ok so, well this is embarrassing because as a lady i dont like to admit when i sweat.. but lately when i practice my hands sweat,, now, ordinarily i have unusually dry hands, but for some reason the harder i try to concentrate on a piece the hotter my hands get until i get a burning sensation and they sweat.. i have tried a fan, but all that does is make me itchy (moves the little hairs on my neck and arms) which makes me have to stop in the middle of a piece.. i have tried practicing in a very very cold room and even if i am shivering my hands burn and sweat.. and the keys heat up too.. if i dry off my hands the burning is worse.

i have tried dipping them in ice water.. all this did was stiffen my fingers which made me mess up a lot and then i would concentrate harder and then the burning and sweating would come back worse than before.. i have also tried gloves, they helped with the sweat making the keys slippery but they BURNED like i had put them next to fire.. i think they burn whenever the sweat isnt allowed to evaporate quickly enough..

now whats weirder is that no other part of me sweats during practice.. just my hands.. and the slipperyness on the plastic keys is awful.. also once the plastic keys heat up, they accelerate the process of getting the hands burning again when i finally get them cooled down

so whats up with that? am i some kind of freak or is this something that everyone else gets but knows how to stop..

or does this have to do with me being sick.. i came down with a fever in early may and have had the same fever every day since.. dont tell me to go to the doctor, ive been multiple times and they cant figure out whats wrong other than that its likely a virus.. i already went a month without practicing when i first got sick, i dont wanna miss any more time..
and if it is because im sick, is there any temporary fix for it?

sorry i cant be any help but this didn't happen before you got sick did it?

i started learning piano just as i got sick so i have no idea if its related..

Wait a couple of weeks to see if the problem is persistent

Before you play piano, wash your hands with Ivory soap (degreaser). Dry them completely with a paper towel and then lightly with a blow dryer.

After that, "chalk up" with baby powder.

This will work for you but only temporarily. You may have to re-chalk with the baby powder from time to time.

It does work though.

I don't know if this a good idea but I did read an anecdote in a piano book once that mentioned some pianists having sweaty fingers would use underarm deodorant on their fingers/hands. It probably works; if it can stop underarm sweat, it can also stop sweating anywhere else on the body. I would use the non perfumed kind

John

I think you should seriously try to discover the reason of your fever and cure it. Change doctor if they are not able to help you.

Two months of fever each day without a reason is not a good thing.
Do you have fever all over the day or just slight fever in the evening?
Have you already had a chest X-ray and blood test?


A.

thanks guys, i will try the ivory soap and baby powder thing
and then i will try antiperspirant but um, i suppose you mean the spray kind as the stick kind would just gunk up my hands..


i actually did try switching doctors.. i cant again because then i would have to go out of network, which i cannot afford.. but yes i have had blood work and although my lungs sound great i am scheduled to have another chest xray.. they keep having me in to take more blood.. now the doctor thinks it might be mono because i guess my spleen felt weird when she felt up my belly.. so i have to go back for even more tests.. as for what time of day the fever is, well, i wake up with the fever, then if i dont take any fever reducers it stays moderately steady all day unless i try to do something like clean the living room (new digital piano is going to be delivered and i dont want the guys to see how messy i have let it get while ive been so sick) then if i overexert it gets higher.. it also gets much higher right after piano practice, particularly if i try to play a new song at full tempo.. mostly my symptoms are just me being tired ALL the time.. and being easily out of breath. doctor said my throat looks really bad but it doesnt hurt or anything.. i already went through a full course of the most heavy duty antibiotics money can buy.. but the doc said i had a bacterial thing on top of whats likely a virus.. so the antibiotics only cleared half (the icky constant cough thing) and left the fever alone,,

but enough about sick stuff.. i will try the methods you guys mentioned.. i just got to my very first piece with chords lol so im gonna have to try that baby powder thing tonight

Well, keep on doing all the tests with your doctor, and be patient. I am NOT a doctor but I know by experience that lungs can be cause of permanent fever and annoying dry cough despite sounding great...

I don't know how old are you but in any case take care of your health, if you feel tired don't overexert but rest to let your body the energy to fight the invader!

Best of luck and let us know.
(I wouldn't worry too much about the sweaty fingers, it is just that your body is warmer than usual due to the fever... )

A.

This seems all related in some way to the piano. I'm thinking that this instrument may not be for you and you should stop playing.

I don't see how someone can get sick by playing the paino.

Sounds like stress to me. You need to relax your expectations of yourself.

