM
It's really frustrating when we turn up as well and there are no hairdressers or stylists. And when we have no make up artists we usually refuse to play 
Posted by: Joe Kataldo Feb 18 2008, 01:36 PM
Yeah I Forgot to mention the most important missing
well when nature call
we had to order a couple of coffee into the nearest bar, and take advantage of their bathroom , this happened in small gig, no more than 15 show during summer, the problem is that, when you are a kid, with no live experience, you accept everything to make some, experience is the only thing that can't be bought. In this situations you really learn how to play good in the worst condition...no gig can scare me now
Posted by: Scott Gentzen Feb 19 2008, 08:33 PM
Travis Bean guitars have metal necks....could tape one of those to the headstock and hope it has enough to warm the whole neck?
Posted by: Robin Feb 19 2008, 08:43 PM
If it stays on 0 celsius or more, without any cold wind it should be ok. I'm not sure though, never really played in the cold. But a couple of years ago there was a local band here playing outside in about 15-20 minus celsius. Shouldnt be too much of a problem.
Posted by: DeepRoots Feb 19 2008, 08:55 PM
Respect to them- thats quite a commitment to music (or a paycheck
)edit: woop post number 999 - thats the emergency services number here in the UK...OR...slightly cooler its 666 upside down yeehaaaa
Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Feb 19 2008, 10:03 PM
O boy, we have some tails to tell ....... gigs are the best experiences ever! especially when travelling across country!
Posted by: Muris Feb 20 2008, 01:14 AM
Ahh,you north people.
Posted by: vikingraider1 Feb 20 2008, 09:51 AM
We recently played a gig in Belgium (in January) which was outside in a big barn. There were about 300 people there but the place was freezing. It must have been about -5 or something. I was doing backing vocals and I could see my breath it was that cold. My fingers were numb and there was no heating whatsoever.
Just to cap it off, the van got stuck in the mud (twice) and had to be pushed out and the hotel had no heating either. That was probably the coldest weekend of my life.
Posted by: visi0n Feb 20 2008, 09:59 AM
hmmm playing outside in cold, i remember when i came back from Band practicing, i went walking very late on streets with a friend, and we picked up our guitars an played/jammed while walking, it was very cold, my fingers the wood of the guitar went all cold.. when i came home my guitar was out of tune but it was fun to play in cold.
Posted by: Staples Feb 20 2008, 11:29 AM
It might, but I'd doubt it'd warm the entire neck to any significant degree. Could give it a shot, it's a loss of about a dollar and some tape. Most likely though since that heat will be spread across the entire neck the cold air would sap the heat right back out.
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