Callouses

[cheery]

Hello.

 

I don't actually play the concertina (perhaps one day...) but I do have a question.

 

I do play the guitar, and the action of pressing the strings brings up callouses on the finger tips. (All guitarists have them; they're inevitable.) What I wanted to know is, does pressing the concertina's keys have the same effects? Do you get callouses?

 

I don't have any real reason for this enquiry, it's just that I'm very interested in other people's instruments, what's involved in playing them, and so on.

 

So please satisfy my curiosity!

 

Best wishes to all.

[David Barnert]

I play both concertina and guitar (and I recently spent a lot of time playing each at the Squeeze-In). I just felt my fingertips. The callouses on my left hand are definitely more pronounced than the ones on my right.

 

One data point.

 

I suggest you become a concertina player and provide a 2nd.

[lildogturpy]

No callouses on my fingers but definitely on my thumbs from the thumb straps

[JimLucas]

No callouses on my fingers but definitely on my thumbs from the thumb straps

I would suggest that anyone who has calluses on their fingertips from pressing concertina buttons is pressing way too hard.

 

And Li'l Dog, I don't know what you're doing with your thumb straps, but I've been playing English for more than 30 years now, and I don't have calluses on my thumbs.

[Michael Reid]

And Li'l Dog, I don't know what you're doing with your thumb straps, but I've been playing English for more than 30 years now, and I don't have calluses on my thumbs.

Well, I've been playing for 20 years, and I have a calloused area on the inside edge of my left thumb that I attribute to playing concertina. And a similar, but barely noticeable, place on my right thumb. I keep my thumb straps quite loose.

[JimLucas]

I keep my thumb straps quite loose.

Interesting point.

I keep mine "snug". I also insert only the first joint (tip) of my finger.

My thumbs don't shift around inside the loop, so there's no rubbing.

It's generally rubbing that produces calluses, not pressing.

[stuart estell]

I do play the guitar, and the action of pressing the strings brings up callouses on the finger tips. (All guitarists have them; they're inevitable.) What I wanted to know is, does pressing the concertina's keys have the same effects? Do you get callouses?

I go through phases of guitar-playing activity, and play my 12-string less than I used to, so the ends of my left fingers are softer and have more sensation in them than they have had in the past; however, they used to be like leather! In my teens, I was always warned by my piano teacher that I shouldn't take up the guitar because having callouses would harm my piano-playing - I found (after the initial blisters had calmed down) that I just got used to the fact that the fingertips on each hand felt slightly different from one another.

 

As others have already said, though, no callouses from concertina-playing. However, the more you play, the more you notice some curious hand and finger muscles developing!

[bellowbelle]

I am a FORMER guitar player, due in part to having developed a problem with dry, splitting skin (for which I've recently gotten some great help).

 

Anyway, I've noticed that my guitar experience has helped me handle the muscular quirks of concertina playing, but, the callouses are definitely a thing of the past (yay!).

 

And, I don't really miss the guitar playing anymore, either. I use to lament that I'd 'wasted all that time' on a different instrument that I now can't play, but -- then again, it's all good experience, I suppose!

 

One good thing: guitar-playing can be SO tough on the hands/fingers, forming all those impossible chords and all, that I now have more of an 'all-things-are-possible' attitude when I play my concertina!

[Nanette Hooker]

I don't get callouses, but I notice that after playing for a long time I sometimes get "dimples" (depressions) in my finger tips.