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Posts: 3055
Joined: Aug. 30 2008
From: Boston, MA, U.S.A
quick calluses?
anybody know of any home remedies to speed up the process of building calluses? i can finally play again and my fingers are blistering like crazy and i dont want to wait anymore to practice. maybe im just being impatient...
You know leo, I have heard of two things you can do, urinate on your hands which is way off and you should NEVER do. And, pour wine on your hands, which I could see would make a chemical reaction like a steroid, but I am not a fan of that either, but time, yes time and practice and awareness of your fingers and laying off when you get blisters, and letting them flatten out and conjoin with the rest of the under skin and create, yes, you've got it, callouses!
Time makes you great, time gives you experiance, and time gives you callouses, it's that way, and there is nothing you can do about that but play, and rest when it's too much to bear. You'll get callouses but you really have to put in the time and I don't mean months, because it takes years. Years does it, and when the time goes by and you have your callouses you will be the wiser. Gary
Oh by the way, I have also heard that pouring wine on your finger nails will make you grow fatter and bigger nails! And if it's true and you want to have ape size nails, you know, like a gorilla, you go ahead and take the chance on that one, but don't blame me and don't get mad that if it did work and you would have to go and get a doctor's appt everytime you want to get them cut! I have seen guys with nails like that, and women with super fat thick and long nails. Not fun.
I also play the keyboards and I like to snip them off and play, you know? If that were true it's not worth taking the chance. Sometimes things DO WORK and you've got to use your head and weigh the conserquences. A simple fact. Now if you could find a chemical that you could use as a topical growth hormone, you might be sorry if you did. It's possible so be careful! I mean it! Gary
my right hand nails are already weird looking. the nail beds of my right hand are a good 5 mm longer than the left ones. if i use wine and make them even thicker, i dont think i'll ever need screw drivers or scissors again. plus, nobody wants to shake hands with freddie krueger.
i dont know if i want to waste wine on my fingernails though. i think it might be better used if i drank it to help me convince myself that my playing is good. what kind of wine do you suggest?
and i wonder how the urine/callus myth came about?
anybody know of any home remedies to speed up the process of building calluses?
yeah, easy, get some surgical spirit from the chemist/pharmacy/drugstore. It's used as an antiseptic cleanser, but also to treat bedsores and blisters. It hardens the skin. Dab some on (i used to just stick my fingers in the bottle) and let it dry (don't try and play with wet fingers), rubbing it in might help. It works. I used it on my left hand finger tips when i very first started playing. If you use varnish/glue on your right hand the spirit might dissolve it though, so be careful.
?? Who normally wants a callus?? Ok,..guitarrists... When I play some hours it takes less than a week and my fingers are set. Just play very much and play harder when your fingers begin to hurt. That is the timepoint when calluses build up. Its protection... And when you only play like a girl,.. you won´t get a callus. Like Arnold said. No pain no gain (o calluses). (Did he say that?)
I have heard of two things you can do, urinate on your hands which is way off and you should NEVER do.
How about if you get someone else to urinate on your hands? Is that OK?
My fingertips are normally OK, but sometimes some of the thick skin will build up too much and start to peel away and come off leaving "normal" skin underneath. It's a pain when that happens, but I just go a bit easier and things are back to normal in a week or two.
I remember when I got a Mandolin, I got a rut on my left index finger, and I think I bruised the bone, and that burned like #$%@&!!! I finally got over that injury, but I did get a chance to contemplate pain and the ignoring of pain, which leads me to the point, you just have to have the machismo or the mind of a devil woman when you play stringed instruments. Of course while studying the clarinet I did have quite a callouse and a rut on my right thumb from holding the the instrumet properly, and now I am glad to say it's gone!
