callous

Subject: RE: callous
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 11 - 02:55 PM

Everyone has different techniques, for different styles. If there are no dead notes, and your finger isn't touching the string other than the one you're playing that's good enough to begin with.

If you think about the chord shapes you're making, the string lines on your fingers aren't going to be consistant anyway.

Mike

Subject: RE: callous
From: GUEST,joe caz
Date: 12 Oct 11 - 09:33 AM

Is there a correct angle or an angle that indicates correct hand position? I am a beginner(2 weeks) and I see the lines from the strings in my fingertips and I was wondering if the angle of the line indicates if I am holding correctly?

Subject: RE: callous
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 03:59 AM

Oh, well, as long as we're being pedantic:

callus, n., a thickened area of skin, resulting from recurrent pressure or friction

callous, adj., hard or thick, unfeeling, uncaring

Same derivation, different words.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: callous
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 10:05 PM

After playing acoustic guitar for some 60 years (without noticeable callouses), I can only note that proper finger placement (as close to the fret as possible) and a well set up instrument is really all that's needed.

Subject: RE: callous
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 08:44 PM

An obvious typo Mr H...

Don't be a pedantic idiot...

Subject: RE: callous
From: Mr Happy
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 07:48 PM

'rub acholol on your fingertips'

What's acholol?

Subject: RE: callous
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 07:44 PM

I'd imagine that's as varied a time as guitar players...

Everyone has different skin... different playing 'styles'... different guage strings... Different stamina when starting out...

Just play... Callouses will come...

Subject: RE: callous
From: GUEST,man
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 06:27 PM

how long does it usually take for callouses to appear. If you get them the "natural" way?

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 11:29 PM

seems like nobody else has an itch to play, too bad

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 10:50 AM

my callouses often itch to play and i love to scratch them by playing until the itch is satisfied. does that make any sense to anybody? bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 13 Oct 01 - 10:30 AM

it helped. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 11:50 PM

I only hope that it made sense--

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 10:21 PM

thank you for that info. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 10:17 PM

There are a a couple threads where I have posted information on how to hold and how to chord a guitar with reduced fatigue and increased speed--it is really hard to describe these techniques in writing, but part of the secret is to get a proper grip on the neck so that when your fingers hit the strings, the tips are at an angle rather than perpendicular to the fretboard, at little more of your fingerpad touches the string, and you tend more to squeeze and release the string down than to strike and squeeze---

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 10:05 PM

you still haven't explained your way of playing without callous. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 09:06 PM

I too would like to know how to avoid calluses when you are an acoustic guitar player. (That is, and still play without pain!)

Ebbie

Subject: RE: callous
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 05:32 PM

Just don't make a mistake and eat your fingers!

Subject: RE: callous
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 04:55 PM

I'm with 53 - how do you play without callous's? Mine are not real large and ugly - but they shed regularly.

Steve

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 04:50 PM

you are a better player than i, if you can play the acoustic guitar without any callous, please share your secret and it has to do with more than just technique. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: GUEST,frankie
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 04:04 PM

I'm only in my third decade of playing M Ted but I've also lost the big callouses I used to have even though I play more than ever. I use to soak my left hand fingers in pickle brine because I think I read somewhere that Kottke did it. I don't know if it helped but I did develop a lifelong love for Claussen Deli pickles. f

Subject: RE: callous
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 02:53 PM

Good technique minimizes the occurance of callouses--they are not necessary to play, and. like hand cramps and thumb blisters, they are a side effect of the learning process--as your techique develops, they are much reduced--Every once in a while, I break up discussions about building up callouses by simply showing my hands, in my fourth decade of guitar playing, my fingertips look just like a regular human's--They weren't always like that, though--

Subject: RE: callous
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 01:47 PM

But were they drunks two years ago?

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 01:01 PM

sounds like a bunch of drunks. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 10:30 AM

There is a product called "New Skin", or something similar, very popular among hikers, especially novices, for preventing blisters. Seems like it could be helpful in respect to developing callouses on the fingers as well.

Subject: RE: callous
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 09:58 AM

I find I get the very best results from the Bodhran when I've immmersed my tongue iin about 2 pints of Guinness ;)

Subject: RE: callous
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 06:17 AM

To get lips ready for kazoo playing, pass alcohol through them each day.
RtS (the only "musical" tip I'm qualified to give anyone!)

Subject: RE: callous
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 03:33 AM

My fingering calluses are so thick I can pick up hot coals... But for the real marathons... (5 gigs in 3 days... this was pre sept 11th) when my fingertips needed a little help, Krazy glue did the trick just nicely...

Good enough for James Keelaghan, Garnet Rogers, Bruce Cockburn and Stephen Fearing is damn good enough for me!

;-)

Subject: RE: callous
From: BlueJay
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 03:28 AM

Allan C.- Thanks for the link,good thread. As Rick Fielding observed in that thread, a proper instrument set up is more important than having thick calluses.

I agree. My calluses are usually thin, but I have never told myself, "I wish I had thicker calluses so I wouldn't have to fix this guitar". I get along just fine without massive calluses, even when playing bass.

Calluses are dead skin cells. They come and go, but are always replaced by living cells. I suppose that the dehydrating effect of alcohol, saltwater etc would reduce the natural osmotic moisturizing of these dead cells, but to me that seems extreme, is very temporary, and not nearly as effective as just playing regularly.

I don't see the need for big, thick calluses, at least for my style of playing. My calluses seem to come and go as needed. This is probably the most thought I've ever given to calluses. My fingertips have never split or bled, but maybe I just have lucky skin. Thanks, BlueJay

Subject: RE: callous
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 12:17 AM

When my calluses get to heavy (fiddle) they peel from the top down to new skin. Alcohol doesn't help. Just cracks/peels them worse. Try teething gel for "new" fingers. The liquid doesn't work, just the jell. On the west side of the pond, it's sold as Ambesol.

Subject: RE: callous
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 12:04 AM

I agree! :-)

Subject: RE: callous
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 11:57 PM

I always found the alcohol to be more effective in dulling the pain in the fingertips when applied internally.

Murray

Subject: RE: callous
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 11:16 PM

Well, I don't play guitar, either, but I'm wondering: Won't drying out your fingertips just make the skin split? When my hands get too dry, the skin splits along the fingerprint, which is a painful bitch. Or is that the idea? Again, I'm ignorant here. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:55 PM

yes,

Subject: RE: callous
From: rangeroger
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:54 PM

Gee,Bob,don't you think information garnered from a couple of years ago could still be pertinent today?

rr

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:38 PM

this is now , not a couple of years ago, allan c. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:36 PM

o k thanks for the info. bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:34 PM

No I play a whistle, well I try to! :-)

Subject: RE: callous
From: 53
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:33 PM

this is for playing the guitar, don't you play one? bob

Subject: RE: callous
From: Allan C.
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:33 PM

We had a good discussion about this a couple of years ago. Clicky

Subject: RE: callous
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:31 PM

Why would I want to make a callous on my fingers on purpose?

Subject: callous
From: 53
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:27 PM

tip on how to build and keep good callouses, rub acholol on your fingertips about 3 times a day and that will help keep the skin dry and help with the callous. bob