Hello,

Does anyone have any good advice for students....

As the winter season is fast approaching, obviously fingers can get quite cold and stiff... Any advice for students who are performing and have cold fingers before they start? Perhaps some techniques on warming the hands and fingers before playing? The usual gloves and rubbing them together stands to reason as well as practicing a few scales to nimble up the fingers, but does anyone have any other good ideas?

My teacher used to say that doing the washing up did the trick...

Funny you should say that, there was a pianist (Rubenstein?) who always used to soak his hands in a bowl of hot water prior to concerts...

Soaking in warm water may be a good idea actually.... Not sure that washing up just before performing would be applicable though But that would certainly help students with their daily practising if they have cold fingers.

Thank you!

I have some great heart-shaped handwarmers which I take with me when I'm performing in festivals in the winter. You boil them in a saucepan for 10 minutes beforehand and then when you want them to heat up, you bend the metal bit inside and they stay warm for about half an hourish. No idea how they work but I love them!

Take a hot water bottle to the performance/exam and keep your hands warm on it before you're playing. Even better are those things that can be warmed up in the microwave, they're smaller and so easier to carry around, not to mention easy to warm up .

They sound really good!

Just found the link for the site where I got them:

Hand warmers

I own four of them!

The single best thing for warming up cold hands is someone elses's tummy.

Strangely, not many people are prepared to allow their tummies to be so used

Steve

You kinky thing you!! Is that what you do before one of your recitals??!!

That's wonderful thankyou! A great idea!

An easy idea anyone can do while waiting to go on..... Put your hands under your armpits! It actually looks as if you just crossed you arms tightly, but it's a very warm spot for fingers . But whatever else you do don't forget your deoderant.

armpits was what I was going to say as well!!!

When I used to do recorder exams, my teacher used to make me put my recorder under my armpits to warm the wood up. The warmer it was the less it would clog up. I know someone once who did a recorder concerto, which used treble in the first moevemnt and descant int he second. Whilst he was playing the first movement he had the descant down his trousers and whipped it out in between movements.............not the most conventional sort of person I must add

A little less obvious than someone's tummy or your own armpits is your neck. It's always warm and doesn't look quite so odd!

I always have cold hands(cold hands ,warm heart people tell me) . I put my hands under my thighs and sit on them, then whip up those scales!

Doesn't get you arrested, either.

Good point!