Calluses

[fan6@mac.com]

I get calluses on the tips of my fingers that if I don’t remove can get painful, and also damage the strings. I remove them using a single edge razor blade. I’m very careful and have never cut a finger but wonder what other fiddlers do to remove finger tip calluses.

[GeorgeH]

I just use an emory board regularly to smooth them out. I would not use a razor blade.

[fan6@mac.com]

Yeah, it’s occurred to me to use sandpaper but always forget. But keeping an emery board handy should remind me. I can’t remember where but I read an account of jazz musicians in the ’50s using a razor to cut their calluses. It works but my hands aren’t as steady so an emery board sounds safer. Thanks.

[Casey Willis]

I’ve never experienced this issue, guys, so I can’t add anything. My main problem is building calluses to play guitar.

[RegisM]

Casey, I’ve also never really had this issue. When I first started playing I used to get a callus on my first finger only but that was because of 2 things:

1) I was coming down on the strings way to hard. This also creates tension and can at times stop the string from resonating properly.

I learned that I did this from a local fiddle player who plays so fast, so effortlessly, and so GOOD. He took my violin showed me what I was doing, then he made some lewd reference to “lightness of touch” (lol). Took me almost 6 months to learn how to lightly place my fingers down to get the optimal sound without calluses or squeaks.

2) My left hand’s angle to my violin and where I kept my thumb used to make my hand tense gradually to whereas I would come down on the string to hard. I learned that if you take your relaxed hand and cup your violin, wherever your thumb falls is usually the natural position that it WANTS to be in to play comfortably. Try it.

[Author]

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