Okay, I was playing in a fete today, outside, and it was chaos! I pegged the music to the stand, with as many pegs as I could get on it and a few hanging on the edges anyhow, but that doesn't help when the entire music stand then comes flying towards you... Found some tent pegs for the stand, and went running after the music that had promptly pulled free of the pegs as soon as it could no longer take the stand with it. Re-pegged it, several times, managed to start, then had to stop to catch the music... Whenever I had a hand free I held it down, but that wasn't often enough to stop it going flying. It was so windy I had to peg down my clarinet/sax stand! So, does anyone have any tips for playing in a gale? (or just laugh at my misfortune to be attempting it....)

Become a pianist. People are much less likly to ask you to play outside if you insist they wheel out a grand piano!

Oh dear, it sounds comical, but I bet it was frustrating

Definitly! At least it stayed on while I was playing solo...

Always play from memory and wear thermal undies! If you can, get the organisers to errect a toilet tent for you so that you can sit out of the wind, but remember to leave the front door open.

There are 6 in the band, and none of us the type to memorise music! In fact, a lot of it we'd sightread a couple of weeks back...

You can have a perspex 'flap' that comes over your music and holds it down.
This doesn't solve the whole stand taking off - nor does it allow for any page turns!!

Check the weather forecast? Only play when it's less than Force 1...
Take some friends along to hold your music Very difficult.. frustrating too.

We don't usually have any page turns during pieces, thankfully( that would have resulted in ripped music!) , and I did TRY and get my dad to hold my music down for me. He was more interested in filming us struggling.

That reminds me, I have to play in a truro thingy soon.

Have done this many times. The music often blows away so use hair clips. They are better than pegs. I know from experience!

take a cement mixer then you can at least cement the music stand to the ground

If I have enough left after attempting to keep my hair out of my face/mouth/keywork



I would like to take the music stand home again too!

I was swaping from sax to clarinet! I had enough trouble trying to remember what instrument I was currently playing, and what instrument I was supposed to be playing next to even think about memorising the music!

We did 3 outdoor concerts in Italy. It was pretty windy for one of them. I was playing an electronic stage piano, and had two people to hold my music on the stand at one point - one to hold down the right hand side of the copy and to turn over, and one to hold the left hand side - even then the wind managed to bend the page so I couldn't always see the music, but at least it didn't all blow away. The poor conductor though had no one to hold their music down so they had to conduct with one hand and use the other to hold the music down.

Poor you, sounds a bit like a concert we did outside at a school - the music stayed on the stand okish (with the help of a lot of pegs) but the stands kept blowing over, I ended up hanging on to 2 stands at one point - it was really entertaining watching performances because there would be the performer and then 2/3 people hanging onto the stand and music etc. for them! Such great memories

I now bring bricks to every outdoors concert.

You can get strong magnets to hold music on the stand - I got some from a brass specialist music shop that are designed for outdoor playing (though I don't usually play outside - I bought them to defeat the wind that comes in the windows at SRP when we have them open) Lakeland Plastics also do some very strong magnets, but you have to handle them carefully as I have found the undersides are slightly rough. I use these on my magnetic notice board. It won't solve the problem of the stand taking off, of course! jonscott's idea of bricks seems a good one - you could tie your stand to these.



The family will have a laugh over this for years!

Really tricky situation you were in!

It may help putting your music in a file with plastic pockets which is securely pegged to the stand - at least that will solve the problem of pages flying off the stand. If you have sandbags at home(!), use them to keep your stand in place!

Oh this thread brings back the memories

In 2001 I toured Paris with County Cork Youth Orchestra, and we did a gig in the Palace of Versaille, outdoors by the lakes ... except there was a sandstorm ... and well, it was an experience and a half - much like that that you experienced!

We had no audience, and only three guards on horseback galloping around yelling "SANDEH-ST-HORM" in heavy accents, and in the end, they bundled us up in the middle of lord of the dance, and made our entire 60ish piece orchestra race inside .... quite quite funny.

Playing outside .. yes .. good memories

Several people have mentioned pegs for holding down the music, and I've thought of doing this. It's fine if your music is only on one side of the paper, you play from one stave (so you get more music on the page)and it isn't very long, but how do you turn over if it isn't? Often my music is 8 or more pages (piano part plus all the vocal parts) - too many to line up on the stand. FC's suggstion of photocopying everything and putting tem in plastic pockets is good, but it's not foolproof. When we go on tour we go with another choir and their accompanist has the music in plastic pockets. I turn over for her, and she turns over for me. I find that the wind will still find sneaky little ways to flip the music over if I'm not holding it down. I don't think there's an entirely windproof solution.

The only entirely windproof solution I can think of is to perform indoors!

Agreed

Whilst you have my sympathy, I'm with your Dad on this one. What is the point of having your daughter do something this comical if you can't stand back to enjoy it?!

I find it's really difficult to hear yourself and others too. With the wind whipping up and lots of other background noise it's almost impossible to know whether you are in tune or still with everyone else on the timing!

I could hear everyone else just fine, as they were all upwind of me (with the wind blowing thier music onto their stands!)

I still like my toilet tent idea, but you would need a row of them for a sextet.

I've got an outdoor concert on Saturday with wind band. We have two during the year and this is the not so good one. We get a small tent, chairs on grass (the other one we at least get a bandstand), and probably typical bad Scottish weather. Must remember one thing, clothes pegs.

Definitly! Without pegs I would have been chasing across the field for 2 hours instead of playing!

I find this the most difficult aspect of playing outside. The wind band I play with (adult learners) gets inflicted on the public 3 or 4 times a year & at least 2 of these events are outside. I find our conductor very difficult to follow and consequently tend to use my ears instead to check I'm still in time. Needless to say if its windy I can't hear very well! Big problem!

I use a folder with plastic pockets for music & lots of pegs! If the stand blows over you just have to stop playing & catch it!

i do alot of busking in my town centre and the stand blowing over is often a problem, however many pegs you attach to the music! xxx