seen ya axe now show us your hands lol!

[wonderwebb]

IMG_0697.jpg (308.83 KiB) Viewed 215 times

Interested to see what other djembe players hands look like ive only been playing for round about 6 months a few times a week and i've got callouses forming on the end of my fingers

After coming back of my drumming holiday and seeing my teachers hands who looked really hard and big callouses and which did produce a real good sound. Can you play djembe and produce a good sound without hard skin all over your hands?

Id be interested to see the condition of some of the members hands on this site
downlohttp://djembefola.com/board/downl ... iew&id=536

[michi]

Can you play djembe and produce a good sound without hard skin all over your hands?

Yes, absolutely. Look at Mamady's or Tuza's hands if you get a chance. Soft as a child's, with almost no callous at all. Yet, other people, such as Malin and Sibo, get callouses that are truly gross.

Partly, it depends on how well you take care of your hands. It's better not to let the callous build up to the point where gets really thick because that also means that it gets quite hard and brittle. In turn, that makes it more likely for it to eventually crack, and splits in thick callous don't heal well. So, if it gets too thick (nowhere near that yet, in your case), thin the callous down with pumice stone after soaking the skin for 15 minutes or so. (Some people cut the top layer off with a razor blade. Personally, I don't think that's a good idea. It's too easy to cut it unevenly or to accidentally cut into the live skin underneath.)

Also, keep the callous soft and pliable by using cream regularly (as in daily). Shea butter works well, paw paw cream is good, and I'm sure there are dozens of other creams that will keep your skin moisturized and oiled too. Just make sure it's a plant-based product. Mineral oils are no good for the goat skin if you transfer traces of it from your hands to the skin when you play.

The other component of callous is genetic (at least, according to Epizo). He told me that a lot depends on the individual and that different people callous by different amounts for the same amount of playing. If you callous little, be grateful--having to look after callouses all the time is a bit of pain...

Cheers,

Michi.

[e2c]

I have no callouses, and don't plan on getting them anytime soon.

good sound is about technique (and experience), *not* about injuries to your hands. I think some people equate callouses with ability, and that's just silly.

Taking good care of your hands - whether you've got callouses or not - is vital, though, as michi has already said. It helps a lot to use common sense: for those who live in dry climates (or who are in dry heat a lot during the winter), using a good skin lotion on your hands will help. So will tape, to an extent, but the best thing to do when you're hurting is to back off a bit 'til the painful place heals. His other tips are great, too, though I'd add soaking your hands in very salty water (maybe use Epsom salts) if they're sore/hurting.

There's also a thing about body mechanics: it's possible to let the weight of your hand and forearm produce a lot of the sound for you, without any need to "power through" the strokes. Try just letting your hand drop on the drumhead from about 7"-8" inches (as a demo) and see what happens... you can use that same principle (and the weight itself) to play regular djembe strokes.

I have a feeling that a lot of callouses get started at drum and dance camps, where people are playing a zillion hours a day and not taking many breaks....

[michi]

good sound is about technique (and experience), *not* about injuries to your hands. I think some people equate callouses with ability, and that's just silly.

Ideally, you shouldn't hurt after playing, even if playing intensively (4 hours or more) over several days. If something hurts, that is a hint that there is something you are not doing right.

Callouses are not a sign of ability, definitely. They simply are a sign (or rather, can be a sign) of how much someone plays. I had strong callouses early on, after about a year of playing. There wasn't a lot of ability, but a lot of callous because I was playing a lot. But I don't think that callouses are indication of injury. If someone plays a lot and tends to build callous, well, they end up with a lot of callous...

I have a feeling that a lot of callouses get started at drum and dance camps, where people are playing a zillion hours a day and not taking many breaks....

I think callous takes a little longer to form than the average three- or four-day camp. But I have definitely seen quite serious injuries at camps, especially among beginners. Everything from severe bruising to severe blisters (blood blisters as well as ordinary ones).

With experience, people both learn to pace themselves because they've learned the price they will pay if they over-do it. And, as people acquire more experience, their technique improves, so they can generate more volume with less effort.

I guess a period of pain is something that is part of the journey. I know that Tuza, who is considered a master, still suffers pain. I have often seen him wince and complain first thing in the morning after a long day's and night's drumming the previous day. And he often mentioned that the pain is part of playing djembe. I have no doubt that this is true for him, and I also have no doubt that his technique is excellent. Other people (including myself) rarely feel pain. I suspect, much like with callous, it varies for each individual.

