Clicking fingers

[LDT]

My fingers have begin to click after I've been practicing concertina (and melodeon) and no it isn't the buttons...it is my fingers. Is this normal? Should I be worried? Should I have a rest from practicing?

[Rod]

My fingers have begin to click after I've been practicing concertina (and melodeon) and no it isn't the buttons...it is my fingers. Is this normal? Should I be worried? Should I have a rest from practicing?

 

Avoid playing with chilly fingers. If necessary run your hands under warm water before playing to loosen-up any stiffness in our finger joints. Might just help. Worth a try.

[Rod]

LDT. Another thought occurs to me. If you are still playing with what I would consider to be fairly long fingernails I guess you have to play with relatively straight fingers to avoid the finger nails causing a few problems. This is probably putting greater leverage and strain on your finger joints than they would have to bear if you were able to curve your fingers so that your finger tips operated the buttons vertically, or near vertically from above. You could give this theory a go in the knowledge that if it failed to solve the problem you could always let your fingernails grow again. I guess your new melodion may be putting a bit more strain on your fingers than your concertina ?

[LDT]

My fingers have begin to click after I've been practicing concertina (and melodeon) and no it isn't the buttons...it is my fingers. Is this normal? Should I be worried? Should I have a rest from practicing?

 

Avoid playing with chilly fingers. If necessary run your hands under warm water before playing to loosen-up any stiffness in our finger joints. Might just help. Worth a try.

I don't think heat is the problem as my hands get sweaty when I play...nerves I think or concentration.

 

LDT. Another thought occurs to me. If you are still playing with what I would consider to be fairly long fingernails I guess you have to play with relatively straight fingers to avoid the finger nails causing a few problems. This is probably putting greater leverage and strain on your finger joints than they would have to bear if you were able to curve your fingers so that your finger tips operated the buttons vertically, or near vertically from above. You could give this theory a go in the knowledge that if it failed to solve the problem you could always let your fingernails grow again.

my fingers are..double jointed...so they do this wierd bending back thing if you check out my videos you can see what I mean.

 

I guess your new melodeon may be putting a bit more strain on your fingers than your concertina ?

Well I'm still practicing both so thats double the practice time and double the strain.

[Fergus_fiddler]

I've seen your videos and there are 2 thinks I don't like:

 

1. Long nails. At least you play metal wired harp or spanish guitar - and in this, only the right hand - they're not useful at all. My piece of advice would be: trim them as short as you can stand.

 

2. Fingers bent backwards. Try to bend them in an arch way and don't cramp them. The strenght should come from your knuckles, not the fingertips .

 

Try to control your nerves / anxiety. Learn a musical instrument from zero is difficult to everybody, - it takes a lot of years! - give it time.

Don't discourage yourself, most of us are in the range between the virtuoso and the useless. If necessary, watch telly or think about something else meanwhile you're practising a difficult phrase over and over; you'll be surprised of how it becomes automatic.

 

Hope was useful...

 

Cheers,

 

Fer

[LDT]

1. Long nails. they're not useful at all. My piece of advice would be: trim them as short as you can stand.

The shortest I can have them before I start dropping things is about 4mm above the top of my fingers....for me that's short...used to have them a minimum of a centimeter above.

 

 

Try to control your nerves / anxiety. Learn a musical instrument from zero is difficult to everybody, - it takes a lot of years! - give it time.

Don't discourage yourself, most of us are in the range between the virtuoso and the useless. If necessary, watch telly or think about something else meanwhile you're practising a difficult phrase over and over; you'll be surprised of how it becomes automatic.

I think I'm too much of a perfectionist....I'm never good enough...or do it right....and I keep starting again..each time getting worse and it winds me up. Its like my fingers are deliberately ignoring instructions from my brain.

 

What is the most disheartening is when I start to play and others walk out the room.

 

Hope was useful...

[Kelteglow]

Try useing a lighter touch when you press your buttons .ATB Bob

[Rod]

My fingers have begin to click after I've been practicing concertina (and melodeon) and no it isn't the buttons...it is my fingers. Is this normal? Should I be worried? Should I have a rest from practicing?

 

Avoid playing with chilly fingers. If necessary run your hands under warm water before playing to loosen-up any stiffness in our finger joints. Might just help. Worth a try.

I don't think heat is the problem as my hands get sweaty when I play...nerves I think or concentration.

