I was practicing my flute outside last weekend and constantly lost notes when a strong gust of wind hit me. I know playing in the wind has been discussed on the whistle board, but flutes don’t have some of the options that whistles do (i.e. turning the whistlehead upside down).
Since fifes have a long history as military instruments, and the military operates whether the wind is blowing or not, are there any old tricks that fifers use to play in the wind?
Stand behind the drummer?
all you have to do is blow harder than the wind. Seriously, try focusing your air stream as much as possible (tightening the embouchure and blowing a bit harder). This will help sometimes, but then again that man vs. nature thing has been a struggle for eons.
Billy White
P.S. gordon’s advice is pretty sound too!
I play mostly in the second and third octave. It would take gale-force winds to deflect the airstream needed for that! Seriously, though, in 30+ years of playing parades and outdoor concerts, I’ve never had the wind stop my playing.
On 2002-11-16 06:55, jim_mc wrote:
I play mostly in the second and third octave. It would take gale-force winds to deflect the airstream needed for that! Seriously, though, in 30+ years of playing parades and outdoor concerts, I’ve never had the wind stop my playing.
Sooo- all I have to do is develop the chops to play everything up an octave and I can quit worrying about it! 