I got into the habit of warming up my low whistles under my arm before playing, to avoid condensation and avoid the problems of clogging and tone, and have kept doing so since I’ve been playing the flute.
So, I wondered if others do this, or do most people just start playing? Maybe some have polymer flutes that don’t care one way or the other about the condensation, and maybe some with wood flutes try to keep the condensation to a minimum?
It does seem that most instruments play better when warm, no matter how it’s done, even when they are wet.
I personally don’t warm up my flutes. I do it with my whistles when they need it though. Especially at outdoor gigs.
In my experience, condensation is a much biger problem with polymer flutes than wooden flutes. Not for durability or anything, you’re right polymer flutes don’t care if they get wet, but a played in and oiled wooden flute doesn’t care eighter (this doesn’t include throwing it in the lake, I mean under normal playing conditions and as long as you dry it out afterwards), but polymer flutes get a lot more condensation and clogging than wood.
Well, there’s warm-up for the flute and for your embouchure. Your embouchure muscles could benefit from warming up just like the muscles you use when exercising the rest of your body.
As for your flute, you should warm up so you can adjust your pitch with the barrel at the beginning of a session- whether by yourself or playing with others. If I put the flute down (maybe to pick up another instrument) I blow warm air through it for a bit before playing again to get back up to pitch.
I think there may be some value in warming you (the player) up before really cutting loose.
However, unless you are playing in a very cold room, just holding the headjoint in your hands for a minute or two should be enough to get your flute pretty much up to pitch.
In my experience, if it’s cold enough you really need to blow warm air down your flute to warm it up, then it’s cold enough you’re going to have serious intonation and condensation problems no matter what you do.
Good points about warming up the body too (face and hands, etc) before play, probably as or more important than the flute!
But I still think holding the flute under your arm before play is beneficial too, and easy to do.
It may help prevent a crack in colder weather too, in a wooden flute, when you bring it indoors to play from a cold outdoor temperature, although you would probably want to warm it up gradually, and not stick it right under your arm, if it was very cold.
Mainly I was wondering if players warmed it up just as a matter of routine to avoid condensation, and have a responsive and in tune flute to start with.