Minimum Temperature for Playing Outside

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

I was just asked to play at an outdoor wedding September 10th.

[Jerusha Amado]

I need to know this answer too, as I’ve been asked to play background music as guests arrive for an outdoor nighttime wedding in January.

[Sam Karlinski]

I believe that anything above about 20 degrees F should be fine. Below that, the finish will crack, but cold won’t really hurt the harp. I don’t remember where I got that information – it was either from an informed poster here on a different thread or from a maintenance workshop. Anyway, It’s the heat that kills, because the glue melts at dangerously low temps.

~Sam

[catherine-rogers]

My experience has been that those heaters are too hot if you’re standing right beside them, no help at all otherwise, and the heat of course goes straight up. If you’re in a tent and dressed warmly, maybe. It all depends on your personal comfort level. How well do you play with cold hands? I have a limit on when I’ll play outdoors based on our local climate (April through October only) and sometimes even that doesn’t help. Listen to your gut reaction. Will you worry about it and regret saying yes?

[jennifer-buehler]

Like Catherine, I find a greater consideration is whether or not my fingers will work.

[Jessica A]

20° F. is 12 degrees below freezing.

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

Where I’m located, it could easily be 50 degrees in September.

[jennifer-buehler]

Most harpists who play outside permanantly include those considerations in their contracts.

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

That’s my intention…to permanently include those considerations in my contract.

[David Ice]

I’ve found that at temps below 60F it becomes VERY painful to play…the strings are like knives cutting into your fingers.

[Jerusha Amado]

David,

What you’re saying worries me.

[jennifer-buehler]

I think I may have played at temps as low as 40 (or they felt that low LOL) and my fingers could barely move.

[carl-swanson]

I think that an outdoor heater could do more harm than good. The heat is going to be very uneven, with the side of the harp towards the heater being too hot and the side away being very cold. So that’s not a solution. If it’s 40 or 50 degrees out, it won’t hurt the harp to get that cold or colder. The problem is if you bring a very cold instrument back into a warm room, you may get condensation forming all over the instrument: inside the action and body and god knows where else. As far as playing a pedal harp outdoors is concerned, there is probably a lot of dirt and dust just normally being blown around. And a beach is worse. Do you really want sand blown up into the action? I think I would write into the contract that for any beach wedding pedal harp is not an option. You will only use a lever harp.

[Jerusha Amado]

Hi Jennifer,

I agree with you.

[Jerusha Amado]

Jennifer,

Good news!

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