Cheers,

Michi.

[wonderwebb]

So are you saying that its possible to play on a cowskin djembe quite loud without getting them ?

[the kid]

I wouldn't think so. I reckon if you play on cow you will get calluses

Its just some masters who've been drumming a long time and who get a lot of volume from there drum (usually goat) still don't have large calluses's. Maybe is because they have perfect technique.

Then again most young guys have huge ones.

Personally, i think anybody who regularly plays for dance classes and ballets will have large calluses's. Its a natural reaction from hittin something many times. Carpenters get um too. anybody who works hard with there hands get um.

I'd say from your photos who've a long way to go too. They are the start of your callouses. You'll start to get ones at the joins of your fingers and on your finger tips. if you think about where you have the calluses's you might realize that they are from hitting the side of the drum rather than from where you make contact with the skin of the drum.

In my opinion it's Best to concentrate on getting nice sweet tones and slaps. The sweet sound comes from your technique of how your fingers strike the skin, not how your palm strikes the wooden edge of the drum

[Paul]

Yes its about technique but a hard surface hitting a hard surface will make a louder sound... People like mamady have learnt to use technique, better djembes, microphones etc... I bet in their youth they had hands like bricks...

[e2c]

Hands aren't really hard surfaces, though (they're flesh, not all bone!) - and there's lots about body mechanics (the way your hands, wrists and arms - even fingers) absorb the shock of striking a drumhead that can be used to work for you - to help prevent injuries, for one. They *do* happen - some of you are maybe a bit younger than the age where repetitive stress injuries start showing up routinely - and that's when you might need to really start thinking about doing things a bit differently, so that you can keep on playing for as much of your life as possible. (30 is the age when these kinds of things start showing up; mine 1st surfaced when I was about 32-ish... wrist problems from poor technique on various kinds of hand drums, fwiw.)

As for people who are in a touring company (playing injured, developing thick callouses, etc.), that's pretty much inevitable, I'd guess, because you can't take a night off unless you're dying. It might be that drummers could take some cues from dancers in this regard, because you can't dance injured without compounding the injuries...

at any rate, we've all got only one pair of hands for the duration of our lives. Best to take good care of them!

[bops]

My callouses are all under the surface. No major surface callouses or breaks in the skin. However, where I live, in the wintertime, the air gets very dry, which causes my skin to crack. I apply salve fairly regularly throughout the day, and use tape on the larger cracks when I play. My skin is pretty smooth other than that, just tough in certain places - at the top of the palm and in my fingertips. I like to think my hands are smooth as a baby's bottom, but there have been a number of times when I shake someone's hand and they ask if I'm a jembe player. When I met Vieux Farka Toure, he asked me that. I play on a cowskin drum several times per week.

Paddy's hands

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[e2c]

However, where I live, in the wintertime, the air gets very dry, which causes my skin to crack. I apply salve fairly regularly throughout the day, and use tape on the larger cracks when I play.

I hear you on the dry air! And I used to be pretty lazy about stuff like putting on gloves to run out and get the mail, but now I do it religiously. My hands are in much better shape during the winter as a result - in ways I'd never anticipated, and I hit the hand lotion hard during that time of year.

fwiw, i've found that this stuff, which is supposed to be a moisturizer for the feet, is the best thing I've ever used on my hands during wintertime: http://www.lamisilk.com/

[Dugafola]

here's one of my paddles. the other looks just like it.
i've been a bit lazy with the karite lately....usually they look similar to bops...

goatskin exclusively.

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[michi]

here's one of my paddles.

Worse than mine. I don't callous as much at the finger tips. I do have some callous there, but not as thick. The worst callouses for me are at base of my fingers, at the fleshy part of the palm.

And, yes, your callouses look like they need a bit of TLC...

Cheers,

Michi.

[bops]

Duga, you weren't lying, you got some long digits bro!

[Dugafola]

Duga, you weren't lying, you got some long digits bro!

for real man...i'm envious of all you average sized hand djembe players.

[bops]

for real man...i'm envious of all you average sized hand djembe players.

nah, it's all relative. You've got fulani hands, that's all.