 

LDT. Another thought occurs to me. If you are still playing with what I would consider to be fairly long fingernails I guess you have to play with relatively straight fingers to avoid the finger nails causing a few problems. This is probably putting greater leverage and strain on your finger joints than they would have to bear if you were able to curve your fingers so that your finger tips operated the buttons vertically, or near vertically from above. You could give this theory a go in the knowledge that if it failed to solve the problem you could always let your fingernails grow again.

my fingers are..double jointed...so they do this wierd bending back thing if you check out my videos you can see what I mean.

 

I guess your new melodeon may be putting a bit more strain on your fingers than your concertina ?

Well I'm still practicing both so thats double the practice time and double the strain.

 

LDT. With double-jointed fingers it may be all the more important for you to try to play with your fingers curved to counter any tendency for your fingertip joints to bend back up under pressure ? Just a thought. Probably easier said than done.

 

Rod

[drbones]

You think you got problems?

[Anglo-Irishman]

The shortest I can have them before I start dropping things is about 4mm above the top of my fingers....for me that's short...used to have them a minimum of a centimeter above.

 

LDT,

I'm probably the only male forum member who can really sympathise with you. I play finger-style 5-string banjo and a bit of folk guitar too, now and then, so I need my right-hand nails longish.

Right now, they're ideal for the banjo, but too long for serious concertina playing. I've just measured them, and they're just 3mm from flesh to tip.

 

There is just no way I can play banjo and concertina - especially the Crane duet, whose buttons are more closely spaced than the Anglo's - optimally at the same time. (Well, turn about, you know what I mean )

So for serious practising, I have concertina phases (short nails) and banjo phases (when my nails have grown a bit).

 

If I'm preparing for a gig, I do my manicure as appropriate for the instrument I'll be playing. Sometimes I'll be playing banjo and Anglo, so I have to find a compromise. That's less than 3mm flesh to tip.

 

(BTW, there are two schools of thought in classic finger-style banjo: one says you pluck the strings with the nails only, so you need long nails. The other says you should brush the string with the finger-tip before the nail plucks it, so the nails can be somewhat shorter. Needless to say, I favour the latter. )

 

I can play Anglo along the rows reasonably well with banjo-length nails, but cross-row playing suffers. And the Crane is all cross-row, of course!

 

Of course, fretted instruments absolutely demand very short nails on the left hand - and sure enough, my left hand is much better at playing the concertina than my right!

 

Just a few thoughts.

 

Cheers,

John

[stella24]

i venture to say its button pressure for you. thinking your springs are too strong. some old jeffries with small buttons actually hurt the fingertips after a short while. then there is hook action which requires higher spring pressure. lower level instruments always have higher spring pressure as a rule as to make a seal with a poor action. now a note to all the jeffries players i don't mean to say your action is poor design, it just needs spring adjustment if it hasn't been done already. LTD, it takes many years to become one with the instrument, especially when you start at an age above knee-high. w.

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

hey there. for what its worth, I have been playing anglo a couple of weeks I had a similar problem and this is how I overcame it.

 

Maybe its just me but when I first picked up the tina I found that I had to sort of curl my fingers inwards to play on the middle row, it was most uncomfortable even when resting it on my leg. The root of the problem for me was that hand bar. It was too low, What I did was to put a padding on the bar that raises it up. I just used pipe insulator, I have atatched a picture of what I did - this stuff is cheap from a hardware store like focus.

 

Basicly this ment my fingers dont need to be tense when pressing the buttons and it really helped - try putting some padding in and haveing a go - it might help

 

jake xx

[LDT]

I think I'm gonna have to move somewhere warmer...whenever its gets chilly my wrist/fingers start 'clicking'.

 

And I have been keeping my nails fairly short.

[JimLucas]

I think I'm gonna have to move somewhere warmer...whenever its gets chilly my wrist/fingers start 'clicking'.

I've been told that if you commit some heinous crime, it will earn you a trip to a place which is much warmer.

[LDT]

I think I'm gonna have to move somewhere warmer...whenever its gets chilly my wrist/fingers start 'clicking'.

I've been told that if you commit some heinous crime, it will earn you a trip to a place which is much warmer.

 

Australia?

[Rod]

I think I'm gonna have to move somewhere warmer...whenever its gets chilly my wrist/fingers start 'clicking'.

 

And I have been keeping my nails fairly short.

 

Invest in a pair of thermal gloves and a pair of sharp scissors to remove the finger tips. Worth a try, surely ?

[michael sam wild]

But if you cut off your finger tips won't it hurt when you play and make the ends messy?