I play piccolo in our marching band, and I'm fine during band camp when it's hot. I live in New Jersey so band camp is hot, and the season is cold. Towards the end of the season, the weather is awfully cold and I can barely move my fingers they're so stiff. My breathing is fine, but the sound just sounds so empty...

any tips?

what i do when it gets cold during the season is i put a hand warmer thing while i'm wearing my uniform gloves. it's really useful to have those things on hand =D

that would work to help my hands, but what do I do to fix the responsiveness?

usually what i do is stick my piccolo in my jacket when i'm not playing it. that way my body keeps it kind of warm. you could also stick a hand warmer in your pocket and keep the piccolo near it.

If you're playing an open hole flute, plug it. Cold fingers just don't seal holes well.

I would recommend wearing suitable gloves to keep warm. If they interfere with how fast you move your fingers on the field... oh well. Personal comfort comes first.

Worry about your sound when you're in an environment where you'll be heard.

-Stephen (Piko)

Sometimes there is nothing that can be done. The worst case scenario is playing outside when it's cold and windy. The cold air will cause the piccolo to play flat and to collect more moisture from your breath. This moisture (condensation) may cause your piccolo to play out of tune on certain notes by forming a water droplet at a bad location in the tube or it may find it's way to a key hole and essentially plug it. If a key hole is plugged, the piccolo won't respond properly when you lift that key. That water would need to be cleaned out of that hole by blowing it out or by using something absorbant to clear it or mop it up. The wind can blow directly at your head joint and cause you to loose your sound or to change pitch because it modifies the velocity of your airstream. Yes, you can push in more when it's cold because it's the only thing that you can do but there comesa point when the piccolo is pushed in all the way and you can't do any more. Pushing in (or pulling out) excessively may cause your piccolo to not play very well in tune throughout the range. You can keep the piccolo warm under your coat but when you begin playing it it could very well cool off and temperature changes will cause pitch changes. Be careful about blowing into the head joint to warm the piccolo because if it's really cold, the piccolo may get damaged. I had a student's "plastic" piccolo body crack when it she did that on a really cold night.

For the person, you need to keep warm. The first noticeable effects of the cold are diminished finger coordination when the fingers and/or forearms get cold. You may also experience shivering, a slowness of thinking and then you may get sleepy as your core body temperature drops and the shivering goes away. Luckily, band uniforms usually keep us warm enough but if you anticipate a really cold experience, more layers of clothes may be necessary even if it's only adding just the sleeves of a sweatshirt. Gloves may be a requirement of the uniform but they provide little protection from the cold and flutists often cut the tips of the glove's fingers off.

Playing outside in a cold / damp enviornment isn't good for your instrument. It can deform the pads or harm the mechanism. We aren't very far into the season really and already a student has had an issue. Shortly after a rain, the band director told the students to put their instruments in a safe place while he worked the band on something that wasn't music related. (Some of them make the kids do exercises to increase their breath support) At any rate, the student set her flute in the grass with the other instruments and the keys of the flute jammed up almost instantly. It only cost the parents $30 to get the mechanism working again. ~A big thank you to one more band director.

I recently purchased a set of fingerless gloves that feel lightweight but warming. I suspect they wouldn't do when a uniform is necessary but they may be of use in other situations. They come in different weights, lengths, and with or without a pocket to hold a warming packet.

http://www.wristies.com/

i always kept my instrument warm at all times. im from michigan, so it often snows during october - when football is going on! my best advice to blow warm air thorugh your piccolo when youre in the stands and in your formation before you get on the field. move your fingers often to keep the blood circulating and move the keys so condensation doesnt make them freeze (had this happen during a competition... i alone made our band get the lowest music rating that year because of frozen keys. i obviously wasnt the favorite that year). also, the gloves that were mentioned above are a good idea, especially if your band uses gloves. if they dont, your band director may let you use them, especially during the cold months.

whenever we aren't playing and it's cold, we blow warm air. i suppose it could crack a woodwind if it's superdupercold, but it ususally works fine for us. also, back when i marched clarinet, on particularly cold (and/or wet) nights, our section leader told us to flail our fingers. just keep them moving at all times (except when frozen in attention, of course). especially with our cut gloves it really helped keep them from stiffening and not responding.

One more thing... I swear by this - get a pair of thermal underwear. What you want are the Capilene type Patagonia and others sell. I suggest the middle-weight ones.(about 1/3 as bulky as sweats - the 2nd from the bottom weight they sell).

If your core is warm, your fingers will be warmer as well.

http://www.patagonia.com/
Search for "Capilene 2"

It's synthetic, doesn't itch like wool, and wicks sweat away like a sponge. It's not going to be fantastic at below 0 conditions at this weight, but for anything else, it's a godsend(and even in the super-cold, it'll be a big improvement over nothing/sweats). I recommend level 2 because it's also what you'd want to wear in the spring or fall as well in the mornings if you wanted to exercise.

yeah I've pretty much got the me being warm part down. Layers, coats, stockings, thermals, everything. I've had the whole water droplets in the keyholes... that's awful to happen. I guess there's not much you can do about the sound then. I guess you figure everyone sounds like that when it's cold right?

thanks for the advice guys

I've played in some extremely cold temperatures, and I can't say I've ever noticed a decline in tone quality like the one you're asking about. Perhaps it is indirectly because of the cold...The muscles that control your embouchure become harder to control or less sensitive, or perhaps it's only psychological, but cold temperatures do not, in my experience, directly correlate with poor tone.