Humid days

[chensa]

This is it really a posture or technical question. And there may not be any other answer other than to just suck it up. But has anybody got any advice on how to play keys on those hot and humid sticky days when your fingers just feel like it got film all over them? LOL

It's not that I can't play, but it just makes those fast runs a little more difficult. I feel sorry for guitar players.

 

[happyrat1]

1) Keep your hands clean and your nails trimmed.

2) Use air conditioning if available.

3) Use a dehumidifier if AC not available.

4) Maybe a VERY sparing application of talcum powder to your hands when you're playing.

5) Try not to perspire

Gary

 

[chensa]

Gary, you've obviously not played in Florida's wonderful outdoors before.

 

[happyrat1]

No but I do have the thermostat turned up to 26C in the wintertime

Failing all other solutions I have one final solution...

LEAVE FLORIDA AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!!!

Your brain will thank you for it

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

Actually, when you think about it....

Was Mozart ever asked to play piano outdoors?

Was Beethoven?

Was Bach?

Was Chopin?

When I think outdoor performances I think strumming troubador with a lute. Gypsy girl with a tambourine... Even a monkey with an accordion!!!

Never a concert grand or a harpsichord.

My sage advice is, DON'T DO IT!!!

It is unnatural and an affront to the gods of music

Gary

 

[Biggles]

Actually, when you think about it....

Was Mozart ever asked to play piano outdoors?

Was Beethoven?

Was Bach?

Was Chopin?

When I think outdoor performances I think strumming troubador with a lute. Gypsy girl with a tambourine... Even a monkey with an accordion!!!

Never a concert grand or a harpsichord.

My sage advice is, DON'T DO IT!!!

It is unnatural and an affront to the gods of music

Gary

Never been to a Proms in the Park concert then Gary?

 

[Rayblewit]

Just ot for a mo. .
Chensa, why the avatar roo? Y r a Floridian eh!
Ray

 

[happyrat1]

Never been to a Proms in the Park concert then Gary?

I live in Canada...

I'd have to get there by dogsled

Gary

 

[Biggles]

I live in Canada...

I'd have to get there by dogsled

Gary

Come on Gary, Canada cannot be all snow.

OK, so you may have snow for 330 days a year but you must have open air activites in the GTA that do not result in a jail sentance

You could always fly down to Florida and find some culture there, although you may have quite a search on your hands.

Last time I was in Canada we saw a Shakespeare play in a circus tent on a beach in Vancouver and your Cirque de Soliel again in a tent but in this time in Calgary, I do have to admit that other cultural activities in Calgary was hard to find if it did not involve a cowboy hat, a horse and some cows.

 

[happyrat1]

Come on Gary, Canada cannot be all snow.

OK, so you may have snow for 330 days a year but you must have open air activites in the GTA that do not result in a jail sentance

You could always fly down to Florida and find some culture there, although you may have quite a search on your hands.

Last time I was in Canada we saw a Shakespeare play in a circus tent on a beach in Vancouver and your Cirque de Soliel again in a tent but in this time in Calgary, I do have to admit that other cultural activities in Calgary was hard to find if it did not involve a cowboy hat, a horse and some cows.

Next time book your connection with a couple of days layover in Toronto. The "Big Smoke" of Canada. We've got museums, musical theatre, open air concerts in the 2 weeks of summer we get as well as enormous green spaces right in the city core.

Mind you I don't have to explain culture to someone from the county that gave us Benny Hill and the Two Ronnies

But seriously, open air concerts are way more a British thing than a Canadian thing. Out of a typical summer we might see a handful of weekends suitable for an outdoor venue and street pianos such as infest all of London are strictly non existent. I can only assume that the UK is lousy with millions of abandoned pianos that you would put them at every shopping mall and train station but here in Canada the most likely music you'll find in a tube station is a licensed busker pounding away on a Casio

Gary

 

[SeaGtGruff]

A dehumidifier is a great investment even if you have AC. I had my keyboards in a downstairs room one year, not in Florida but in Georgia, so it was plenty hot in the summer-- and the AC was always acting up. The downstairs was the basement level but because of the very hilly terrain on the property only one end was the basement, and the other two-thirds was a set of rooms with access to the back yard. Anyway, it was extremely humid down there, so we got a dehumidifier and ran it more or less constantly. Boy, did it draw a lot of water out of the air! It was like a never-ending supply of "free water." I hate to think what might have become of my keyboards' electronics without that dehumidifier.

 

[CowboyNQ]

I carry a small bottle of alcohol based hand sanitiser in my gig bag. This doesn't stop humidity or sweating but it does give your hands and fingers a nice clean and dry feeling and you can re-apply at set breaks.

 

[chensa]

Geez, why are we bashing Florida?!? Actually, there are a lot of highly talented musicians that play here. You have to be to play at Disney, Universal as well as the amount of corporate events. Unfortunately, there are a lot of OUTSIDE GIGS. We have plenty of air conditioned venues that we play, but just as many outside......that's just Florida.

Thanks CowboyNQ, I will try that next time.