Recently I was asked, if it is safe to play the (aluminium) low whistle outside in winter, when the temperature is below freezing point (0°C, 32°F), and what minimum temperature is considered safe.
My short answer was: I don’t know. My long answer went like this:
My instruments are not designed to play in sub-zero temperatures. You
would most likely not be able to play the instrument in tune, the
tuning slide cannot be pushed in enough to compensate for the low air
temperature.
I would say: be very careful when playing in low temperatures,
especially in sub-zero temperatures. Make sure you warm the instrument
before playing, so you will not touch the instrument if it is itself
at very low temperature. Especially there is the danger that your
moist lips can get frozen to a metal surface if the metal temperature
is below zero. So keep your whistle covered and warmed inside your coat
for instance, before starting play. The warm air from your blowing
into it should help a bit to keep the instrument warmer than the
surrounding air, especially the mouth piece. But aluminium is a good
heat conductor, so I am not sure how much it helps, or how quick the
mouth piece will cool down to dangerous (sub-zero) levels.
Also: I would think that attempting to tune the instrument at sub-zero
temperatures is not safe for it, if moisture inside forms into ice.
This is apart from the problem that the tuning would probably be wrong
anyway. So just push the whistle body fully into the tuning barrel,
before taking it into low temperatures.
What is your take on this?
I have no experiences playing in such conditions.
I had some experience of playing my old Chieftain OS in winter. It was not very cold, as far as I remember, about 5-7C below zero. It was on Christmas and we played christmas songs all the day until night. I had no problems with my lips, the biggest problem was tuning - winter-cold aluminium whistle tends to be awfully lower. But in a minute or two of playing it warms up and becomes to be right in tune. When you stop playing and let it get cold again the process repeats. One more problem is that your fingers will get inevitably frozen. You’ll have to stop playing to warm them up and then your whistle will get cold again. So it is not very comfortable from musical point of view since for the first minutes of a composition you play out of tune. No tuning slide can help as you’ll have to pull it in and out too often and never in the right time as your whistle warms up and makes this tuning jump in the middle of a tune in the most cases.
Neither do I, but what I do know is my fingers are acutely sensitive to cold and stop functioning (musically, then at all!) without gloves a long, long way above freezing. So doubt the biggest problem’s the (non-wood) whistle at all…
I regularly play my car whistles in sub-zero temperatures. Just the other day it was 8 degrees Fahrenheit/ -13.3 Cecsius when I was playing in my car at work. Yes, it will throw off the tuning a bit, but after being warmed through playing it didn’t seem to be out of tune with itself. I should note that it was a Bb generation and a Clarke Sweetone that I was playing on that day. The plastic head might give a different result than all-metal whistles, but I didn’t seem to have any issues. If playing with others, maybe it would throw things off a bit tuning-wise.
I am not actually sure what is meant by “safe” in the OP, but I am assuming it is asking if it is harmful to the whistle. I’ve had that Generation Bb in my car for years, and it has seen temperatures in both extremes, including above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It hasn’t seemed to harm the whistle any, though my generation Bb does have a crack where the body connects. I expect this did not happen from the temperature though, as that whistle gets jostled around quite a lot, and has probably had things sitting on top of it in my back seat. The very minor crack was easily solved with tape. Personally, I would not have any of my prized whistles out in extreme temperatures for fear of damage, but it has been of no harm to the cheap whistles I use in such situations.
Indeed though, the fingers do become significantly slower when playing in very cold weather!