Get a hold of this book

Effortless Mastery

Gyro technically i was sick for little while before i started piano so i dont think the piano made me sick..
and jazzwee you may be right about the sweating being stress.. i think its because im so competitive.. i compete with myself even.. but the illness isnt stress (i asked the doctors) however i think maybe the illness itself may be stressing me.. since ive been sick for so long i feel like i need to stop laying around and get back to doing normal stuff all the time, and then when i cant do normal stuff i feel anxious and stress over it.. i hope the doctor isnt right about it being mono, if it is, then the doctor said it could take as long as 6 months to resolve itself with my immune system the way it is.. i cant be out of the game for 6 months, thats just ridiculous..

Long ago, I would always feel hot when playing piano and my shoulders scrunched up and I felt so much tension after.

Nowadays, I'm playing in public and having a conversation while playing

So a lot of it is explained in that very good book. It's about the constant self-examination that occurs about everything we do. About self-doubts. You need to convert that to just being an audience member and be detached from yourself. Hard thing to do.

i added it to my christmas amazon.com wishlist thanks

Having fever all over the day since two months, feeling tired and breathless doing normal activities at a young age (I read "student" in the profile) sounds like a real illness to me.

Additionally, sweating (e.g. during the night) is often a lung-related symptom.

I really wouldn't encourage Squiggyflop to underestimate her symptoms.

A.

Maybe you or I am misreading this Achat but I thought it was fairly clear it only happens when playing piano (as Gyro himself understood).

My doctor too kept putting stuff down to "probably a virus" In the UK this is a real cop-out, because as a patient you cannot do anything about it.
To do something about a virus, means you have to Identify the virus first, and docs in the UK know fine well that none of us can afford to get that done.
It seems like when a doctor cannot figure something, this is an easy out. It allows you to have an undiagnosed condition that can go on for any length of time.

It just would not do in any other profession, Imagine taking your car to a garage , because it wasn't running right, to be told by a mechanic, "we think its an unspecified misfire"
Should resolve itself in a few months.
Not really on. Lean on your doctor some.

She writes clearly at 12.19 pm she wakes up with fever each day, it lasts all over the day, and she feels additional/increasing symptoms (e.g.breathless) if overexerts or playing piano (sweating).

You wrote at 3.21 pm.

A.

Well then I agree with you. It was stated as an afterthought though so one would naturaly treat it as such and focus on the piano aspect.

It is actually true that the human body has a lot of self-reparing, self-defending capabilities that a mechanical system usually doesn't have.

And it is actually true for some virus-related illness (like a simple cold) any drug exists and it is just a matter of time for the body to win.

Neverthless it happens sometimes specific or rare pathologies are hard to recognize and some doctors (unprepared, or lazy) may loose a lot of precious time saying it is just something which will solve by itself just because e.g. antibiotics don't work.

My experience is that the best thing is to listen to our body and basic instinct. If the doctor doesn't sound convincing and one feels increasingly bad it is likely he is wrong. Better check another opinion.

A.

ok i guess im not being very clear.. um, i do have a fever all the time, when i overexert myself i get out of breath. but, when i play piano i have burning sweating hands.. this doesnt happen with any other activity (the burning sweating fingers and palms).. the fever does get higher right after i play piano, but to be fair, it gets higher if i just go out and walk around the supermarket or any other activity where i am moving for an hour..

Rostosky i live here in the great USA where i can have as many blood tests as i want for free on my insurance.. so i keep coming in to be tested for new viruses.. they can only test for a few at a time with my insurance so they havent found the virus yet.. im going in to be tested for a new batch soon including mono. so i dont think its a cop out here if the doctors are taking the time to test me for the viruses to find out which one i have.. the doctor seems to be leaning toward mono.. so maybe the next time those vampires take my blood they will actually get something that tests positive..

achat yes i am relatively young. i am 22 years old. i have had a chest xray, but the doctor wants me to get another one to see if there is any change.

but anyway.. the problem is the sweaty fingers and burning hands.. everything else my doctors can handle for the time being.. i have about 6 doctors working on whats wrong with me right now.. but the sweating burning hands are the only really problematic symptom for piano.. well unless you could my skeletal deformities causing me pain while i play,, but really a back brace fixes that.. and seeing as how the doctors said i would have that pain until medical science advances enough to fix that i really dont pay it much attention.. but yeah..

so i tried the baby powder thing.. it worked for a little while.. but then they burned again.. hmmm.. i wonder.. maybe resting my hands on a cool but not ice cold thing between pieces would help at all.. maybe not.. i dunno.. it might make my hands stiff like the ice water.. and where would i find something that stayed cool without being ice cold anyway.. gonna ask my dad to try to find some spray antiperspirant when he goes shopping

i seem to be confusing everyone huh.. well, im going to see about that antiperspirant next,, ive heard that there is such a thing as a powder antiperspirant so if the spray doesnt work maybe the powder will..

