Freezing Face and Fingers

[altoclarinets]

Ever try to march when it's cold? 40 degree or less horror stories!
Here's mine: Saturday all the bands in our district were marching together for a parade. It was FREEZING for the entire warmup time. I could not move my fingers. And when we got into the parade part... no one was marching... however it had warmed up. Our band directors told us stories aout marching subfreezing 7 and 8 mile parades... "Never, as long as I live..."

[philnotfil]

I got to play in the Utah Olympic Spirit band for the Salt Lake City Olympics. That was cold. The woodwinds would have little icicles hanging off of the bells and their keys wouldn't close all the way anymore. The brass players would use rubbing alcohol instead of valve oil. Bad memories. Some cool memories too.

[samthered]

^sounds fun, although a bit cold.

Pep band for football sections: All the spit froze in my trumpet, making it impossible for me to play. I spent the whole football game with my trumpet inside my coat once I found out what was wrong.

[Marine.]

pep band for football: so we were at a football game at williams high school my freshman year. It was about 25 degrees. I was freezing even though i had a pair of long johns on under my uniform. So i go to play a stand tune, and, i cant move my trombone slide. So i call nathan (low brass sl) over to take a look. apparantly my slide had gotten frozen where the hand rest is. We eventually got it unstuck by pouring hot water on it.

FIN!

[Schoolspirit]

The people in my band usually bring those little hand warmer things to football games. We're also allowed to wear several winter coats under our band raincoats. I'm usually ok.
But, for our homecoming this year, there was a TORNADO warning. Which is very uncommon for where I live, but the band played on. Later we were dumping water out of our shoes on the band hall floor and wringing out our gloves. We also had to stand outside in the pouring rain for 10 minutes as human lightning rods, waiting for our BD to get there. It might've been a cool experience if I wasn't worried that a tornado would come ripping through the parking lot at any moment.

[bluescalesdragon]

Ever had your hands so cold during band practice that you wrapped them around the neck of your saxophone and blew warm air through your instrument? The neck heats up a lot, and your hands get warm. It sometimes works, but you get dizzy after a while.

[trumellotonium]

I had to bugle at a flag-burning ceremony one time... it's a good thing I borrowed my friend's plastic mouthpiece, because my lips would have frozen otherwise. It was snowing while I played. It's also a good thing it was bugling, because all my valves had frozen stuck.

As far as marching goes, we don't have too many problems with cold since we march in the summer, but we've definitely gotten first degree burns on our lips due to searing mouthpieces... that sucked.

[Duel of the Flutes]

last year we had to practice outside for our 2-hour drumline practices sometimes because the volleyball team was dumb and wouldn't let us practice in the lobby outside the gym (they "didn't want to hear us") and the gym at the elementary school was being used for something else. there was one day that it was 8 degrees outside (without the wind chill, I think). seriously, it was horrible, and most of us were only wearing t-shirts with jackets (as in letter jackets...) because we didn't know we were going to be outside. 2 of our girls were actually wearing SHORTS (one had cheerleading practice beforehand and the other was wearing them because they were comfortable. if I remember correctly, one of the guys had a pair of sweatpants he let both of them share. our bd and one of our instructors were the only ones actually prepared. I have never been that cold in my life, let me tell you. everyone kept dropping their sticks because they couldn't feel their fingers and every time we stopped playing, we had to have a "family huddle" to stop us all from dying. the first thing I did when I came home was put the warm water on in the bathtub and sat down... clothes and all.

[stickshifty]

^ OMG you poor children. THAT is why I live in the south and bear my 120 degree parking lot band camps. The coldest I've done is maybe a practice in which it first downpoured, then (while we were soaking wet) a massive cold front came through.

[1frodos1]

Ah the joys of San Diego weather.our last show was in november and we wernt cold.Then again our uniforms are 13 years old,pure wool,and the jacets are fully lined with two front flaps(one for parade and one for field)

[Euphoniums PWN]

At the first round playoff game against Lovejoy high in November, it got so cold that when the band got back from break, a few reeds had frozen to their mouthpieces and several trumpets had all three valves stuck. Fortunately I had been able to avoid Frozen Valve Syndrome by placing one of those heat packs next to the valves on my baritone. Of course, the BD asked us to play the fight song. For the first time, the fight song was a low brass soli (because NO ONE ELSE could play). And it will never be again, judging on the look on the BD's face.

[brassdancer]

Ive played in so many cold games and competitions ... the worst, was Giants Stadium this past year with IUP. I had a broken arm, and well, I had to march sax (I normally march baritone) so that it wouldnt look as obvious. I normally wear tons of layers on top, but because of that arm I couldnt wear long sleeve shirts ... so I come of the field and I'm seriously almost convulsing from the cold ... people were so confused as to why I didn't wear more layers, but after I told them why they were like ... "oooooh". Haha. It sucked big time.

[altoclarinets]

stickshifty said:

^ OMG you poor children. THAT is why I live in the south and bear my 120 degree parking lot band camps.

I live in Katy. By Houston, Texas. It freezes down here once a year. On Rodeo Parade day, of course. Latitude is not ALWAYS determinate of weather. We have 120 degree bandcamps in the summer and <freezing practices in the "winter" (translation: rainy season. Mud. Cold mud. Yum, yum, yum.)
And... Thanksgiving weekend, second playoff game against Houston Madison at Rhodes Stadium... Freezing cold, and raining. Everyone's music got ruined, we were playing off the bus... on the bus... off the bus as the sky cleared, then lightninged, then cleared, the woodwinds couldn't play worth a lick, the brass was doing badly at best, and the hot packs that we were using for our hands... well, hot is not the word. More like wet and useless. And these were the heavy- duty 16-hour ones. And they STILL made us march AND play at halftime. :-C

[1frodos1]

I dont understand how you do it.
In southern california the weather is always great,80-90 degree band camps with no humidity and 60-50 night practice in october.For the "cold" most of us wear is long sleves under our required orange shirts and for the hot most of us wear shorts and t-shirts.The only draw-back is how dry it gets and missing a week of school due to half of the state being lit on fire(might have seen the oct fire in the news)plus a week after that un-evacuating and really awful air quality.

[saxplayer12]

For us, hot weather is more of a problem than dry weather, yes it gets cold in late October but never cold enough to freeze instruments. We have at least a few people (who aren't smart enough to stay hydrated) pass out every year during band camp (usually 100-110 degrees).