But I will have to say I am usually opposed to trying to help or even suggesting posibilities for people to alter their bodies. Sorry for the seriousness of the reply. Ape nails would be nice for me in any event, yet the maturity of the matter lies in our own sensitivity and sense of reason. Therefore I don't think that I will do that again. Alcahol is a well known steroid. My god, I have the gut to proove it! And you know now that I think of it, it really doesn't matter any way. I have seen enough craziness with the young athletes that I knew as a youth and their obsessions with alcahol and chorizo and steak and eggs and training table food and wheight training, and for what, they are now probably morose looking overwheigt slobs who like to drink obsessively and have a gut that hangs out over their belt, obeisity, are muscle bound and have no necks. I carefully avoided that path and took up my pain in guitar playing and kept my knees healthy avoiding the whole athletic picture completely. Too big? No. Experiancing pain? Why yes....... Gary
thanks for the tips, everyone. surgical spirit, i've never heard of that one. that's pretty cool. i never knew such a thing existed. i think i might try it on my feet when beach season comes to protect myself from hard rocks, broken glass with diseases on them, crabs, etc. man, i seriously have sissy feet.
but after doing the arnold technique for a few days, my rhinoceros skin thumb callus is coming back so i might not even have to urinate on myself to get results.
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How about if you get someone else to urinate on your hands? Is that OK?
that's a fetish for some strange people. that's the even grosser alternative too. ewww... aw man, let's not go there!
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I have seen enough craziness with the young athletes that I knew as a youth and their obsessions with alcahol and chorizo and steak and eggs and training table food and wheight training, and for what, they are now probably morose looking overwheigt slobs who like to drink obsessively and have a gut that hangs out over their belt, obeisity, are muscle bound and have no necks.
yeah, i know how obsessed people can get. my friends take 5 protein shakes a day, eat a lot junk food thinking the calories are good, eat more protein than their liver can take. they end up gaining some muscle. that's because they work out. but it's all covered by fat. lol
i just take the simple route and work out and eat healthy. works just fine.
Hi, i'm rarely on the forum but I cant resit to contribute to this :-)
I can't believe no one mentioned super glue... wee dab on the finger tips, wait for it to dry and don't touch anything! Then file it down to a smooth finish and you can play as long as you like. It works if your fingers are already sore and you want to carry on playing. Be careful though its not my fault if you go around touching things with wet glue on your fingertips.
Fascinating fact...Superglue was originally developed as a get out of danger solution to tissue injuries in the army (so I am told but i haven't bothered to verify this).
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I can't believe no one mentioned super glue... wee dab on the finger tips, wait for it to dry and don't touch anything! Then file it down to a smooth finish and you can play as long as you like. It works if your fingers are already sore and you want to carry on playing. Be careful though its not my fault if you go around touching things with wet glue on your fingertips.
have you seen that american pie movie? the superglue part haha doesn't superglue cause cancer?
anyways, i dont think i'll be needing any superglue. check out this macho callous. it doesn't look right to me...
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check out this macho callous. it doesn't look right to me...
Wow a.t....!
How did that happen?
I thought you were meaning the left hand.
My right hand fingertips are pretty soft and my nails about the same length as yours. I play pretty hard, but I've never really had that happen except a couple of times where I haven't played for weeks and suddenly got inspired and played continuously.
Jeez!
That looks more like a friction burn!
Your fingertips should just look normal, but feel a bit thicker.
You must be overdoing the picado practise or something?
Big, thick skin on your Right hand is of no real help for anything IMO.
I play pretty hard, but I've never really had that happen except a couple of times where I haven't played for weeks and suddenly got inspired and played continuously.
that's exactly what happened to me. i haven't been able to play for 3 months! nothing but ligattos with the left hand and music theory and listening to keep me busy.
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You must be overdoing the picado practise or something?
actually, that's my thumb. im overdoing the thumb and alzapua. i'll post a clip of my playing soon. hopefully, it wasn't all for nothing.
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doesn't superglue cause cancer?
Don´t worry.. anything causes cancer...
what about vaseline? i tried using vaseline and man, it does wonders! you can increase your max picado and alzapua speed by like 10+ bpm. although it's kind of like cheating.
well, i was just thinking about the right hand thumb. but i got it all sorted out now. and thankfully without resorting to any of the "extreme" methods described above.
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maybe in a year, i will be worthy enough to try. 
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