Playing outside

[Guest mattCD]

I know that the concertina can suffer from extremes in temps. What temp outdoors would it be ok to play in? if ever? I am scared to take it outside for even a minute haha.

[Ransom]

I know that the concertina can suffer from extremes in temps. What temp outdoors would it be ok to play in? if ever? I am scared to take it outside for even a minute haha.

 

The thing about temperature changes that would worry me most is condensation. (Which just killed an expensive telephone of mine, incidentally). At an offhand guess, I'd say that shouldn't be too much of a bother until you at least start having to wear a jacket out.

 

If you've got a hybrid whose reeds are secured with wax, you might worry about melting the wax. The easiest way to accomplish that is to lock it in a hot car, which sounds like a bad idea anyhow.

[Jody Kruskal]

I know that the concertina can suffer from extremes in temps. What temp outdoors would it be ok to play in? if ever? I am scared to take it outside for even a minute haha.

 

I had a gig last year playing for an hour outside in sub-freezing temp. It was probably not such a great idea. One reed stopped speaking and I played on without it. When the 'tina warmed up again at home, that reed was fine. The fiddle player I was playing with found that after 1/2 hour he couldn't get his instrument to play at all. I've taken the gig again this year but with another singer this time. I'm not too worried, but perhaps I should be? Perhaps I'll pray for rain, then they'll put us inside.

[Jim Besser]

I know that the concertina can suffer from extremes in temps. What temp outdoors would it be ok to play in? if ever? I am scared to take it outside for even a minute haha.

 

Years ago I was paranoid about weather, but as a Morris player, that was quickly beaten out of me. I've played in rain storms, in cold drizzles and several times in a Christmas parade in the mountains of west virgina, once when it was 18 degrees and snowing, with no harm done to the various concertinas I used. I 'm careful - I stand under umbrellas, I cover the instrument with a poncho, I play under overhangs, but I've learned that these instruments are way more durable than they seem.

 

My only exception: I take a modern hybrid to the ocean when I vacation there, not a good vintage box. Salt air is the one thing that worries me.

[Fiddlehead Fern]

If the weather outside is different than the weather inside, give the instrument some time to acclimate in its case before opening it up and playing. Keeping it in its case will give it some insulation that will slow the climate change and reduce condensation and other nasties that may arise from a fast change. Think about how awful it is getting out of the warm covers on a cold morning when the heat went off during the night...much better to take your sweet time about it and peel off each blanket layer by layer.....well, maybe not. But just anthropormorphise the little beastie for a moment and I'm sure you'll figure out a way to keep everyone happy. Er, playing well.

[Geoff Wooff]

I would try to avoid bright/strong sunlight as it can create a lot of local heat which could distort the wooden parts of your precious instrument.

 

I also agree about being carefull near the sea.One player I know, who was Busking at The Cliffs of Moher (a famous tourist destination) with her lovely Jeffries came to me afterwards with server problems. All the reeds had gained a very heavy coating of rust !! I doubt if her box ever sounded right again.

 

Happy music,

Geoff.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Geoff Wooff

[JimLucas]

I would try to avoid bright/strong sunlight as it can create a lot of local heat which could distort the wooden parts of your precious instrument.

And not just when playing

outside

.

You might be surprised how much heat can be generated in only a few minutes by the sun shining in through a window. I make a point of never leaving an instrument -- even for "just a few minutes", and even in its case -- where the sun could shine on it at any time during the day.

[Dirge]

I know that the concertina can suffer from extremes in temps. What temp outdoors would it be ok to play in? if ever? I am scared to take it outside for even a minute haha.

I always remember that the vintage ones were made and used in the British climate in times when for months on end the only heat was the living room fire; I'm sure houses were damp for weeks at a time; the concertina'd be carried straight from a hot steamy room to a cold drizzly lane, etc etc...I doubt many instruments have a life anything like as hard as they did when new.

 

They've survived all that in considerable numbers, so they must be quite tough. I apply a bit of common sense and try not to push my luck needlessly. I don't leave them in the sun, or in a hot car, or get them soaked, or whatever but if I want to play in the sun in the garden, well I just do it; it's a nice thing to do. I think you could probably relax a bit without risk.

[Geoff Wooff]

Well yes Dirge,

maybe some of us "Molly-coddle" our instruments too much. I used to abuse them, by playing and, in situations nonconducive. That set of pipes in my avatar picture is 160years old and I did not take care of it very well for my first ten years of ownership. There I am playing in the rain! Then I realised just how rare it is and how attached to it I had become. So I stopped the rainy playing and made a decent box for it.