I wasnt sure where ct was. Its good that your doctor is sending you for the blood tests to Identify the virus, if there is one, I hope they find it soon, before they have "vamped you out" !!
As an alternative thought, are your keys Ivory or plastic?

Bear with this Idea for a moment, people can be allergic to anything, furthermore, it is totally possible to "suddenly" become allergic to anything.

I would imagine that plastic keys may promote sweating more than Ivory ones too, for instance, the parts of the body that touch plastic seats in cars (say the underneath of thighs)will tend to sweat in that area, or if you rest your hands on a vinyl sofa, when you lift hands off there is a damp patch, that sort of thing..

Just a thought. I would Imagine Ivory "breathes" like plastic doesn't? In the same way a leather sofa would compared to a plastic one..

hmmm they are indeed plastic.. hard to find ivory since it became illegal and all.. i would think that someone would have invented or grew in a lab a substitute.. i mean, if they can clone a cow that produces human milk, why cant they find a substitute for elephant ivory?.. i mean, they can now make synthetic opals with the same chemical composition of real opals,, the only way you can tell the fakes from the real ones is that the pattern of shimmery bits on the fake ones are *too perfect and even*.. doesnt that mean that they could make a fake ivory if they wanted to?.. i havent touched a piano with real ivory key tops since i was little..

im getting a new digital piano soon (just got the email thats its been shipped and is on its way) so if i am allergic to the keys on my old cruddy casio maybe i wont be on the new one.. i mean, they might not use the same type of plastic..

squiggyflop, I told you that washing your hands with Ivory soap, then blow drying and chalking up with baby powder would work and it did. I also said you will need to "re-chalk" every once in a while because you are continuing to produce more sweat.

Should you need even better protection from sweaty fingers (barring any medical procedure/treatment) then you still have two more options which are kind of the same. They are using finger cots or extremely thin cotton gloves while playing.

Finger cots are kind of little cotton tips that you put on your finger tips. (I could give an analogy but I won't !).

You can also go to Walgreens/Osco drug store and get very thin 100% cotton moisturizing gloves. They are usually meant for women who put hand creme on and don't want it to get onto their bed sheets etc but you could also use it for your sweaty hand problem.

Of course playing with extremely thin gloves might give you a little bit different feel on the keys but it might also be better than sliding all over the place. If you get used to the gloves, you may solve your problem for about 2-3 bucks! Give it a try.

mr_super-hunky i did repowder but it just became a thick layer of icky white gunk after a while, which got gunk on my keys.. maybe i need to rewash, then repowder?

moisturizing gloves.. those could be thin enough to work..

ongoing fever that is not auto-immune related sounds like an allergy... environmental, food or otherwise.

I realize this is off-topic, but since you brought up the question:There are two different things you're talking about here. One is finding or creating a good substitute for something; the other is artificially creating something that is the same as the original, both chemically and physically. For the first approach, I think they already have created a substitute for ivory -- plastic! It's just not quite as good as the original. But I think you wanted to consider the second approach. The problem with the example you gave is that it's easier to synthesize an inorganic substance (like opals or diamonds) than it is a biologically-derived one. I don't know much about cloning, but I think the process of cloning an entire animal is more well-understood than how to grow a particular organ or part of the body. Because with cloning, you are growing something from an embryo, and the cell differentiation happens as part of the normal growth process. On the other hand, trying to grow just a heart, for example, would mean that you would have to control that cell differentiation in the laboratory. So to successfully grow ivory, you might have to grow an entire elephant!

BTW, it sounds like sweaty fingers are the least of your worries right now. Once you get your health problems cleared up, you may find that the problem just goes away. I hope you find the cause soon.

I was going to resist from butting in but since someone already has...

It is difficult but very possible to grow elephant tusks. It's easier to grow an elephant but why would you go through the trouble if you can just farm them? I think the point is that elephants probably take a long time to grow tusks so it won't be very profitable.

Growing tusks, that's another story it's cutting edge technology, so we won't see it being commercial probably for at least 10 years...but I could be wrong, they are already able to use stem cells to make food (not the whole cow, just meat).

I don't know about the USA, but here in the UK there are thousands of pianos if not tens of thousands that were made in the days when Ivory was acceptable.
My piano repairer, sourced for me three tops for keys that were damaged on my piano from his collection of what he had rescued from pianos destined for the skip.

Given that there are tens of thousands of Ivory keys still out there, whats better: that they are Junked or recycled?
The keys will usually outlast the piano.