 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: TheCheeseMaker
Date: 2006-07-02 17:29
Hi,
I've been playing the clarinet for quite a while but only recently have my very sweaty hands become a serious problem.
I especially find my little fingers slipping off the B/E, F/C F#/C# keys a major problem.
Does anyone else suffer from this problem?
Does anyone have any ideas how to remedy this problem?
I was thinking a piece of fabric stuck to the keys might help but that might damage the keys badly.
Any advice would be great.
Peter.
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Author: Ryan25
Date: 2006-07-02 17:51
Peter,
I too have very sweaty, acidic hands and the only thing I do is quickly wipe my finger tips off on my pants when performing. Washing your hands before you perform with soap also helps because the soap drys out the skin somewhat.
I'm not sure what else can be done. Maybe using baby powder on your hands might help as well.
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Author: thechosenone
Date: 2006-07-02 18:09
An easy solution, albeit not too pretty looking, is to grab a few paper towels from the bathroom and stuff it in your pocket. If you're playing in an orchestra, you can dry your hangs discreetly during spots which you're not playing. Or you can obtain a washcloth. I've done this before, and it's pretty effective.
Another method which I haven't tried is perhaps using the same sort of white powder that gymnasts apply to themselves to the hands. I assume the powder gives the gymnasts more grip? But I'm not a gymnast/materials specialist (perhaps someone who is could clarify) and it's even possible that teh powder may damage the instrument.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-07-02 19:05
Another method which I haven't tried is perhaps using the same sort of white powder that gymnasts apply to themselves to the hands. I assume the powder gives the gymnasts more grip?
Quite in the contrary, it acts like flour on the rolling pin - it prevents sticking (which consequently leads to blisters). That powder is "Gym chalk" or more scientific magnesium carbonate which is indeed not unlike baby powder.
But I bet it won't look good on a black instrument.
It sounds stupid, but maybe the sweating is just a sign of nervousness. (I usually sweat like a horse, especially on forehead and neck). I'd just have a clean cotton hankie with me and wipe every so often. Maybe the symptom disappears as silently as the (potential) cause.
--
Ben
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Author: Danny Boy
Date: 2006-07-02 19:13
We had an advert not long ago on British TV where someone had to pass to truth test, which was measured by detecting sweat on the fingertips.
She sprayed 'SURE' anti-perspirant deodorant on to her finger tips, and of course passed the test.
I have done this and have no on pretty much every concert since, and no longer have a problem. I haven't identified any negative effect either on myself or my keywork.
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2006-07-02 22:22
I had trouble with the left-hand clarion C so I pasted a little piece of masking tape on it and trimmed it to the shape of the key. Problem solved.
Don't care for chemical solutions, especially powdered ones.
B/
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Author: Gobboboy
Date: 2006-07-02 22:31
Dannyboy said
"We had an advert not long ago on British TV where someone had to pass to truth test, which was measured by detecting sweat on the fingertips.
She sprayed 'SURE' anti-perspirant deodorant on to her finger tips, and of course passed the test.
I have done this and have no on pretty much every concert since, and no longer have a problem. I haven't identified any negative effect either on myself or my keywork."
you're joking right?????
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-07-03 04:07
<<I'm not a doctor...I don't even play one on tv....talk to your medical professional, which you'd have to anyway because all the options I list are available only through them>>
If you have pathologically sweaty hands (palmar hyperhydrosis) there are options available, although they don't always work. There's a prescription medication called dri-sol that is like a very powerful antiperspirant for the hands (and feet, for those who have that too). It works for some. There is also a surgery, called a sympathomimectomy, that involves a surprising amount of mucking about in the gooey parts of the chest (the technical term, of course). This also doesn't work universally. I know someone quite close to me who has this problem and neither solution worked.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2006-07-03 13:45
The one advantage of the anti-persperant approach is that it as safe as spreading the stuff on your underarm areas. No injections, no surgery, no drug use. As it is also low cost, you're not out a significant investment if it fails.
Glands is glands. The aluminum salts in anti-persperants act as an astringent that (in effect) chokes up the gland's surface opening in the area where applied. Less opening means less flow, ergo you get drier hands.
Some of the spray application anti-persperants are quite "dry" once applied (one used this as a selling approach back in the 1990's), and would make for minimal buildup of any gunk on your hands. I would be careful to clean off the keywork after each use with this approach however.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-07-03 14:19
I always try to wash my hands well before playing (where circumstances allow) - there's nothing worse than having sweaty palms after driving to a gig then unloading, setting up and then playing while your hands feel grubby.
And I always have a beer towel over my right knee so I can wipe my hands on this when things get a bit slippery under the fingers, and on bari sax to dry the water key after emptying the condensation out of the top U tube. Fortunately I don't have corrosive hands so I won't rust steel or corrode plating, brass or nickel silver.
And NEVER use any form of powder (talc or baby powder) to dry your hands or 'cure' sticky pads for that matter - it will get into the mechanism and slow your keywork down, and at worst it will bind everything up solid.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Pathik
Date: 2006-07-03 15:14
"The one advantage of the anti-persperant approach is that it as safe as spreading the stuff on your underarm areas. No injections, no surgery, no drug use."
While it is true that you won't need injections, drugs or surgery to use anti-perspirant, that does not mean that is safe to use, because it is not. Anti-perspirant does what the name says: It stops you from sweating, which can hardly be called safe, and certainly not healthy. The body sweats because it needs to get rid of waste materials, and use of anti-perspirant stops it from doing this very important task. I did read somewhere that anti-perspirant has been identified as a cause of breast cancer, and it wouldn't suprise me the least if that is the case. The potential for health damage if you use it on your fingertips is probably very small, but it's not exactly true to say that it is safe.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-07-03 15:43
Pathik wrote:
> I did read
> somewhere that anti-perspirant has been identified as a cause
> of breast cancer, and it wouldn't suprise me the least if that
> is the case.
I read somewhere:
"The rise of the Internet has made it easy for false health claims, scary stories, and rumors to reach millions of people in a matter of minutes. One such myth says that antiperspirants may cause breast cancer.
According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the breast cancer-antiperspirant myth first appeared in the form of an e-mail in the 1990s, and continues to resurface and recirculate about every year or so. The false information suggests that antiperspirants contain harmful substances, which can be absorbed through the skin or can enter the body near the breasts through nicks in the skin caused by shaving. The e-mails also suggested that antiperspirants keep a person from "sweating out toxins," resulting in the spread of cancer-causing toxins via the lymph nodes."
My reference is http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2005/405_sweat.html
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Author: BobD
Date: 2006-07-03 19:59
Your comment that you only recently started having this problem may be relevant. On the assumption that under a given condition a human will produce a certain amount of total perspiration one can conjecture that if this person starts using an underarm antiperspirant the perspiration must then exit the body elsewhere....such as the palms or fingers. Recall also that anti-perspirants are not necessarily the same as deodorants. Perhaps you have changed your system. The bit about anti-perspirants and cancer is perhaps a new twist on the old scare about aluminum cookware when it was first introduced eons ago. Anti-perspirants often contain aluminum compounds.
Bob Draznik
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