I also take better care of my Concertinas.. oh, and myself.

Geoff.

[Peter Laban]

There I am playing in the rain!

 

Not when the photograph was taken it wasn't

[Geoff Wooff]

There I am playing in the rain!

 

Not when the photograph was taken it wasn't

 

Well Peter,

as I recall it, it never stopped raining that week in 1985. Maybe one might call it sea mist, Irish mist, mizzle or "soft day".

 

Geoff.

[Peter Laban]

Memories blur Geoff, the years roll into one. The year you were wearing that handsome jacket you hadn't made my pipes yet. Was it '84 maybe, and not such a wet summer? I don't suppose Steve Chambers will remember either although he was there too as the picture shows.

 

 

 

I have some other pictures ( which I couldn't immediately find, Pier Kuipers took them) of groups of people sitting in the street listening to us and it looks like it was a lovely day.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Peter Laban

[Geoff Wooff]

Memories blur Geoff, the years roll into one. The year you were wearing that handsome jacket you hadn't made my pipes yet. Was it '84 maybe, and not such a wet summer? I don't suppose Steve Chambers will remember either although he was there too as the picture shows

 

 

To quote a pet phrase of yours Peter "No it wasn't". As I made your pipes in '86 and I did not have a jacket in '84, due to it being unusually hot it was definately '85. I was siting out side of Marrinans Bar, feeling miserable about the state of my chanter reed, due to the warm but super humid weather when Liam McNulty and his leica showed up. And that is the story behind the picture.

At the same time, in Wembley Stadium (London) the "Live Aids" concert goers were being cooled off by helicopters spraying water at them.

 

But it is nice to see these old pictures, we all looked so young !!

 

Geoff.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Geoff Wooff

[Peter Laban]

But it is nice to see these old pictures, we all looked so young

 

hehe, yes we did. Found a whole batch of them just now, for some of them I even have soundtracks, if'd look through the tapes.

 

But you're right about it being '85, not sure about the weather on the day though although it probably was damp enough. I remember it sunny and warm too though.

[Peter Laban]

But it is nice to see these old pictures, we all looked so young

 

hehe, yes we did. Found a whole batch of them just now, for some of them I even have soundtracks, if'd look through the tapes.

 

But you're right about it being '85, not sure about the weather on the day though although it probably was damp enough. I remember it sunny and warm too though.

 

 

I remember you asking Liam if he wanted a photo of a jig or a reel for your avatar pic. And you took off the watch for it.

 

Oops, I meant to edit this into the last post.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Peter Laban

[Geoff Wooff]

But it is nice to see these old pictures, we all looked so young

 

hehe, yes we did. Found a whole batch of them just now, for some of them I even have soundtracks, if'd look through the tapes.

 

But you're right about it being '85, not sure about the weather on the day though although it probably was damp enough. I remember it sunny and warm too though.

 

 

I remember you asking Liam if he wanted a photo of a jig or a reel for your avatar pic. And you took off the watch for it.

 

Oops, I meant to edit this into the last post.

 

Again we can see easily how the technology has improved over the last 25 years by comparing the photos you posted for Willie Clancy 2010 and these 1985 shots.

 

Ah! But I still have the watch on in the avatar picture... at least it was mechanical and waterproof.

 

Shame the technology of waterproof instruments has not advanced.

Geoff.

Edited October 15, 2010 by Geoff Wooff

[Stephen Chambers]

I don't suppose Steve Chambers will remember either although he was there too as the picture shows

 

 

... I made your pipes in '86 and I did not have a jacket in '84, due to it being unusually hot it was definitely '85. I was sitting out side of Marrinans Bar, feeling miserable about the state of my chanter reed, due to the warm but super humid weather when Liam McNulty and his Leica showed up. And that is the story behind the picture.

 

I can remember meeting the two of you there like that, and how lovely the pipes sounded, but don't ask me what year it was...

 

(Was it really a quarter of a century ago? )

 

 

At the same time, in Wembley Stadium (London) the "Live Aids" concert goers were being cooled off by helicopters spraying water at them.

 

We didn't need any of that that in Miltown, when we (a flute player from Kerry called Maurice and myself) started off the Miltown Malbay Live Aid, down on the corner at Canada Cross...