A cold weather whistle warmup

A common problem for performance musicians playing outdoors is having a warm whistle ready to play at a moments notice. I face the same problem when folks drop by and want to try out a whistle in the acoustically perfect barn during the fall and winter. This time of year its warm enough to play outside in the barn but, fifty degrees makes a whistle a bit slow to start up. Everyone knows about blowing the whistle backward and stuffing it up your sleeve to keep it warm, but I needed a spot to keep several whistles warm and cozy for a longer period of time. So this is the gadget I came up with. Take a large diameter piece of 6 inch or larger PVC pipe and glue it to a hollow box made of wood for a base. Drill the base for some long wooden dowels to stand the whistles on and glue the dowels into the pre drilled holes. If you have electricity available, you can use a single Christmas tree bulb to heat your whistle holder. If you plan on going house to house whistling for the holidays, you use the Boy Scout method and substitute an old fashioned hand warmer for the light bulb setup. It doesn’t take up much time to build this or a similar contraption out of material you have around the house. If you don’t want to use a piece of pipe, the top section can be wood or a cut plastic container or bottle. Keep your whistle warm and play some tunes outdoors this holiday season! Posted by The WhistleSmith at November 21, 2005 4:04 PM | TrackBack