Lately, I've been taking lots of baths at night and soaking in the tub along with a cup of Epsom salts. I do the Epsom salt thing to help relieve some problems I'm having with joints etc, however, after soaking in the tub for 20 minutes or so, my skin feels totally different.

My hands feel very dry and smooth (not clamy or sticky) and it is an absolute breeze to play piano with these very dry hands.

If you've ever played pool (Billiards), you know what I mean about having very dry hands makes it much easier to move the cue stick between your fingers.

Some people with clamy or sticky hands have to chalk their fingers when playing pool just to be able to move the stick.

So, where am I going with this??. Well, it seems that I may have stumbled onto something here. I remember reading on the main PW forum about what people do before performing in public and one person said that they don't get their hands wet for three days prior to performing.

The effect this person may have been trying to accomplish was to have very soft and DRY hands.

Even people at bowling alley's have an automatic "blow dryer" for their hands built into the ball machine.

So, my tip of the day is for you to try and play piano after soaking your hands in a warm bowl of water with Epsom salts.

After say 10-15 minutes, when your hands are very dry, go and play the piano.

You will probably find that your hands will just breeze along the keys almost effortlessly; it does for me!.

Anyone else have any good suggestions or tips to improve your performance?. BTW, Epsom salts can be purchased in a big carton at any drug or grocery store for under two dollars, it's worth the try, I highly recommend it.

Thanks for the idea, I'm going to pass it along to a local Boogie Woogie player, Mark Linclon Braun, aka "Mr. B". He has performed each summer at the Ann Arbor Art Fair for many years -I believe he uses a S&S B set up on the street with a canopy for the week-long fair- he plays ALL DAY LONG, 10+ hours. In between sets, he soaks his hands in a 5gl bucket of ice, then takes 5-10 mins to dry his hands before playing. I'm wondering if your idea of Epsom salts might help this process.

I'll have to try it... I do know it does make a difference when you slur notes...it's just so much easier.

my hands usually get dry during winters especially, and it's not a good thing because i find it's easy to let fingers slide over keys and hit wrong notes. i would usually put some hand lotion on before playing, just because i don't want to hit wrong notes all the time!

I'm with signa: I like to put on lotion so that my dry hands don't slip. Once, when playing away from home, without any lotion, I rubbed a tiny bit on chapstick on my fingertips to give me traction. I have VERY dry skin, tho.

That's interesting - some like dry hands and others not. I don't like playing when it is really warm outside and I have sweaty hands, it makes me feel like sticking on the keys. But it is winter now ... well, kind of.

Patty

After walking in the cold each night (the colder it is the longer my Sheltie & I walk ) I HAD been soaking my hands in very warm water and Epsom salts or Dead Sea Salts -- relief for my arthritic joints.

The last several evening I've been using the Christmas present I'd ordered for myself - my paraffin wax hand bath [/b].

The results: my aching joints feel so GOOD when I sit down for the 15-minute therapy that I fall asleep! I missed the 4th quarter of the Sugar Bowl last night! The wax has moisturizers so I really have to scrub my hands to remove the oils before I play. I was hoping that the treatment would give my fingers more flexibility but I still can not get through Nevue's Overcome without a finger in each hand locking up.

Hopefully, my little catnaps will make me more refreshed and relaxed when I play with the other Christmas gift that arrived today -- my ZOOM 4H!!

Hopefully I'll have SOMETHING to play for the next recital!

Hmmm... SOMETHING... I LIKE that song!!

Daria

This is sort of interesting. Some of us have naturally very dry hands, and some have sort of sticky or clamy hands.

My guess would be that it is all related to your diet. Your hair, skin and even nails usually indicate if you have a lot of oils or fats in your diet.

For some reason, when I get cold, my body tries to keep warm and my fingers tips can feel a little clamy, (this does not happen in warm weather).

Remember, I live in Scottsdale Arizona in which today was in the upper 70's, close to 80*.

I am so used to the warm/hot/furnace type heat that when it does get cold.....I freeze!.

I play piano terrible with "grippy" fingers. I would much prefer to play after rubbing my hands with baby powder or something.

The difference dry hands makes (for me) is amazing but we are all different and you should stick with what ever works best for you.

I have found that many piano players do actually try and DRY their hands prior to performing. This does NOT mean I am endorsing dry winter skin!!, just non-sticky/grippy finger tips.

I am curious how others prefer to play; dry fingers or lotioned up?.

this is very interesting thread.

i have trouble with real sweaty hands as well. too sweaty and i slip and slide all over the keys, black keys? forget it.


but on the same note, dry hands seem to slip on the keys as well.

so a part damp hand is what is ideal for me. a bit dampness allows me to grip and grasp the key with my finger pad without slipping.

but that is the difficulty for me, my hands go from dry to sweaty without any much time in that damp period.

what i find out is after the sweaty period goes away, it take a good 15 -20 minutes after all my finger conditioning and hanon, the sort of residual moisture makes for a damp hand the rest of the way.

so if i ever in my life do any performances, i will need at least 20 minutes to warm up my dry hands to sweaty and then cooled down back to a damp permanent stage, and then im ready to rock.

Sorry to hear about your hands. I once suffered from repetetetive stress injuries on my hands several years ago when I was working computers , 10 hours a day,heavy duty at one of my jobs at a hospital. I was sent for Occupational therapy at the hospital where I worked to recuperate from my repetetive stress injuries and other work related injuries. I had to quit piano for 3 months.This is what they advised me to do to recover and included are a few of my tips.
Parrafin Wax Machine, keep using on your hands give it time.Dead Sea Salt products........good to use on hands keep on doing it. Wait a few hours after you use this before you play the piano.
Eat one banana a day (potassium and multiple B vitamins good for hands)
Eat one can of water packed tuna a week (Fish oils)
Drink alot of water
Eat one container of yogurt a day (calcium)
Walk 30 minutes a day or more and keep your arms straight , swinging them slightly
Light a candle and listen to soft music ,(David Nueve will do!) close your eyes and lay flat on the floor for 15 minutes, more if you have time! I once got so relaxed I layed on the floor for 2 hours! This is a form of meditaion it helps to relax all the joints in your body. (my tip)
Get plenty of rest.
Hope this helps all of you with hand problems.